If you go with this blade, as a first time assembler, you have limitations as to what you can do. What you are going to end up with is something on the order of the steak knives at the better franchise places.
Look closely.see the flat at the bottom of the finger guard? That is about the forward edge of where you might want to take the handle scales. When you make the scales, first lay down a sheet of sand paper on a flat surface. FLAT SURFACE. Like a counter top or flat marble slab. Pick which sides of your slabs that you want to show and then rub the other side on that sand paper until it is smooth flat. Both of them. Then put the two sanded sides together, they should fit without any gaps.
Tape them together. Now you will lay the knife blade on the slabs and mark the outline of the metal and the position of the holes. Using a coping saw or band saw you will cut outside the lines, and leave a little bit to hang over the metal, as you will sand that off when you are finished.
Drill your rivet holes and bolt the pieces together. Shape the front of the slabs, as you cannot get to it when you have finished the knife. Make them round or slanted or however you want the front to appear and then sand them off so that they are exactly the same on both sides. I use spacer myself, red, blue, white, whatever floats your boat under the handle scales.
Clean the metal very good, being sure that there is no oil, grease or fingerprints on the metal. Use an appropriate solvent in a well ventilated place. Using at least 10 minute set up epoxy, coat the metal well and coat your spacers if you use them or coat the slabs if you dont, and then position the slabs on the tang. Make sure that your rivet holes are lined up with the holes in the knife tang and that your front matches up with your blade edges. Bolt the slabs down tight and clamp them on the ends. Set aside for several hours until epoxy is set. Remove bolts to install rivets. It works better if you dont epoxy them in, so be careful with the epoxy when you put it around the bolt holes.
Riveting is a whole lesson in itself. There are a dozen different types of rivets. For a nice looking job, your rivets have to be set flush. You need a rivet drill for that. It bores the correct size center hole for the rivet shank and it also bores the correct size counter sink for the rivet head. They cost about $15 at knife supply places. You can experiment and find a regular drill bit and bore your counter sink hole for your rivet head, but they dont always come out perfect, and they are not flat bottomed. You can fix that by gooping in the epoxy when you put in the rivets and set the heads below flush with the handles. You are going to sand and grind off all that dont look like your knife handle anyway.
Once you have your rivets set, and that epoxy hardens, then use a belt sander or sanding block and go to town. Take off the extra thickness down to polishing the rivet heads, and take off the extra wood hanging out over the edge of the handle tang, and round and smoothe things off. This is your bit of heaven, design it for you. If it looks too much like a steak knife, dont be afraid to sand off some metal and personalize it. After you make a couple and get comfortable with the process, you might want to grind off that finger guard and use a piece of brass, pin and solder it on. You might want to use some horn off of a buck that you killed. Your ideas will change with each one you make.
Good Luck
Bill
