How do you sand a knife after handle has been epoxied?

[JG Custom Metal Works]

Anyone who has made any substantial amount of knives has experienced that dreaded scratch post handle attachment. The worst being on the flats. I’ve always been partial to full flat grinds, and this time, it worked out to my advantage.


I recently finished a large chopper and sold it soon after. Of course, during final inspection I find some hairline scratches. You really had to look hard and hold the blade a certain way to find them, but they were there. I knew they were there. The buyer is a knife user so I probably could have just left them and he would have never have known the difference. But again, I would know. I started making knives because I love knives. I love the feeling of gettin a new knife in the mail and having it be everything I wanted. I know that feeling well and know how that feeling can be sullied by problems/imperfections on the knife. That is something I NEVER want to have happen to any of my customers.


Prior to this incident, scratches after handle attachment had been past the point of correction. Luckily they haven’t happened very much as I’m super careful with them after attaching the handle with epoxy. When I have had it happen, it happened on the flats, which can’t be remedied without cutting/grinding the handle off. At least if you’re wanting the scratch pattern to terminate under the handle scales(which is the only way for a knife to be IMO). So with this situation I had a full flat ground chopper. I was racking my brain as to how I could fix them. Then it dawned on me, “When finish sanding, I straight pull from the plunge to the tip, or from the tip, up into and out of the plunge. Why can’t I just do that? The scratches won’t terminate on the knife surface at all. They’ll just run off the tip or up/out of the plunge.” So that is what I set out to do.


I started to think how I would clamp the knife down on the handle. Of course my main concern was the blade shooting out uncontrollably from being under pressure. So I started thinking about routing out a 2x4 in the shape of my handle, which a ledge for the front of the scales to butt up against. That way, when I did straight pulls, the front of the scales would prevent the knife from moving towards me. The knife would be clamped to the 2x4 and the profile would be surrounded, in the cavity that had been routed out. That would prevent left to right movement. It’s a good idea, but it would have taken a lot of time to make and it would probably only be could for this one handle style. I told the customer that the knife would go out today, and therefore that wouldn’t be an option. So, I settled on something low-tech. Two pieces of foam on either side of the handle and clamp it with an Irwin soft jaw clamp. For as low tech as it is I almost feel guilty posting such a long diatribe for such a simple solution, but it worked. I just prayed to God that it wouldn’t fly out. I made a little crash pad to the right of the table, for it to land on instead of cement, should it fall. It consisted of two anti-fatigue mats, two dog beds, a two pack of paper towels, and a shirt over ther dog beds, so WD-40 doesn’t get all over them.


As the old Murphy’s Rules of Combat says, “if it’s stupid and it works, it’s not stupid.” One thing I’ve learned about knifemaking is that a HUGE part of it is learning how to fix mistakes, without making things worse. I suppose that’s kind a hippocratic oath for knifemaking.


Does anyone have other methods for fixing scratches after the handle is attached? If so please share them. Lord knows there’s probably a lot better way to accomplish the task. But anyway, here’s how I managed to get the job done. It worked out well, but looking at it now, I probably should have had something under the knife to support it, so it didn’t bend down at the tip end. It wasn’t a big deal as I went tip to plunge and therefore it pushed down to the surface underneath. I put a clean piece of printer paper on the surface to protect the other side. When I switch sides I put a new piece of printer paper down in case sand paper grit got on the first one while sanding the first side.

Here’s how it ended up.

 

[Natlek]

Like ! Next time / better no/ try this way ...........

 

[E.Carlson]

I use a really big handle magnet clamped in my vice. Covered with a fresh piece of painters tape. It holds it well enough to get those light sharpening boo boos out.

 

[Matt Rochester]

I've done what you did on knives with a plunge. On my plunge less kitchen knives I haven't found a way to do it so I've pulled off a few handles unfortunately.

 

[John Cahoon]

I wrap the handle in a soft clean rag or sock, wrap that in leather and clamp over the leather firmly on the flattest spot I can find. Then use tape to protect the downward side and shim the blade with scrap leather pieces, usually at least 3 layers. As we used to say, primitive but effective. It's pretty solid and works well if you are push sanding from ricasso to tip. Terrific blade by the way

 

[JG Custom Metal Works]

Like ! Next time / better no/ try this way ...........

That’s not a bad idea. I didn’t think about clamping a piece of wood to the ricasso flats. Not a bad idea. Could wrap the wood in painters tape too.

Not sure the translation made it through. Did you say “Next time better not try this way” ? Or ar you suggesting that I try this method? It looks like t could work, especially if there’s a larger ricasso

 

[JG Custom Metal Works]

I wrap the handle in a soft clean rag or sock, wrap that in leather and clamp over the leather firmly on the flattest spot I can find. Then use tape to protect the downward side and shim the blade with scrap leather pieces, usually at least 3 layers. As we used to say, primitive but effective. It's pretty solid and works well if you are push sanding from ricasso to tip. Terrific blade by the way

Nice! That sounds kind of like my method. Although, I actually got the scratches on the blade from doing something similar. I needed to sand the spine from butt to tip after the handle was on and I clamped the blade into my vise. To protect it I taco’d it in a piece of paper and a piece of leather(leather on the outside). Then I cranked the vise down good to make sure it wouldn’t jump out when I’m way out on the tip, pushing down with it in a position with leverage. When I got done, I took it out and there was a few hairline scratches on one side that were approximately 1/8” long each and two on the other side that was probably 3/4” long. There must have been something on the leather that pressed through the paper and scratched it.

Everything was perfect up until that point. Extremely frustrating considering I had over 15-20hrs in the knife. So glad I was able to fix it. Like I said, they were barely noticeable and the buyer plans to use it, so after one outing, it probably would have just blended in with the new scratches he made from normal use. But it would eat me up if I left them. After all the devil is in the details.

 

[Natlek]

That’s not a bad idea. I didn’t think about clamping a piece of wood to the ricasso flats. Not a bad idea. Could wrap the wood in painters tape too.

Not sure the translation made it through. Did you say “Next time better not try this way” ? Or ar you suggesting that I try this method? It looks like t could work, especially if there’s a larger ricasso

Well , I mind that is best if you never again need to try this . .. . My broken English ............

 

[Hengelo_77]

I have a piece of square tube for that.
It has the bottom and a plate of steel lined with rubber. I can screw the plate down, so it holds the handle