First Knife WIP--need some help

Looking pretty good for your first. The epoxy squeeze-out is easiest to clean up if you catch it while it is setting up, after it is no longer sticky but before it is fully hard. If you use a solvent to remove it make sure you don't get enough on the knife to contaminte the wood scales or the epoxy joint.

I use masking tape to mask off areas where I know epoxy is going to squeeze out. It can make the cleanup a bit easier but you have to get a feel for when to remove the tape or it just adds to the mess, and if you get it trapped under a scale you will always see the edge of it showing.
 
Justin King said:
Looking pretty good for your first. The epoxy squeeze-out is easiest to clean up if you catch it while it is setting up, after it is no longer sticky but before it is fully hard. If you use a solvent to remove it make sure you don't get enough on the knife to contaminte the wood scales or the epoxy joint.

I use masking tape to mask off areas where I know epoxy is going to squeeze out. It can make the cleanup a bit easier but you have to get a feel for when to remove the tape or it just adds to the mess, and if you get it trapped under a scale you will always see the edge of it showing.
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Excellent advice for the next one--thanks! I did plan to watch for oozing, but I had just clamped it up and a distraction arose that I needed to attend to and when I got back, it was hard--sigh!
 
Mr. Bad Example said:
Excellent advice for the next one--thanks! I did plan to watch for oozing, but I had just clamped it up and a distraction arose that I needed to attend to and when I got back, it was hard--sigh!
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That's one of the issues with fast-setting epoxy. On the other hand, the slow-setting types are often pretty thick and are sometimes still squeezing out an hour or more after you clamp the joint up.

On the metal parts, I am wondering if paste wax would act as a release agent, so you could easily scrape the excess epoxy off once it has dried. I keep meaning to try this but have not got around to it yet. It would not work on wood scales unless they were already stabilized/sealed, otherwise the wax would likely interfere with whatever finish you put on the scales later.
 
After the Easter festivities, spent the rest of the afternoon in the shop. I am going to declare this knife pretty much DONE! I've learned so much, and yes there are some issues with it and I may tweak it a bit but I think it came out pretty darned nice. Here is the final pic--I'll post more in the gallery. Thanks to all who helped with advice, opinions, materials and time!

Done7.jpg
 
Mr. Bad Example said:
Yup, I've been thinking about that. Need to start saving pennies for some leather working tools and materials!
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You don't really need that many tools really, I think my total investment was just over $100 Canadian and that included a full shoulder. I also bought one of the Tandy Basic Leather Craft Starter kit because it was on sale at the time. I did it that way because I got some basic tooling stamps with the kit and it cost less then buying them separate.
 
I did pretty much the same, bought a belly piece and some snaps and setting tools, dye and waterproofing. An Xacto knife and a lot of reading and practice helped as well.
 
That looks really nice!

What did you do to finish off the wood? it looks very nice.
 
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