Plan of attack....

by Gunner , St Louis, Monday, April 28, 2014, 21:18 (3868 days ago) @ pokynojoe

First find the best location for the screws/standoffs on the tang of the knife. Center down the middle of the side, the front one will be the pain in a$$ one due to the angle of the cut out in the tang but we will rely on the handles to hold that one in place. Pick one handle, lay the textured part facing down, put the tang on top of it, align the scale to your liking and best fit on the tang, mark the location of the screw/standoff and outline the tang on the back of the handle. Now flip the knife over and do the same thing to the other handle.

Tricky part.....drilling the handles, the threaded part of the screw is the only thing you need to stick thru the handle, if the standoff is too long and keeps the handles from sitting flush on the tang you will need to shorten them. Drill a hole all the way thru the handles in the four hole locations, then on the textured sides drill a slight recess for the screw head, go slow and careful doing this, not a lot of meat on the handles. You are wanting to get the screw head flush with the outside edge of the handles, don't want them sticking up, will be a rough on your hands when using the knife.

Now at this point you need to decide when to rough shape the handles.....your drawn outline on the back of the handles is your cut to line, you can trim now or after the epoxy dries. Best option is to trim a little now and flush trim after all the parts are epoxied together. Whatever you decide to do, triple check EVERYTHING before cracking open the epoxy, once that is applied there is NO turning back. Also take some 120 or 150 grit sandpaper and lightly rough up the tang and handle backsides, then clean the parts really well, no oil, dust etc on the parts so the epoxy will adhere better.

Once you are ready to epoxy, lay everything out, double check everything then mix the epoxy. You don't need a thick coat, I use a light coat on all parts, sandwich everything together, double check alignment and lightly clamp everything together. Do not over tighten the clamps, you want a little squeeze out but not to much or the epoxy will not adhere well enough. Again double check everything, you only have a few minutes or so to adjust before the epoxy starts to set, like what you see, then carefully wipe off the excess, double check the clamps and put the whole thing aside to dry/set for a full 24 hours, in a dry, warm out of the way place.

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41 Mags rule, Baers rock!