Messerist, Thanks buddy. I haven't pre-planned what else I'm gonna do with the handle but I do have some stuff on hand to use on it so I'm sure I'll come up with something
Made some good progress on the Chief tonight :1:
I started by finding center on the handle and laying out the front edge of the center bead
I've sworn off Harbor Freight for most everything but I still have a few of their tools laying around. Used the HF coping saw to cut around my layout line and cut out the bulk with a utility knife. Made for quick rasp work :3:
Something about like this aught to do it
This old Nicholson 4-way rasp makes quick work of blending the handle down to the center bead
Rasped down the front side and had to make an adjustment on the back to match it up with the front
Used an 80x slack belt running slow to clean up the rasp work
Lying out the center bead for final shaping
Blurry pic but we're gettin there now with the hand sanding
Staining with some stain I had leftover from some non-knife project and sealing up the handle with the wood hardener. The hardener isn't going to fully penetrate like stabilizing but If I happen to end up with a nice hard sealed up shell on the handle so be it
Staining
Let the stain soak in for a while then gave it a wipe down with apaper towel
Coated with the wood hardener a few times and left to dry for the night
I believe The Tribal Chief is startin to reseamble knife now :biggrin: