I've bought a couple of blades recently and put handles on them. having no power tools for the job, I devised an effective alternative to a band sander.
Clamp a long strip of sand paper (about 500mm long) to a work bench (the long rolls of decorators paper are ideal). Then you can hold the knife and run the handle up and down the long strip of paper. Great for the primary shaping work and sanding the plates down to the tang edges. I had the basic shapes I wanted in no time, then finished with fine grades of paper by hand.
Clamp a long strip of sand paper (about 500mm long) to a work bench (the long rolls of decorators paper are ideal). Then you can hold the knife and run the handle up and down the long strip of paper. Great for the primary shaping work and sanding the plates down to the tang edges. I had the basic shapes I wanted in no time, then finished with fine grades of paper by hand.