Assistance with scales on full tang knife.

[Alaska_Guy]

Hey there,

I am an amateur knife maker and I had a question regarding stone washing a knife and adding scales. My first knife I used 440C and then pinned and glued my scales in place. They were over sized and then I hand filed them to look and feel how i liked. My question is when using this method I have to scrape away metal on the tang and on top of the spline in order to get everything smooth.... When doing so on a non stone washed knife it looks fine as I can sand to the final grit I wish and not worry about the stone wash finish. However, if I was to stone wash a knife and tang and then use the method listed how would you go about getting the stone wash effect back on the tang once the scales have been applied?

I was thinking of cutting the scales to fit prior, but I just don't think I could get the same quality of fit/finish.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

 

[Frank Niro]

My comment, and that's only what it is, is to leave those areas in a sanded flat satin finish. I believe the contrast will look good and not take away from the knife. Frank.

 

[Hengelo_77]

What Frank sayd or even go mirror finish on the spine only for even more contast.
I found that it takes less time to get a spine up to 1500 or 2500 then you would think