Another kitchen knife in damascus

The blade is now back from HT. I've cut in the secondary bevel, and begun the hand sanding process. This one is being made for right-handed use, since both my wife and I are righties. I also did a bit more sanding on the scales to get them closer to the final fit, so there will be less work to do once they are mounted permanently. They are still WAY too thick, but I'll address that later.

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Still to be done, more hand sanding, etching my mark, etching the damascus pattern, shaping the handles, final assembly, final fit and finish sanding.
 
Looking good, can't wait to see the ivory polished out and contrasting with the damascus.
 
Cool project Greg. That is a classic knife making problem that you faced with the rounded scales, drilling for the pins. Way to get through it.

Another way to get around that is to make yourself an upside-down drilling table. I use a piece of 4" steel square tube, 3/16" wall, about 6" long. I drilled and milled a 3/8" slot in from each end a couple inches. It then gets clamped to the drill press table, slotted side up. So, I can clamp a tang and scale upwards onto the "ceiling" of the tube, with the tang hole aligned with the slot in the tube, (and the drill bit) and drill downwards through the scale. This is easier if you tack your scale on with superglue before positioning and clamping to the fixture. If that doesn't make sense, I've got a pic somewhere I believe.
 
Interesting idea. It would never have occurred to me. I'm not accustomed to thinking in terms of jigs or guides yet. I need to open my mind to that sort of thing. I'm sure it would make a lot of what I do easier.
 
Today I got serious and spent some time finishing the blade. I hand sanded it up to 1200 grit, then etched my mark. After that I spent a lot of time on the stones and got a keen edge.
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Finally, I did the damascus etch, followed by the light sanding at 2000 grit.

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I'll get serious about doing the handle work tomorrow.
 
Nice etch, Greg. I believe Wayne Goddard talked about and showed pics of his upside down drilling fixture in "The Wonder of Knifemaking" if you have it. There's some good stuff in that book.
 
5 hours in, the epoxy has set but is still curing. Tonight I will remove the clamp and start working on grinding down the bolts.

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Well, this being the first time I ever use Corby bolts I suppose it was inevitable I would screw it up. Ah well, at least this knife is only intended for my own use, so the ugly mistake will bother nobody but me.

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Drill a hole in those and mixed up some colored resin and put it in the hole. Then you will have 2 nice colored accents
 
Those are good ideas. I'd also considered drilling the smaller hole to the same size as the larger one and gluing a semiprecious stone in each... probably something like a lapis or tigers eye.

For the moment the larger hole is filled with solder and the smaller one with CA. Both are reversible.

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