Fitting scales w/o grinding tang?

[sirwilliamjr]

I'm almost ready to pin and epoxy some kingwood scales on a full-tang knife, but I have't gotten them to exactly fit yet. On other knives, I just epoxy the scales on and sand away until I get down to the tang and then be sure to sand the tang down to a smooth finish, but this blade is laminated and I etched it, and I don't want to mess up the finish on it. How do you guys with full-tang damascus knives fit your scales before putting them on for good? I'm thinking about sanding a little bit at a time and checking and re-checking the fit, but that might take a while. Is there a simple way to do this that I'm not thinking about?

-Will

 

[rlinger]

The way I read it is you want a etched full tang knife. Make the knife to finish first. Before etching mask off the handle and furniture, as you might a car body before painting it, and etch. I find finger nail poilsh a good resist in protecting the handle and furniture from etch. You can minimize effort by using masking tape on the bulk of the handle material (the facing of the handle) and the less polish you have to use the better. Finger nail polish those areas contacting tang only. Soak in acetone to dissolve the polish after etching is complete and satisfactory. It is time consuming but that's just knife making.

(CREDIT: I learned this from Bruce Bump)

RL

 

[Jason Magruder]

Just put some temporary pins in the handle and finish normal then knock out the pins and etch the blade then pin it back together and clean up any excess epoxy before it's cured. Then all you have to do is finish a small area around the pins.

For my temporary pins I just make some L shaped peices and stick them through from one side and finish the other then pull out and repeat from the other side.





This picture shows a couple of temporary pins in place for working on the OTHER side.