The work on the chef’s knife continued today:
Trimming the knife handle
The epoxy for side two cured overnight. I removed the clamps, and trimmed the sides down to near the tang, all the way around, using the scroll saw.
Sanding the knife handle
Sanding the knife handle was a multi-step process. This first phase used a couple of sizes and grits to get the wood down to the same profile as the tang. I used mini-sanding drums in the drill press for the task. Then I drilled through the rivet guide holes from the other side, then finished drilling the rivet profile in the handle. 0.177″ ∅ through, then 0.25″ ∅ drilled 0.21″ deep from each side for the rivet head.
I seated one side of each rivet using a hammer, after treating the drilled-out surface in the handle with cyanoacrylate adhesive. I put some more adhesive on the threads of the mating side and on the shoulder in the handle, then screwed each rivet together. Oh, yeah, the rivets: I got them from North Coast Knives – pleasant folks, quick & efficient order fulfillment, and lots of parts in stock for just about any sort of knife fabrication and repair you’re contemplating. Recommended!
Hacking off the rivet heads
Removing the rivet heads required application of the hacksaw. Sanding or grinding them all the way down would have caused too much heating … I know this, and caught it before I burnt the handle. Then sanding, a bit of carving, and a lot more sanding at progressively finer grits brought the knife to the place where I could apply the first coat of Danish Oil:
Applying finish
Three or four more applications are due, with sanding and/or rubbing with #0000 steel wool between each coat. This will be done Sunday, I think.
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I also finished building my table saw fixtures today. Here in one image you can see both the outfeed extension table (the leg actually still needs hardware, so I’ll go get that tomorrow) and the over-size cross-cut sled I built. It’s not light, but it makes getting true 90° cuts possible on large pieces:
Tablesaw fixtures
