They say that the longer you do something the better you get and the less time it takes. Hopefully the end product doesn't suffer.
Below are some photos of a piece of antler a really good guy here at BoB gave me to use as a tamper...COOL!
Now, for any of you that know me a bit, you should know that I hardly ever leave a nice piece of raw material alone, especially when it has the potential to be something 'special'. I've been making knives for some time now and have a good amount of practice at installing spacers, etc. on hidden tang knives. So I adapeted the proceedure to the tamper and ended up with one that has an added set of three materials at the tamp end...some heavy brass, a piece of Gabon Ebony and a piece of nickel sliver. Upon finishing that, and liking the result, I decided to go a step further and add a new tip...of nickel silver.
Notice that there's a copper pin in the tamp end. It goes into the body of the antler about an inch or so. That should hold for a while. What you can't see is the 'pin' that secures the silver tip in place. The tip was 'file carved' sort of in the shape of a tall, thin pointed mushroom...having a thin 'stem' (very thin, but quite strong, being all metal) that goes into the tip about 3/4". All of the spacers and pins are secured with DevCon Crystal Clear 2-Ton Epoxy. Cure time is 30 minutes. Like I said above...what should hold for a while.
I didn't put the silver tip on it to use as a poker, rather as an alternate tamping shape, as a lot of guys prefer a non-flat style. As I was working on it I kept flashing on Lee Marvin's nose in Cat Ballou. Twisted, but kinda funny.
So - the photos (with thanks for Thistleoak for the tine):
Below are some photos of a piece of antler a really good guy here at BoB gave me to use as a tamper...COOL!
Now, for any of you that know me a bit, you should know that I hardly ever leave a nice piece of raw material alone, especially when it has the potential to be something 'special'. I've been making knives for some time now and have a good amount of practice at installing spacers, etc. on hidden tang knives. So I adapeted the proceedure to the tamper and ended up with one that has an added set of three materials at the tamp end...some heavy brass, a piece of Gabon Ebony and a piece of nickel sliver. Upon finishing that, and liking the result, I decided to go a step further and add a new tip...of nickel silver.
Notice that there's a copper pin in the tamp end. It goes into the body of the antler about an inch or so. That should hold for a while. What you can't see is the 'pin' that secures the silver tip in place. The tip was 'file carved' sort of in the shape of a tall, thin pointed mushroom...having a thin 'stem' (very thin, but quite strong, being all metal) that goes into the tip about 3/4". All of the spacers and pins are secured with DevCon Crystal Clear 2-Ton Epoxy. Cure time is 30 minutes. Like I said above...what should hold for a while.
I didn't put the silver tip on it to use as a poker, rather as an alternate tamping shape, as a lot of guys prefer a non-flat style. As I was working on it I kept flashing on Lee Marvin's nose in Cat Ballou. Twisted, but kinda funny.
So - the photos (with thanks for Thistleoak for the tine):