What's going on in your shop?

Sean Jones said:
And I have a question for those that have been using Gene Kimmi's method of wax on the edges of the tang before glue-up to prevent the epoxy from getting every where. I tried it and ended up with nothing but a mess. I had wax everywhere including the face of the tang. When I attempted to clean up the face the wax on the edges flaked off as well. Any ideas?
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Sean,

Here's my process for gluing up the scales on a knife. I assemble the scales to the blade with pins or corbys, then spread wax anywhere that epoxy will squeeze out. Next, remove the scales from the blade. I will use some denatured alcohol to clean any wax that has seeped under the scales. Cleaning before the wax has dried, I have not had problems with the wax flaking off. I do not clean anything on the blade, just the back side of the scales. Epoxy the scales to the blade and let set for at least 8 hours before peeling the epoxy squeeze out from the assembled knife. I have let the epoxy set longer before clean up, but have found it peels off easier when it has not set to complete hardness. If you have any questions. let me know.
 
Gene Kimmi said:
Sean,

Here's my process for gluing up the scales on a knife. I assemble the scales to the blade with pins or corbys, then spread wax anywhere that epoxy will squeeze out. Next, remove the scales from the blade. I will use some denatured alcohol to clean any wax that has seeped under the scales. Cleaning before the wax has dried, I have not had problems with the wax flaking off. I do not clean anything on the blade, just the back side of the scales. Epoxy the scales to the blade and let set for at least 8 hours before peeling the epoxy squeeze out from the assembled knife. I have let the epoxy set longer before clean up, but have found it peels off easier when it has not set to complete hardness. If you have any questions. let me know.
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Thanks Gene...I'll give this another try following your method closely. What kind of wax are you using? I used candle wax last time. But I just thought that maybe you've been using paste wax? Like Johnson's paste wax? Could that be the difference?
 
Sean Jones said:
Thanks Gene...I'll give this another try following your method closely. What kind of wax are you using? I used candle wax last time. But I just thought that maybe you've been using paste wax? Like Johnson's paste wax? Could that be the difference?
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I have used Axe wax and a couple different car paste waxes. I know Ed and others use vaseline. To me, the car paste waxes are the easiest to remove.
 
9C8AA443-63A1-4E3E-B0FB-F4A2C6AF911D.jpeg
This stacked leather takedown handle has been kicking my butt lol. I used 2 ounce leather, and each layer had to be glued then tapered according to its place on the handle. Each layer was punched just a little undersized, then wet molded to the tang. I’ll have to count them some time, I lost track. It’s about 90. Took me 8 days of mostly idle time waiting for glue to dry to get here.
 
Edwardshandmadeknives said:
View attachment 85037
This stacked leather takedown handle has been kicking my butt lol. I used 2 ounce leather, and each layer had to be glued then tapered according to its place on the handle. Each layer was punched just a little undersized, then wet molded to the tang. I’ll have to count them some time, I lost track. It’s about 90. Took me 8 days of mostly idle time waiting for glue to dry to get here.
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That's alot of layers. Should look awesome when finished.
 
Oldnretired said:
That's alot of layers. Should look awesome when finished.
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I think it will. Usually people use what appears to be 12-16 ounce leather. The cool thing is, if you buff it with 0000 steel wool “around” the handle, it will preferentially eat away the flesh side of the leather. It should leave a fine “ribbed” texture if all goes according to plan
 
Sounds like a good plan. I've used stabilized leather rounds on some handles as transitions between the finger guard and handle and they do the opposite. The outer flat surfaces of the leather tend to wear away a little faster if I'm not careful.
I've never done stacked leather with non stabilized leather.
I hope you post pictures of the results of your plan. I may try stacked thin leather someday in your way. I tend to find "normal" stacked leather with thick rounds kind of generic and common.
I really like your take on it.
 
Oldnretired said:
Sounds like a good plan. I've used stabilized leather rounds on some handles as transitions between the finger guard and handle and they do the opposite. The outer flat surfaces of the leather tend to wear away a little faster if I'm not careful.
I've never done stacked leather with non stabilized leather.
I hope you post pictures of the results of your plan. I may try stacked thin leather someday in your way. I tend to find "normal" stacked leather with thick rounds kind of generic and common.
I really like your take on it.
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Yeah this is kinda a new thing for me too. I’ll have pictures when it’s done
 
The one with the orange pins is a 3/32" thick, 62 HRC Nitro V blade, 3" cutting edge (not including the finger choil), 8" or so overall with a phenolic burl handle from Current Composite and orange pins. Current got the blade this week for pictures for their website, so you may see it there! It is available. The other one has OD Green AmeriGrip scales on it, but the same specs/steel as this one.


The one with the blade pins is a little smaller, my FBBO (based on the Benchmade Bugout) model, in 1/8" thick, 64 HRC Magnacut, with BCM scales and black pins. It also has 3" cutting edge, so it's a touch longer overall than the bugout when opened due to the different blade shape and larger finger choil. It will be heading down to Florida after Milton passes through, so it's already spoken for. I set it up for a lefty pocket carry.
462198406_10102391990179700_6855059963759786369_n.jpg

With my Bugout clone; I lost my real one, so I got a clone as a beater/template:

FBBO RT.jpg

I will be hardening some 1/8" and 3/32" Magnacut soon!! 2 regular FBBO and 1 Reverse Tanto FBBO in each thickness will be in this batch, plus the 2 larger 3.25" ish blades:
m blank 3.jpg

And these 2 little guys that will be around 2.5-2.75" cutting edge hidden tang blades also in Magnacut:
mblank2.jpg
 
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