Bowie Day 3

It actually turned out better than I expected. The good points; didn't mar the blade, the components all seem strongly attached, wood fit is very close and the tang as close to perfect as the oversize guard will let me. I tried to make up for the flaws by polishing the daylights out of it with #220 and #320.  There's a few smudges and scratches on the metal that I could get out starting over with #100 grit, but I unfortunately cracked one of the scales when I tried to pin it, because I hadn't fine-tuned the holes.  Next time I'll only use three pins for the glue-up and drill and fit the rest before sanding.

The guard was made from a scrap of a door hanger. It's kind of thin, but solid brass and feels good against my hand and extends past my fingers enough to function as a guard, plus the pointy tip of the heart on the bottom has good potential for pokin' and gougin'. If I couldn't get to my .357, this is what I would want.

I'm deducting 3 points for wayward solder, 3 points for the cracked handle, 2 for misfit wood, 1 for a somewhat wavy line on the tang. and 1 for small scratches. I could spend a couple of hours to sand out the last two flaws, which would bring it up to a 92, but my arm is tired so it's a 90. I think it's fair to give it a B+.