Thanks for the comments guys. Here are some rookie mistakes and observations on my first time using scales/making a handle (others have been cord wrapped) and hand sanding. I am sure a lot of this will be old hat for most people, but I thought I would share it anyways. Some of the things may seem silly, but it is just things I didn't think about being a boot.
Making Laminates
I pretty much used JonnyMac's Virtual BBQ WIP as a tutorial for making the laminates, and it was great! I used G10 for all three layers and used, black, red, and yellow.
One thing I screwed up on was drilling too many divots on the scales for glue up. I just figured the more surface area to come in contact with the glue, the better, so I started putting divots all over the inside of each layer of G10. Silly, I know. Some of the divots were too close to the edge of the scales and ended up showing up once the handle was shaped. Here is a photo of the scales. You can see the divots way too close to the edge of the scales.
I didn't think anything of it at the time, but once I started shaping the scales and sanding them they started to show up. You can make them out in these two photos I took before finishing the handle.
Fortunately, the other side turned out better.
Fit and Finish
Since becoming interested in knife making I focused on grinding, bevels, and plunges. All I really thought about was even grind lines, nice plunges and what belts I needed for my grinder
. This is all I seemed to be really interested in, and I really didn't give a ton of thought too handles or finish. Not so much because I didn't care, but for some reason I automatically thought grinding was the most difficult part and the rest would be easier. I don't know where I came to this thought or idea, but for some reason that was my thought.
After making laminates, using scales, and hand sanding the blade, boy was I wrong! For me at least, making the laminates, installing and shaping them, and hand sanding the blade was a much more difficult and time consuming process. I am definitely not very good on the grinder, but the other aspects were more difficult for me. I TOTALLY underestimated the time, effort, and work that goes into the finishing portions of the knife.
Hand sanding the blade was both frustrating at times, but rewarding. Nick Wheeler's video was extremely helpful to me, even though I only went up to 800 grit. It had a ton of great pointers! Things like changing paper towels between grits, it probably seems obvious to a lot of people, but I never even thought about it before seeing his vidoe. At some grits I felt like I was never going to get all of the scratches out, but I reminded myself of Bladsmth's sticky "how to instructions for making a knife" and kept at it until that grit was completely clear from anything made from the previous grit. That tutorial was also extremely helpful and I found myself referring to it throughout this entire process, so thanks Bladsmth.
This was a tremendous learning experience for me. I know a lot of people say it, but I learned significantly more from the things I botched and screwed up than anything I may have done correct.
Now I am just anxious to get started on the next one!
