I knew nothing about African Blackwood (or rehandling in general), so I did some research and found that folks in Africa make these intricate statues with hand chisels and knives out of the blackwood. So I decided I'll try to make the handle using only hand tools. So with the exception of using hand drill for drilling pin holes, I set about doing my first re-handle with only hand tools.
I ended up actually only using a few tools.
2 Slabs of African blackwood from burl source, 1 Mora Clipper, 1 DMT extra-coarse, some sand papers, 5min Epoxy, brass and copper pins from Jantz, yellow spacers, tung oil, and finishing wax.
Some lessons learned:
1) These blackwood (rosewood?) are really hard. Trying to use Mora to shave off pieces of wood (especially against the grain) was a struggle. I spent about 20-30 min each day, and was shaving 1mm shavings off for many many days. I had to sharpen the knife everyday, sometimes 2 times a day.
2) The blackwood powders wreak havoc on the eyes. I ended up doing most of the heavy sanding by wetting the DMT/handle slabs so that dust doesn't pick up in the air.
3) "Fit and finish" is more difficult than I had imagined. Getting that pinhole exactly right so that there isn't a gap between wood and the pins, planing the spacers/handle/tang so that there are no ugly gaps between them, etc. take skills to do properly.
Anyways, it ain't no looker, but it's one of the most comfortable handle I have used. Everyday I'd pick it up, squeeze hard with a hammer grip, then find where the focal pressure builds. Then I'll use my knife to shave off a little pieces at a time until the localized pressure points smoothed out. Turns out that if I do that, the left and right side symmetry gets broken, but it just felt more natural in the hand.
Now I have a lot of appreciation for the beauty and functionality when I see new knives coming out from HHH or Devin.
I sit down, look at all the little details and think, how did he do that?!
Anyways thank you for all your help.