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Well, here we go….
I was really happy to see Patrick’s knife arrived safely today and with the excitement shown in his e-mails, I thought I’d better get working on getting him a new set of Stabilized White Ash Burl wooden scales on his handle.
The picture found below shows you how the knife looked prior to having its handle removed.
Now, believe me, I was a bit nervous grinding the scales off because you don’t want to grind into the front of the blade either……..Everything went well and we were able to remove the scales and the pins.
Note the rust that has formed under the scales. This is generally caused by gaps caused between the scale and the handle. Perhaps there was not enough epoxy added to the handle when it was fitted or the scales were tightened too much and the glue was pressed out prior to it hardening. In anycase, this needs to be cleaned up with 220 grit sandpaper, no machines used, just good old elbow grease.
Since we are working with a absolutely gorgeous damascus blade, we want to make sure that we don’t scratch or damage the blade and ricasso portion of the blade so I used masking tape and covered the whole front portion.
Here is the picture of the handle portion of the blade cleaned up with the sandpaper. I also used acetone to complete the cleaning.
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When I asked Patrick what type of wood he would like, I showed him a picture of one of the knives I had done using Stabilized White Ash Burl and he really liked it. Well, Patrick was in luck, I had two sets of highly detailed S.W.A.B. left and it would really look great on his knife so this is where the custom fitting starts.
I took Patrick’s old plastic ivory scale and used it as a template on the new handle material. I basically needed the front portion of the handle as I needed to grind that down before fitting the wooden scale on the blade. I like to clamp the scale to the knife handle using vice grips because it does not move and I like to leave enough room so I can use a ball level either to the front or the rear of the handle to ensure I am drilling straight up and down. This also helps in the final fitting, as everything goew together pretty snug.
This is what I meant by using a ball level, it’s pretty handy let me tell you.
Once the holes are done in the first set of scales, I simply have to repeat the same process with the other side.
Here is the picture showing you the finished holes on one side. That is going to be one fine handle.
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After thinking about what process I should get to in this tread, I thought I’d better continue where I left off a few days ago.
In this picture, I cut two stainless pins and placed them beside the knife blank and right side scale. I made two pins because I’ll need them to fit both scales together to replicate the front curve, so that they are both identical.
At this point, I took the time to choose a nice fitting wood grain design for the left scale and clamped it to the blade. You’ll note here that I added a blue pen that points to the front of the scale. It really doesn’t matter it the front of the scales match at this point because we’ll do that in the next step.
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The next thing I done was to bring the present set-up to the drill press and make sure using a ball valve level that I drilled my holes straight up and down.
Once I finished doing that, I took the two stainless pins I cut earlier on and put the two scales together. The reason I do this is to use the first scale and use it as a guide so I can trace the same shape and or curve on the other scale. Makes things easier.
Then with a coping saw, I cut out the front of the scale allowing myself to leave a bit more wooden material so I can grind them down later and get both fronts even and of the same shape. Its so important here to completely finish both fronts together ( sanding and buffing ) because if you don’t do that here, its very hard to do so when you have everything glued up. You increase your chances of damaging the blade with sand paper.
Now that we have the fronts all shiny, its time to get those two wooden scales apart and cleaned up. The scales actually look pretty good at this point.
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Since the stabilized white ahs burl are so unique, I choose to use nickle silver pins. The colour of the nickle silver will add a nice complicity to the already accented flames in the right and left wooden scales.
The one problem I seen in using nickle silver pins is that the stock material comes pretty polished and I like to rough the sides using 120 grit sand paper on my lap wheel. The rough surface really adds to the epoxy adhesion when you glueing and securing eveything together.
Something that is making me smile is this, the wood design/patterns will really balance well with the damascus blade.
The next step is also very important, using 60 grit sand paper, I basically rough up all the surfaces that will join together. I then put on all of my protective gear and use acetone to clean the handle, scales and pins.
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Well, Patrick, as per mentioned before, everything went extremely well with the final asssembly and I’m still waiting for the handle to cure to get grinding.
I think its going to look pretty nice 🙂
It’s been pretty busy here lately but I have tomorrow evening lined up to finish your handle. I’m looking forward to it too 🙂
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This next step consists of grinding my forward and rear bevels. You have to pay special attention to the front bevel because you can’t put back material you’ve removed so easy does it 🙂
Once you get pretty close to the angles your looking for, I don’t worry about mirroring one side with another because I usually get that done with the final hand sanding.
Once I’m satisfied with the overall shapes, I round the top area of the wooden handle, giving its user a comfortable feeling when the knife is in the hand.
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There’s good news and pictures to go with them too 🙂
Your knife is on its way back to you today and I thought of posting some of the pictures we took for Patrick and sneak peak into the “Build Along” scrapbook were making for him.
You guys and gals must see this damascus detail, its absolutely incredible….
…and a final one of Patrick’s new Stabilized White Ash Burl handle.
It’s been a blast !!!!! God Bless
SB
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