I'm pretty pleased with the way the dagger is turning out. Although I did sand on the steel, I did much better keeping the original curves. I'm sanding them with 600 grit now, but I need to do a bit more belt-sanding on two of them.
I should have sanded the fronts before I glued them; the end wood will look raw against the polished parts. I'm using the edge of the workbench to do the concave radii and work around the handle so all the compound curves will look right. I'm deducting about 5 points for the unsanded bolsters and about 2 points for working the damascus. I think this will finish out about 90 out of 100.
I dug into the steel on the boot knife pretty bad. I need a smaller roller. In trying to work down to an even curve, I took out too much towards the blade and there's almost no metal where it comes to a point, plus sanding into the steel so deeply heated the blank enough so the scale is loose on one side. I might be able to skoosh just a little epoxy into the gap and re-clamp it. Frankly, I messed this one up. Minus about 20 points for gouging in so deeply. If I can salvage it, it should finish out between 75 and 85. I need to be more careful with the machine tools; it's too easy to take off too much, but I am improving.
It looks like the epoxy only works well, but the pins are stronger and the alignment can be more precise. I'm going to get some 1/8" nickel/silver wire and I need some brass for the bowie, maybe from Dixie Gun Works.
I'm pretty pleased with the way the dagger is turning out. Although I did sand on the steel, I did much better keeping the original curves. I'm sanding them with 600 grit now, but I need to do a bit more belt-sanding on two of them.
I should have sanded the fronts before I glued them; the end wood will look raw against the polished parts. I'm using the edge of the workbench to do the concave radii and work around the handle so all the compound curves will look right. I'm deducting about 5 points for the unsanded bolsters and about 2 points for working the damascus. I think this will finish out about 90 out of 100.
I dug into the steel on the boot knife pretty bad. I need a smaller roller. In trying to work down to an even curve, I took out too much towards the blade and there's almost no metal where it comes to a point, plus sanding into the steel so deeply heated the blank enough so the scale is loose on one side. I might be able to skoosh just a little epoxy into the gap and re-clamp it. Frankly, I messed this one up. Minus about 20 points for gouging in so deeply. If I can salvage it, it should finish out between 75 and 85. I need to be more careful with the machine tools; it's too easy to take off too much, but I am improving. 
It looks like the epoxy only works well, but the pins are stronger and the alignment can be more precise. I'm going to get some 1/8" nickel/silver wire and I need some brass for the bowie, maybe from Dixie Gun Works.
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