Progress on the Scandi

I'm finally getting close to finishing one of the scandis I started. Making that first piece for the bolster is the toughest part of the handle in my opinion. It takes a lot of patience to get the slot for the tang just right so there's no gap showing between it and the blade. It's just slow going with a lot of stopping and checking. When I get pretty close I like to just tap the piece on the rest of the way so it fits real tight. On this one I got impatient and overfiled the slot. There are a couple of tricks to deal with this. One is to stick the piece on its edge and hit the opposite edge with a hammer to try closing the slot a little. Another trick is to use a ball pein and hit the area around the slot; this causes the slot to close a little, but then you have to deal with sanding out the hammer marks. I did a little of both on this one.

Backing up a little, here are the pieces of brass I decided to use. First I mark where the slot will go and then go over the mark with a small chisel. This ensures that my drill bit will go where I want it to.

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Here is a shot of the bolster piece with the slot getting close to being finished.

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Then I take my little tool made from a piece of pipe and tap it home.

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First I thought I'd go for a black and white spacer theme.

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But when I put it all together I decided I didn't like it and went for a simpler effect.

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Getting ready to glue up.

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Glued and clamped.

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When gluing, epoxy often leaks out between the joint of blade and bolster or between bolster and handle. It's no big deal to leave it if you know that you'll be sanding that part anyway, but if it's already finished then the epoxy needs to be cleaned. WD-40 on some paper towel works perfectly for cleaning up any oozes.

I've had mixed results with epoxy, but this stuff seems to work well. It's always smart to test it in advance just to make sure it hardens well. I've had epoxy stay kind of rubbery after it dried. This Ace brand hardens really well.

I unclamped later this afternoon and started shaping and sanding the handle. I'll post a pic when I finish it.