I am working on this garasuki or large honesuki. The handle is Renaissance Acrylester #102 with brass and black G10 and some fibre spacers all stacked together with G-flex and the butt is threaded on to the tang screw then plugged with a mosaic pin. The shaping of the handle is always the most fun. Holding it in your hands and tweaking the shape until it feels "just right." For the most part I do this slack belt and work up to 400 grit A/O. After some wet sanding on the bench I use Meguair's Scratch-X or PlastX. It's hard to show in photos but the wet glassy look starts to appear after a few minutes of rubbing. Hope to have this one done shortly. More pics to follow. Dan
I learned a few things about keeping the buffing wheel clean. In other words, don't use a blackened, dirty wheel on white material. Fortunately, a quick application of acetone and some elbow grease will get the black out. But you don't want the acetone in contact too long as it will ruin the acrylester. Also, I masked off areas with tape where I didn't want the buffing wheel to contact like right next to the butt and up around the G10. Otherwise it looks pretty good. Dan
Wow that is fancy Dan . That handle is something else it will really pop once you get that green tape off the blade.
Thanks Kevin. I threaded the butt and screwed it onto the tang screw. The pin functions as a plug in the hole.
Dan can I 'borrow' the mosaic pin idea to hide the nut? I ask because I want to have a go at a hidden tang and it's the first time I've seen the idea, so not sure how common it is, or if it was another of your inventive brainwaves!
Sure! There are a few ways to do this. For example, you could braze a nut on the butt and drill out the rear end of the handle so the nut sits inside the handle when the butt is tightened down. Or you could use a thicker piece for the butt and blind tap it with a bottoming tap. The risk with this technique is that if you grind too much off the butt you will expose the hole. Another way is to through thread the butt, screw it on the tang screw and leave a little bit of the screw sticking out. Then pein it to expand it to fill space and grind it flush The technique always seems to leave a ring, so I have opted for the intentionally plugging the hole on this build. My personal favorite is the brazing a nut on method, but I only have an arc welder. So I go with what I have. Some steps here: http://dcknives.blogspot.ca/p/through-tang-construction.html Dan
Dan, That is an amazing looking knife! I need to make a trip to Leduc to see how you get that finish!! Awesome work.
