The Complete Online Guide to Knifemaking, SHAPING HANDLES

Once the knife handles are secured in place and the pin epoxy is dry, it’s time to carve or shape the scales. This profiling can be done on the 2x72 belt grinder, with files, with an angle grinder or even a Dremel. Roughly grind the profile, then smooth out the coarse grit grind lines with the flat platen and contact wheels of the belt grinder. For some inside curves, a small wheel attachment may be needed. Otherwise, a Dremel grinder with a drum sanding wheel will also do the job. Once the outline is sanded smooth, we use the angle grinder with a worn 80-grit flap sanding wheel to rough out the contours of the handles. Then, an orbital sander with 80-grit and then 220-grit paper is used to smooth out as much of the rough spots as possible. Depending on the material, it's then onto hand sanding. Wrap pieces of Emory around a wood dowel. This gives the rigidness of a sanding block but allows you to get into the curves on each side of the scales. If the scales are wood without bolsters, the final step would be to oil the wood. If brass bolsters were used or the scales material needs polishing, then it's onto the buffing wheel to polish the bolsters and polish the brass pins at the same time. For acrylic and hybrid scale material carefully hand sanding out all of the scratches down to at least 2000 grit will greatly reduce the buffing time and increases the shine on the final product.

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