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A couple of years before my dad passed away, he bought a Damascus knife blade and asked me to put a handle on it. He helped me choose what type of wood to use, and I purchased the knife scales. Only problem was, I didn't have my shop set up, so the blade and the scales were set aside for the time being.
As it turned out, I didn't get my shop set up until after he passed away, but finishing this knife was one of the first projects I did in the new shop. However, it wasn't until yesterday that I had a chance to take some good photos of the finished product. I did take a few progress pics with my cell phone as I was attaching and shaping the scales...I think I might have even posted some of them here a couple of years ago. But here's most of story in photos (I failed to get any pics of the raw blade itself)...
The initial glue-up. The scales are zebrawood that I found on eBay and the pins are simple brass rod I picked up a Lowe's. It's all glued together with epoxy.
I learned the hard way that I should be careful to clean up any glue squeeze-out where the bolster meets the blade. Cleaning up the excess epoxy without scratching the blade was tough.
This is after the initial sanding on the oscillating belt sander...
More of the initial sanding, some on the belt and the rest on the oscillating spindle...
Some of the initial rounding of the grip, done with a fine rasp and coarse sandpaper...
I decided not to cut finger grooves into the grip...
And here's a few "studio" pics of the finished product. I finished the wood with BLO. I still need to make a leather sheath for it.
I know it was my dad's intent for me to make this knife "for him" so he could turn around and give it back to me, but in my mind this will always be "his" knife. And I suspect somewhere he's pleased with how it came out.
As it turned out, I didn't get my shop set up until after he passed away, but finishing this knife was one of the first projects I did in the new shop. However, it wasn't until yesterday that I had a chance to take some good photos of the finished product. I did take a few progress pics with my cell phone as I was attaching and shaping the scales...I think I might have even posted some of them here a couple of years ago. But here's most of story in photos (I failed to get any pics of the raw blade itself)...
The initial glue-up. The scales are zebrawood that I found on eBay and the pins are simple brass rod I picked up a Lowe's. It's all glued together with epoxy.
I learned the hard way that I should be careful to clean up any glue squeeze-out where the bolster meets the blade. Cleaning up the excess epoxy without scratching the blade was tough.
This is after the initial sanding on the oscillating belt sander...
More of the initial sanding, some on the belt and the rest on the oscillating spindle...
Some of the initial rounding of the grip, done with a fine rasp and coarse sandpaper...
I decided not to cut finger grooves into the grip...
And here's a few "studio" pics of the finished product. I finished the wood with BLO. I still need to make a leather sheath for it.
I know it was my dad's intent for me to make this knife "for him" so he could turn around and give it back to me, but in my mind this will always be "his" knife. And I suspect somewhere he's pleased with how it came out.