Fate of a 9" Friodur

[Sparky415]

I took the knife out on the deck today, and somewhat tentatively whacked it with a hammer to see about straightening the slight bend in the handle. After two more hits... I think it's pretty much dead on straight.

Freaky.

Somehow I thought this was way more high-tech that 'beat it with a hammer', but then that pretty well describes the act of forging right there so...

  

 

I'm very pleased that worked
(The idea of holding a length of 1” x 1” on the knife and hitting that means you are using a 'soft faced' hammer, it saves denting the metal    )
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this progresses   

[bushidomosquito]

I'll send you the Paduk. It's a nice hard redwood that's not too oily like the bloodwood so you shouldn't have any problem getting the epoxy to stick it to the tang.

[Spork, Lord of Lime Jello!]

Padauk is a nice choice. The color is a bright red-orange when working with it, then it turns a rich brown color with exposure to sunlight.

[Mr. Whippy]

I like those pins, Spork. 

[Lynn LeFey]

Padauk is a nice choice. The color is a bright red-orange when working with it, then it turns a rich brown color with exposure to sunlight.

That is a GORGEOUS wood. The wavy grain is just fantastic looking.

EDIT: I took a 'before' pic of the handle some time back. I'll take an 'After' tomorrow when the sun's up, to show the difference.

[Lynn LeFey]

Well... 'tomorrow' ended up being about two weeks later. But thanks to Sparky415, I got back on task today.

Here's the blade looking down the handle, pre-whacking...


Here's the handle post-whacking, and after I've done some sanding (which you can't really see due to blurry pic).


Here's one side as of this afternoon, after sanding...


And the other side...


This was 3 sheets of 320 sandpaper, split in half and wrapped around a small block of oak. Then same process on just the blade with 2 sheets of 800, and finally 2 sheets of 2000. There are still some scratches, and the polish isn't quite uniform. It's also more noticeable that the blade itself is very slightly wavy, but the finish is the best of any knife in my kitchen. I'm not sure how much work should go into the handle area. The dark patches don't look like rust anymore, so I'm not sure if it matters if I take it all the way to shiny.

That's all for now.

[jzmtl]

I would go over the handle with steel wire brush to knock off any loose rust, then install the handle scales with strong epoxy and be done with it.

[bushidomosquito]

Oh right, the paduk. I'll get that out to you asap. If you have a Dremel it wouldn't hurt to rough the tang up a bit with a grinding stone and clean it with alcohol to help the epoxy stick the scales to it better. Also, if you could measure the diameter of the holes I have stainless tubes in 3/16" and 1/4". Lots of fixed blade knife making stuff laying around here that I'm not using since I discovered SAK modding. 

[Sparky415]

  As above but as I just spent 10 mins typing this out.....

That's looking Good Lynn 

You did a good job straightening that handle 
Looks about ready for scales, You can also scratch the handle with the corner of a file just to make sure the glue will have something to hold on to
And before you glue the scales you have to make sure they fit really well at the bolster as you can't do anything to them once they are glued on (make sure you de-grease the handle and scales before gluing)

Oh and don't forget to tape up the blade when you are working handle 

[Lynn LeFey]

Bushido... the holes are 5/32"
I guess the 1/4" would probably work.

Thanks all. I just had this funny sense that I was taking a knife-repair correspondence course. Good instructors!

[Sparky415]

Always two there are, a master and an apprentice.