Sgian Dubh How To

[Panache]

Sgian Dubh How To


I’ve had a bee in my bonnet to make a sgian dubh for a while. I have a black ox horn one from the Scottish Tartans Museum and have made a number of “Sgian Don’ts” for myself and others with either bottle openers or combs instead of blades. But I wanted a functional daywear horn handled model.

I’m reasonably comfortable working with wood but had never worked with horn before.

I’ve enjoyed reading ozmeath’s “Sgian Dubh It Y’Salf”
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=18097

I contacted Erin and he gave me some good advice and a great knife making link (which I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing) : http://www.britishblades.com/home/ar...showarticle=27

A good friend’s father provided me with a set of deer antlers (actually three sets and would have loaded my car with more before I was able to convince him I didn’t need that much horn). I ordered a carbon steel sgian dubh blade from the Atlanta Cutlery Corp. :

http://www.atlantacutlery.com/websto...ubh_blade.aspx

I went off to Home Depot and purchased some slow drying two part epoxy, put on the Wicked Tinkers on the cd player, took out my dremel tool, and got to work. So here is how I spent my morning.


Here is the Atlanta Cutlery Corp sgian dubh blade and the set of deer antlers I selected for this project.




Here is the antler separated and the scalp removed, ready to cut



Using the cutting disk of the dremel I cut the antler from the skull, shortened it to the right length and removed a side prong.




continued

[Panache]

Using first my grinder and then various sanding attachments on the dremel I have cleaned up and smoothed out the handle. The next step is to drill a hole for the tang.



After cutting the tang to the right length with a hack saw I dry fitted the pieces



A perfect fitting bolster of a different material was out of my league so I just notched the end of the handle (with a dremel small cutting wheel) so a very small part of the blade itself is embedded into the handle end. I mixed the two part epoxy and poured it into the hole and attached the blade. I found that I had cleaned up the horn a little too much. It was far too pale. I was able to lightly burn some of the ridges to add color and interest while polishing the handle with the dremel felt polishing tip. A final polishing with a cloth wheel and a little carnauba wax gave the handle a bit of shine.





Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. The next step will be to fashion a sheath and have the blade professionally sharpened. After that I have decided to make a matching dirk with the other antler.

So what do you think?

Cheers

[O'Neille]

Very nice, Let us see the entire set when completed. I just added one to my winter projects list. O'Neille

[switchblade5984]

deserves a sticky!

[Southern Breeze]

Very nice indeed. As soon as work slows down for the winter I'll try it myself.

[Panache]

deserves a sticky!

What's a sticky? Panache feels online forum illitrerate

Cheers

[cloves]

very nice Panache!

and a "sticky" will make your thread stay up at the top no matter how old.

[Robin]

Awesome!

Uhmm...I'm looking for antler tops...or whatever they're called...the pointy bits. Any idea where I can find them? the hole "thing" would be fine also...just don't have a clue where I can find one.

:confused:

[Southern Breeze]

Awesome!

Uhmm...I'm looking for antler tops...or whatever they're called...the pointy bits. Any idea where I can find them? the hole "thing" would be fine also...just don't have a clue where I can find one.

:confused:

Dixie Gun Works has pre-cut antlers for knife handles.
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/default...ort=2a&&page=2

[Hamish]

Awesome!

Uhmm...I'm looking for antler tops...or whatever they're called...the pointy bits. Any idea where I can find them? the hole "thing" would be fine also...just don't have a clue where I can find one.

:confused:

I have been wondering about that also, Robin. At Petworth House, here in Sussex, where I work for The National Trust, we have the country's largest herd of Fallow Deer in the 700+ acre Park. I enquired last year if it would be possible to obtain some of the antler horn for myself, but the answer from the Property Manager was a firm "No, sorry!" It seems The Trust rakes in a considerable contribution to its finances by selling every tiny piece of the horn to 'the trade' through contracts!!