casting pewter on knife handle

[sonny]

I always wanted to cast pewter on knife handle into the chisled out inlay pattern.I tried one time an the only thing i got was a chared handle but pewter would not fill the void /??what did i do wrong???.thanks....sonny

[P.Bigham]

 I have never poured pewter on a Knife handle, but I have poured a number of Rifle nose caps. Sounds like the Pewter was to hot . Far as not filling the cavity Iam not sure,maybe to tight of a seal and no where for the air to escape as the pewter was poured In.

[Tim Crosby]

  I am sure there are several ways to do it. Once the material has been removed I take a small drill bit, 1/32, and drill shallow holes at an angle around the bottom of the cavity, right at the edge, just 3 or 4, they don't have to be very deep, take a pencil and color the cavity and holes.
 Do not over heat the pewter, it doesn't take much to melt it and once it does you do not want to over heat it. As a test of the temp you can try heating the pewter,once it is melted touch a small piece of wood in it if it flames or blackens it is to hot if it just browns up a little you are ok. Once you do it a few times you will know how long you have to keep the torch on the pewter and how much real working time you have. I would suggest you try it on a piece of scrap before going on to the real thing. Hope this helps.

Tim C.


PS: If you are talking about a bolster or an inlay that encircles the handle that is another story.   

[sonny]

yes inlay around a knife handle.....sonny

[Randy Hedden]

This is a knife made by my buddy Todd Daggett.  When making the knife he left the wood on the handle a little oversize.  He cut out and undercut the designs, made a mold or dam that was oversize of the handle material and poured the pewter.  This gave him a knife with a handle that was completely covered with pewter.  Then he took the pewter down by filing and sanding until the handle was the size he wanted.  He only had one very small spot where the pewter didn't take and he fixed that spot by pouring a little pewter into the spot that didn't take.

This was Todd's personal knife and he wore it 7 days a week, every week, for several years.  Todd works as a carpenter and the knife saw some pretty rough service, but the pewter did not suffer.

Randy Hedden

www.harddogrifles.com

[Tim Crosby]

 Chuck Burrows posted this link awhile back, it should help.  If you still have questions, post them.

Tim C.

http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/tutorials/_pewter.html