[Peter Johnsson]

When I make these knives I fasten the plate with a rivet going through both scale and plate.
I pre bend the plate to right angles.
Both grip scale and plate are wider then the tang at the time of mounting, but the end that is to be covered with the folded plate is naturally shaped and I have filed the inside of the scale to accept the thickness of the plate along the tang.

I use epoxy as extra precaution when mounting, but it might be possible to do this without glue at all. It might also be possible to use hide glue
I have opted to use epoxy with my knives so far.

I normally use short lengths of brass tube as rivets, for tubular rivets. At the time of mounting they are simply pushed through the holes in tang and scale (and bolster plates) and left proud.

The one "trick" I use to make sure the plats does not spring back as I shape them after the glue has set, is to do a thorough annealing before mounting. If the plates are made soft after having being bent to right angles, they can take the last bit of forming without wanting to spring back. I use a small drift and a small hammer when shaping the bolster plates back over the grip scales.
If you have a thicker plate 1-1.5 mm you can also do some limited file decoration after the plate has been shaped back over the grip scale. On many originals the bolster plate was very thin. Some has shallow groves cut in or ridges saved out of the material.

I shape the contour of the grip scales after the glue is set and after I have shaped the bolster plates. The filing can also help making the bolster plate conform to the grip scales if you make sure to file from the right direction.

The last thing I do before finishing the surface, is to widen the ends of the tubular rivets with two pointed drifts. I pace one in a vice, point upwards, rest the knife grip with one of the rivets riding over the point and insert another drift in the facing hole. By *lightly* tapping with a small hammer the ends of the tube will expand forming a small trumpet. Turn the knife over a few times during the process to get an even result. It does not take a lot of force or a large expansion for the tubular rivets to get a grip. In fact, one should be careful not to split the grip scales.

Below I attach some photos of knives found in the Fyris river, that flows through Uppsala.
They date from the first quarter of the 16th C.
The rivets on these are obviously not tubular, but solid.
Also worth noting is that the rivet securing the bolster plates can be riveted separately. In this case with a small iron rivet.

[Aaron Schnatterly]

Peter, it sounds as though we have been using a pretty similar method.

Thanks for the pics, too... look like nice little knives!

[Sean Flynt]