All Finished!!

[mnichols]

Looks great! Nice work

[Rampage.Maupin]

Thanks Bud! Finally getting done with one really does get you excited for your next one. Working on another I hope to share soon.

[Shasta Frog]

That's some serious skill. Awesome work

[swilson]

Looks great. That handle looks like it turned out nice in the pictures.

[Rampage.Maupin]

Looks great. That handle looks like it turned out nice in the pictures.

Thanks a lot. The pictures really don't do the scales justice. By the way you were asking about the process for finishing. Here it is. This is taken from a Master Blade Smith that I pulled from Bladeforums:

"Sand your handle down to 320-400 grit or so, saturate the handle with oil and let sit for about ten minutes while just keeping it wet so as much oil can soak in as possible. Then we would wet-sand so a slurry of sawdust fills the grains and pores. Kinda massage it in with your fingers too when it gets thicker. Let sit for 5 days or so in a warm room until that stuff is rock-hard. Sand back down to the wood again and do it again. Then sand it down to the wood yet again and this time, wipe off the slurry after wet-sanding and with a clean paper towel wipe on a clean coating of oil. Let dry. Repeat.

At this point the grain and pores are filled and you are building a very thin layer of hard, clean oil finish in and on the wood. Repeat the wet-sanding with 600, 800, 1200 grit papers. Apply clean oil everytime afterwards. Let dry completely. Buy some super fine steel-wool from Klingspore or Rockler (not Lowe's or Home Depot - their #0000 isn't the same.) Scrub the finish to a nice satin sheen. You can also rub-out the finish with Pumice then Rottenstone powders too."

Here is the link: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/sh...-Any-questions

I didn't do the pumice at the end, I just buffed it. I will try this next time though, I was hoping for a bit more luster and skipping this step may have prevented that.

[Rampage.Maupin]

That's some serious skill. Awesome work

Thanks Bud!

[swilson]

Thanks for the technique. I don't have any knives planned, or have the time to build any anyway, but I think I'll try that on some scrap hardwood I have lying around.

[Rampage.Maupin]

Thanks for the technique. I don't have any knives planned, or have the time to build any anyway, but I think I'll try that on some scrap hardwood I have lying around.

I have been reading up on using the pumice and rotten stone powders as recommended and it doesn't seem like this was a serious misstep by me. Doing this should really help get much more luster out of the wood.