Here's the last leg of the race, the run from third to home. Hopefully by now you've chosen your handle material--I'll be using wood and securing it with brass rivets and epoxy.



First, cut your handle slabs. Of course, if you're making a partial tang or through-tang knife this part will be a little different. With a through-tang, you'll most likely be drilling a hole through the handle lengthwise. With a partial-tang you'll also be cutting slabs, but you'll be cutting a channel in each one and gluing them back together. Find info elsewhere on the web if you're doing this--it's out there. My project is full tang, so it'll have two slabs on either side of the tang. Use a table saw or a chop saw if you have one. A hand saw will also do, but you'll have to plane the side of the wood that contacts the tang if it's rough-cut.



First, file down and sand the end of the wood in the ricasso area. Once it's glued you won't be able to shape it any further. Do this by placing both pieces of wood back-to back in a vise and filing them at the same time, as in picture four. This will ensure that both pieces are even. The rest of the handle doesn't have to be cut to shape--in fact, it shouldn't be as this leaves more room for error.



When you're ready, mix your epoxy and spread it on the back of one of the slabs. Lay one of the slabs onto the handle, as close to where you want the handle to be as you can get (picture five). Try not to get too much epoxy on the blade--it can be removed, but if there's a lot of it you'll be in trouble. Put the blade and slab in a padded vise until the epoxy has set enough to be rubbery and not wet--now, carefully, drill through the holes in the blade and though the wood using the same diameter bit you used to drill the handle. Repeat the process with the other slab--attaching it to the remaining side of the handle, putting it in the vise (picture six), and then drilling back through the holes you just drilled to complete the rivet holes. Wiggle the drill in each hole to leave just enough space to peen the rivet.



Scrape any epoxy off the blade with a Brillo pad and, for stuff close to the handle, a razor blade. Be careful with the razor, though, because it can scratch the blade and do other considerably more invasive things to you. Now, put the handle back in the vise and let it dry overnight. At this point you should tape the entire surface of the blade, to prevent scratches



When the epoxy is dry use a jig saw and/or a SurForm file to cut the wood down to the handle. Use a finer file to refine the handle until it's in its final shape. At this point, put your rivet rods in the holes, cut them so that they're about an eighth of an inch above the wood, and peen the ends down with a small ball-peen hammer. See picture eight for how this should look. Once all the rivets are peened, file them down and sand the grip up to about 150 grit. By now it should look like a knife. Just a couple more steps and it'll be done.



Using the tripoli brown compound and a NEW polishing wheel (I.E. you'll have one wheel devoted entirely to the brown compound), buff the wood grip. This should be easy--just a couple passes over the wheel and the wood will be brought up to a nice semi-luster. Take the tape off the blade, and you're ready for the FINAL step, sharpening.