Daggers Part 2

This is a follow up to the post where I made my first set of handgun grips (for my birdshead Vaquero), I needed to finish the handles on this matching coffin handle boot dagger.

Dagger specs: 
440C Stainless Steel
7 5/8" overall
3 1/2" blade 
Aprox 1/8" thick
Six 1/8" holes & two 1/4" holes
This is the same model knife I made handles for in my post entitled: Daggers

I will use 1/8" brass pins and .22 Mag shell casings (in the 1/4" holes) to match the brass grip frame. 

I roughed up the surface of the knife and the wood with 100 grit sand paper 
 
 I then glued the 1st side with JB Clear Weld Epoxy
I drilled the holes and then I glued the other side on, I know the tracing is up-side down, but I wanted to use the other end since it had a straighter cut and I wanted to take the wood all the way forward to the finger grooves.

The belt sander takes care of trimming the wood down to the metal on the sides (along with a 1/2 round file for the finger grooves) and trimmed the top and bottom closer to the final thickness

I then mixed up some JB Clear Weld and filled in the holes before pressing in the brass rods and the .22 magnum casings.

 The 60 grit belt on the belt sander took things down closer to the optimum width

Here is another dagger I did a while back, the width is just right, fits good in the hand, I'll use this as a guide

getting closer, from here on out I use files and sand paper

 220 grit finish

600 grit finish

 I polished the inside of the .22 mag cases with a .22 bore brush chucked into my drill, then used Brasso Polish to make them shine

Ready for a coat of Spar Urethane

Finished!