Nice profile on that knife! Hurts a little not see it as useful as it could be - especially because of the handle work. My gut feel is that, if you take it to the grinder to smooth it up, you won't stop. At least until you see sparks...
I have done something similar for a few years now on caper-sized EDCs up to larger camp knives, and a few other tools. I like the way it feels/wears myself, but mostly I am hard pressed to name another handle material that you can lay on a (clean) anvil and wang away with a polished hammer only to have it look better when your arm finally tires out - I like that (Smoothing Hint#1 - do this right before full cure of your epoxy). I do use hemp and believe the material I order is treated with gum tragacanth (a water-soluble binder commonly used in leather work). As far as I can tell GT has no effect on dying properties or the cord's ability to absorb epoxy. I have tried same with washed hemp cord and had a similar outcome - slightly fuzzier possibly.
I happen to use dense horse butt leather for the slabs most often and shape/chamfer them before the final hemp wrap is installed (Hint#2). Before I start the wrap, I make sure my dyed cord has no major defects for the length needed (Hint#3), dampen it slightly (Hint#4) and then do everything I can to twist the cord tight on each wrap (Hint#5). I find that if my fingers don't cramp halfway through, I'm probably not cranking hard enough or am going too slow for top consistency. I use the end of a hardwood smoother to pack each set of three or four wraps (especially when wrapping into any negative/concave curves)(Hint#6). Also, considering how many twists I put into the work during install on a bigger knife, I usually grab the drill/driver to put a "pre-twist" into the cord that makes it much easier to manage - you guys that have tried this know what I'm talking about.
I use regular 2hr two-part epoxy myself and initially tried thinning it with ~5% EtOH (was used also as a dye carrier), but now pre-dye, dry, install and epoxy. I find that mixing epoxy at RT then heating slightly before application gives me the best results. That and practice of course. Also I believe there is a fine line between just enough and too much epoxy, but your mileage may vary.
Forgive my rambling post, but I had a heck of a time finding good info on this before I tried it. I want to try to help fix that. There's a good dude named Rick Marchand around here somewhere whose experience would also be helpful (he may be Canadian, but he's still worth listening to...). awl
