Here is a knife I have been meaning to get up on here the past week and finally got around to it. The blade is 3.5" long, just under 1.5" wide, and just under .125" thick and 8.5" overall. The handle is African Mahogany and the pictures don't do it justice. The steel started as half an old file, and was hardened in water and tempered to a light straw color on the edge and light blue on the spine. Finest grit I had for the belt sander was 120, and then hand sanded up to 2000 grit. The handle was sanded with 40 grit on the belt sander then 80 and 120, then sanded up to 600 by hand and finished with tung oil.

The blade has been sitting on the shelf fresh from the sander for several months, finally got around to trying to put handles on some blades. When I put the clamps on to hold the epoxy the clamps pulled the scales up from the very front so a tiny gap near the front of the scale where there is no epoxy, and the very end of the handle has a slight corner to one side, but other than that I really like this for my first handled knife.

The last pic is a pic of my setup after I finished forging on some stuff for Christmas.

Thanks for taking a look at my new play purty.

nice knife sammy i have 4 that need finished might send then chainsaw chain to you for a handle like that. but very pretty knife

How do you like the epoxy, does the handle seem solid? I've always pinned my handles together with copper or steel.

Where did you get the African mahogany?

Nice knife by the way.

Thanx adamj, bring the knives on over I'll slap some on it but the wood is rough on belts so I need to grab a few more.

Rhyfelwr the handle seems very solid so far, I'll know more tomorrow after a test run on the mountain. The blade was already hardened and tempered before I even though about attaching a handle so had to forgo the pins on this one. The ones I am working on now will have pins. As for the African Mahogany I got 10 board feet from a small wood shop in Greer, SC, I saw an ad for it on craigslist and thought it would make beautiful scales. Got it for too good a price to pass up on so I got enough to do a lot of scales for knives. Oh, and thanks for the compliment.

Cool, I usually check craigslist as well. Get some great deals that way.

i will what are you doing later today

Just finished forging a spear head for the Christmas play in a month and about to head to Waynesville to an estate sale. Drop it by and leave it in the garage or truck and I'll get to it later today man, or just give me a call later this afternoon.

Awesome little knife. Looks very practical; I always find, due to the nature of my work, smaller knives are handier than larger blades. This one looks particularly handy!

i just remembered i have to finish the finger guard and get it on before i can put a handle on