I may not get this quote exactly but; “Nobody knew square holes could be so complicated…!”.

The challenge I have is drilling holes that are sufficiently square with no pillar drill. I’m opting for pins to attach handle scales (hoping to progress to Corby / Loveless bolts in due course) and I also like the aesthetic of a lanyard tube. Less relevant to the square hole point, but I’m skeletonising the tangs a bit too.

My drill is a decent 18v cordless so it has sufficient power but on my first few test runs it was apparent the drilled holes through the tang and scales were not straight / square enough to avoid difficult fitting that needed excessive force initially and/or when clamping at the gluing stage.

After a lot of internet trawling I found a basic drill stand that could be used with a cordless drill. The typical lever-handled, aftermarket drill stands that I had in mind will only work with corded drills due to the collar attachment. I also found a metric block-type drill guide.

This set-up is a big improvement albeit there is a lot of faffing about. I start the holes off with a centre punch but as I’m using standard length drill bits there is still some chatter that is amplified through the not fully solid / play-free drill stand. The next step will be to start drilling with a spotting drill and perhaps find shorter stub bits.