Well today I had a good block of time to do a lot more work. I got my 2mm nickel silver pin stock in - so I set to it!
Here is a photo with all of the holes drilled, and a few of the liner only pins already in place.
Admittedly, after that I was more or less heads down until it was done! It has its flaws - most notable of which is that I swapped blade positions, putting the pen blade behind the main blade. I did not notice this until I was practically ready to take photos. I did not have the heart to undo all I had done, so I ground a nail nick on the other side of the pen blade. The other most obvious flaw is one side of one of my bolsters didnt get great flow of solder, so there is a visible gap. Other than that my complaints are mostly around nit picking the finish or a very small gap here or there.
On the good side though, I have a sturdy and smooth working knife with some family history behind it back in good working order. Another big thing - I can appreciate all that much more the craftsmanship that goes into any hand made knife. Hats off to the guys who put up some of the stuff in the knifemakers area!
I left the finish of the knife looking more worn than glossy. Part of that was me working with the skill I had though. I buffed the stablized buckeye as much as I could with the tools that I have, but I do wish it was a shinier finish. I had trouble getting a smooth polish on the metal with the tools available to me, so I opted for more of brushed metal satin. I gave the blades a light sanding on the belt sander too to give the same satin look there. However, I intentionally did not remove all of the aging and character from the original steel. The blades open smoothly and easily, and they sharpened up extremely well with that old carbon steel.
Some pics
