Henry Rifle Forums

Made a trip to my knife supply and picked up a blade blank with a hidden tang so it's made for making the Stag Handled knife. I thought I'd give 'er a go. I will accent this one with some buff bone left over from a small skinner with buff scales and red carbon fiber accents. It'll have a brass guard and pommel.

So, you gather up all the goodies to start..... In this starting off pic below you can see that the bone squares have their basic holes cut already. I carefully marked them and drilled a single hole in the center of the one for the top, and a wide slot for the one that will ride down the tang to mate with the guard.

Note also that the guard and pommel are "rough." They will need to be shaped and polished. The slot in the guard has to be filed to fit the tang.


Starting out, you lay out the pieces and make orientation marks on each after deciding what faces which direction and which piece works best where....


After a couple days of work, mainly drilling the hole thru the center of the stag handle, and then filing and filing to make it fit the tang, I was ready to glue up. This included filling the gap around the tang with epoxy using a popsicle stick after sliding the stag on. Otherwise it would rattle. It was left to cure for 24 hours. Looking at that hot mess you wouldn't think it would amount to much would you? I could see the shape I wanted in it, so I had no worries. Okay, I wasn't too worried.


After several sessions of shaping, it's looking pretty good. But I know there is more to do. I need to blend the bone at the guard and pommel and there is a lot of polishing still to be done.

You really are an artist. Stag grips are my favorite on single action revolvers. Have you tried making those? Would love to see what you can do.

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 22, 2024 6:09 pm

You really are an artist. Stag grips are my favorite on single action revolvers. Have you tried making those? Would love to see what you can do.

Me too!
No pressure though..

I'd love to try, really would. I'd need a piece wide enough. My daughter just gave me a section of longhorn's horn, but it would be rather plain. I'd need a 6" section of elk antler I'd imagine for it to be wide enough for Single action grips.

I spent another couple hours in the shop this morning shaping the handle by hand. I spent a good part of that working on the "guard" transition. I wrapped 60 grit, then 120 and 220 around a dowel at first, then thin strips backed with packing tape and using a shoe shine motion worked the area dampened and hit with a touch of dawn... It still needs a bit more work on a few minor areas (that still show as white) I want them all to be clear black. Then I'll move up to 400, 600, and 800 and polish with rouge so they shine. BUT, the transition is a LOT smoother now and has the smooth slope I saw in my mind.


My internet sucks, as does my phone service. Pictures get caught in limbo. I have a closeup of the improved Pommel transition as well as a new pic of the knife... when they final transfer I'll post those too.

Last two pics for tonight... the view of the pommel after more work on the transition and some blending. Same as the guard. Work thru 220. Still needs polishing.


I'll want to polish and buff both the bone sections and the brass to eliminate as many of the minor faults as I can, and then buff them out and make them shine. Here is a view of the knife improvements up to this point. My skills are coming back, but I am still learning every session.


In the future I might do one of these where I buff away all the stag markings and turn the grip into pure bone, where it looks like ivory.

“ Looking at that hot mess you wouldn't think it would amount to much would you?”


That is exactly what I was thinking. I knew you would somehow transform that block of mass into a beautiful flowing knife but at that stage it’s hard to imagine.

I spent another session in the shop today with 600 and 800 grit polishing and smoothing the transitions of the bone and brass. Repeating the dawn, wet sandpaper, and rinse technique to get that glass smooth look I was working for. The bone sections looked like black glass. I was happy. I went to work on the shape of the pommel, I wanted to get rid of those facets and make it as smooth and rounded as I could. Worked and worked and it was looking good, meanwhile the bone had a chance to dry and white defects appeared again. What the heck?

Then I palm slapped my forehead. They weren't defects. I remembered these were cut offs from actual horn, not black synthetic. They came from this little skinner, look at the accents in the horn...


Well duh, there will BE some yellowish, or whitish color in the buff bone here and there.

I'll be back out tomorrow to start the final polish on the bone and brass. This will involve the dremel, polishing head and the two stages of rouge. Red then white. Hopefully I'll get shiny brass and polished black bone.

Then I can decide if I'll make a sheath or not. That might wait until I decide what to do with the knife, watch for pics when it's completely done.

Alrighty Then.
Got out in the shop this morning and spent a couple hours with the pencil dremel and some red and some white rouge polishing the brass and bone. Took my time and got the sheen I wanted. The knife is done. I was joking with the wife that I didn't know what I'd do with it... but I finally told her it was destined to be the knife on my western gun belt. I'm happy.


Once I decide to make the gunbelt and holster, then I'll make the sheath for the knife. I'm in no rush... Now I have to decide which KNIFE is next up...

Turned out great! I like it a lot!