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Thanks! My aim is was to make them as historically accurate as possible.
English grips were wider than the tangs about 1/8 or so, on the bottom side. The pin holes, 3 for English, about 1/16 dia. were offset from center so they were centered in line on the wood grip. The French grips were fitted to or close to the tangs with 2 pins of about 1/8. Latest whole French knives found in a river were two piece slab grips over the short tang, and a third pin near the butt to tie the two slabs together at the rear. It is not known if that was an anomaly or was the way they all were done, or maybe some were, and some were one piece. You do good work.
 
English grips were wider than the tangs about 1/8 or so, on the bottom side. The pin holes, 3 for English, about 1/16 dia. were offset from center so they were centered in line on the wood grip. The French grips were fitted to or close to the tangs with 2 pins of about 1/8. Latest whole French knives found in a river were two piece slab grips over the short tang, and a third pin near the butt to tie the two slabs together at the rear. It is not known if that was an anomaly or was the way they all were done, or maybe some were, and some were one piece. You do good work.


Thanks. I am familiar with your work as well and I tell you it is an inspiration. It is pretty challenging to produce historically accurate stuff without any physical examples to go by. I almost need to visit a museum or something. Also, I just can't help but feel that making a handle oversized for the tang, although period correct just feels like poor fit, or shoddy workmanship to me. It is hard to bring myself to doing it, lol.
 
Yes. I too had to over come that feeling, but if you want PC accuracy, yours and mine are most likely over finished anyway. The over sized grip on the English is thought by many to be a one size fits all in a particular grouping such as scalpers. It used to be a given that the noticeable slot was filled with a brick dust and pitch filler, however, it seems no excavated blades have shown any trace of such a filler, nor is there any historical mention. That we know of as yet.
 
English grips were wider than the tangs about 1/8 or so, on the bottom side. The pin holes, 3 for English, about 1/16 dia. were offset from center so they were centered in line on the wood grip. The French grips were fitted to or close to the tangs with 2 pins of about 1/8. Latest whole French knives found in a river were two piece slab grips over the short tang, and a third pin near the butt to tie the two slabs together at the rear. It is not known if that was an anomaly or was the way they all were done, or maybe some were, and some were one piece. You do good work.
Here is an example of the above. I don't remember where I got these pics, but thank you whoever posted them originally.


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1075 - Heat to just a little above non-magnetic and quench in canola oil warmed to 120°F. Temper for 2 hours at 400°F, let cool and put back in to temper for another 2 hours.

To make the taper, start with a single bandsaw cut down to the depth you want. Then take an old handsaw, grind the teeth off on the bench grinder and glue on or apply some sticky backed sandpaper to one side of the saw blade. I used this simple set-up to basically just slide into the cut and sand in the taper on both sides until the tang fit nicely. This was actually my first time making a partial tang knife let alone one with a tapered tang.

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Thank you so much for the explanation! I love learning about these things even though I'm probably never going to use them myself. I figure it's just good to spend your life filling your brain up as much as possible.
 
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