In the meantime I have a bunch of blanks that I have purchased over the years that still need handles put on them
This is a nice little Western camp knife that I picked up for cheap, it was made in the old Longmont, CO factory back in the '80s before they closed up shop.
It measures 7-7/8" long with 4-1/2" of blade.
I drilled a hole on the end for a lanyard, I made an attempt to drill a second hole for a brass pin, but the metal was much to hard on the end closer to the blade.
I am repurposing some mahogany from an old high school project, I cut the piece in two then put some cuts on the flat side for the epoxy to bite into, then cleaned up the tang
I'll be using JB ClearWeld epoxy
On side at a time
After the epoxy cured, I cleaned up the wood so it would lay flat and I could drill the holes in the wood
I tthen cleaned up the other handle piece
...and glued them together using two part epoxy.
After curing I drilled the holes all the way through
Then I mixed up some epoxy and red paint, I will use this to fill the gaps, since the wood will be taller that the metal, I need something to fill it in, I thought a strip of red would look nice.
After cutting off the excess brass I begin sanding on the belt sander
I start cutting into the bottom, leaving some taller portions on front and back to help with the purchase of the small knife
Once I have it to the size I want, I start sanding by hand using 220 grit sandpaper, then work up to 400 grit.
Before oiling the wood, I used one of my checkering files to add some ridges on the spine so my thumb can get a better grip
using a very small rat tail file I cleaned up the lanyard hole, smoothing the edges so it won't cut the paracord lanyard I plan on installing
I will be using Tung Oil on the wood, my favorite Minwax oil is discontinued, so I switched to this product and so far I am happy with the results.
I wiped on one coat pretty thick, then let it sit for a few minutes and wipe off the excess with a lint free shop towel
After 24 hrs I repeated the process, then I polished the blade on the buffer.
the last touch is a red paracord lanyard, followed instructions here on how to tie it up
Finished:
