Knife Making - Live and learn (from my mistake)

[Handmade Matt]

Hi, I've been making a knife as some of you know (thanks for the valuable advice.)

The brass for the pins hadn't arrived and I was impatient. I used some drill bits to hold the knife together whilst I shaped the wooden scales. I did leave them slightly oversized to allow for final shaping once everything was glued though.

Today the brass arrived, so I applied the epoxy glue to all the parts and assembled them. Unfortunately when I was tapping the pins through the handle they ripped some of the wood open on the other side like this:

Fortunately it's not to bad, it just means that I will have to rub down the handle a lot thinner than I had intended.

This is the importance of patience I guess.
Putting the brass pins through with bigger chunks of wood (like this - below) would have saved this problem:

The knife should be finished tomorrow. It's currently in my airing cupboard letting the glue cure. I'll post finished pictures when I can. I'm still undecided between bees wax or linseed oil (it's Oak.) Any recommendations?

 

[g4ghb]

I'd go with linseed if that is what you have - lots of thin coats and let each cure before the next otherwise it can go tacky.

beeswax would make things sticky in my opinion

 

[Ogri the trog]

.....
beeswax would make things sticky in my opinion

True,
but if you melt it 50-50 with some carnuba wax, it'll set a lot harder and should remain solid even at summertime temperatures.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Handmade Matt]

You can rub on beeswax to wood and heat it gently with a blow torch so that it melts into the warming wood. Then when it's cooled and dried you can buff it up removing any stickiness.

 

[g4ghb]

I stand corrected! - thanks for the info guys!

as you say Matt, you live and learn.