I am putting together a knife with a stick tang, carbon steel guard, oak handle, and carbon steel butt cap. I'd like to end up with a Ray Richardesque look. I need to put some kind of patina on the guard and butt cap, and also to stain the handle. Right now the guard is epoxied to the blade, shaped, and sanded to 400. The handle needs finish sanding and staining, and the butt cap needs finish shaping to match the handle. I plan to epoxy it all together and also to peen the tang over the butt cap. Here's the question: what order do I do all of this in? If I put a patina on the guard and pommel, then I can't finish sand the handle after I glue it all together. If I glue it all together, finish it out down to 400 or 600, can I stain the wood, then put on the finish, then do the metal? I'm having a hard time figuring this one out.
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Order of operations?
- Thread starter Jason Fry
- Start date
TekSec
Böse Messer
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2006
- Messages
- 2,933
Heck, I'll give it a shot. Let's see...I'd choose the latter of your plans. Assemble and finish sand. Finish out your wood completely and seal it ensuring you clean any residue off your guard and butt cap directly after application. Then patina the metal after taping off any parts that need protect. Alternate would be to temp assemble the whole thing and finish sand to final finish. Disassemble and patina / etch metal parts. Reassemble and clean up the epoxy before it fully sets up from any spaces and surfaces. Now that I think of it, I'd probably do it the second way however I've done it the first way also and they're both equally a pain
Are you planning on using a homegrown solution for the brass patina, or something store bought? I ask this because you'll get very predictable results from brass patina agent from a craft store. There are several types and each one will give a different color from brown to greenish.
If you do what Erik suggested, you should make sure there are no gaps in the handle. Little spots in the epoxy will allow the chemical to get inside your handle, which can cause corrosion in the future.
Also, do some testing on a scrap piece of brass to see how much you should apply and for how long. That way you won't screw up all your hard work.
If you do what Erik suggested, you should make sure there are no gaps in the handle. Little spots in the epoxy will allow the chemical to get inside your handle, which can cause corrosion in the future.
Also, do some testing on a scrap piece of brass to see how much you should apply and for how long. That way you won't screw up all your hard work.