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Some time ago I put a handle on a finished blade I bought to make a handle for. This knife was for practice. The story and the first knife are here. For this knife I used the full tang blade I made in the stock removal class I took in March. The scales are Bubinga and a wood similar to walnut that I have had close to forty years and can't remember the name. This knife was also practice, but I am also trying to do the best I can, and just get practice. I was also looking for more "gotchas", and boy, did I find them... The blade I used was about 8", and I would have preferred 9" to 9.5". That left me with two choices - either make the blade or the handle too short. I chose to make the blade too short since this is an ongoing process and I also need to work on handles. I would appreciate honest critiques - you will not hurt my feeling, (probably ). Here is what I found either wrong, or not to my liking. As mentioned, the blade is too short, but my choice of extending the bolster onto the blade made the blade look even shorter. And I wish the transition between the bolster and the scales was smoother, plus I somehow managed to put a few dings in the bolster. The scales follow the shape of the blade, but I did not do any shaping from side to side for ergonomics. The mosaic pins are off center because I took a bit off the bottom of the blade although I suspect they were a bit off when I drilled them. I also managed to scratch the blade at some point, so I messed up the finish on the blade trying to remove that scratch. Now, what did I learn? First, epoxy is very slippery and very messy. I did not make the first set of scales big enough, and wound up having to make a second set. When drilling holes in scales, clamp them to the drill press because if the bit catches and racks the scales, you wind up with out of round holes, (I forgot to mention that above...). Tape the blade as soon as you finish sanding or you may wind up scratching it. There is probably more, but I can't think of anything else except that I thoroughly enjoyed making the knife, and will make more. Sorry for the crappy cell phone photos:

Last night after weeks of work I water quenched my first Katana. This morning I was convinced I would find a cracked piece of 1075. To my surprise we have a solid, hardened blade. I can't stop smiling. I stand on the shoulder of giants who shared their wisdom and knowledge. I want to say thank you!

Pattern welded Kitchen knife, 275 layer,Handle Bog Rata (NZ Native) capped with sterling silver bolster.Total length 33.5 cm, blade21 cm

I have one of those. I'll post closer pics of the handle if you 'd like, but the guy are right. Simply stacked leather washers squished in place before the pommel pin was pressed through the tang. The black lines are just 1/2-round grooves cut in and the leather painted black. Back in 1989 I let the handle of mine sit in a jar of new motor oil overnight. It is still pretty dark and "moist?" (whatever the opposite of dry cracked leather is) to this day.

Try a chainsaw file. They're good at half-round grooves.

The gaps are really nothing more than smaller sized leather washers....using modern materials you could even make the smaller washers out of black delrin or abs plastic in between the leather stacks

I was making a small billet of Damascus a few weeks ago and I cleaned all the pieces with acetone. I put the cap back on the acetone put it back on the shelf and started welding the billet up. I flipped my welding helmet up and there was a rag engulfed in flames and i instinctively grabbed the rag (with bare hands) and went looking for my slack bucket which was outside next to my coal foge and the garage door was shut. That's when I just kinda flung it in the general direction of my anvil. I figured that has to be an ok spot for it because all the hot steel I drop had to have already burned up anything flammable. Well lesson learned. 3 burned fingers and I could have just left the rag there to burn and it wouldn't have hurt anything on the steel bench.