Western handle attempt #1

[James]

My gf has had this knife for a few years now and the handle was pretty blocky so I decided to try my hand at rehandling. It doesn't look too bad so I thought I might as well post it and see what you guys think and what I can improve on.
The pics were adjusted a little to make them less yellow and a little sharper.

"Bolster" is buffalo horn and scales are desert ironwood burl.

 

[Godslayer]

Honestly if you told me that was a Martel handle I'd believe you. That's just how good a job you did. I really like the selection of woods and the polishing has a nice glow.

 

[chinacats]

Not much of a western guy, but that looks very nice. Curious if that's a mahogany Boardsmith (my personal favorite board)?

 

[marc4pt0]

Wish I could offer more critique than "nice job", but that's all I got for you. Nicely done, inspires me to give it a go. (I've been saying that for a while now...)

 

[chiffonodd]

Looks great! What was your method for removing the old handle, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[James]

Thanks for all of the kind words! I'm actually surprised that it turned out as well as it did; like with knife sharpening, going slow and removing little by little helped a lot. I will say that after making this handle, I understand why rehandles cost as much as they do; from start to finish, this took me about 20 hours, 4 80-grit belts, a lot of sandpaper and a noise complaint from my neighbors.

Chiffon, I put the old handle to the belt sander and sanded it on both sides. eventually, the scales just popped off.

CC, yeah! I grabbed one during Dave's final inventory sale. Great board; beats the heck out of my old snow river end grain. I've noticed pretty significant edge retention gains and less microchipping on the boardsmith.

 

[Chuckles]

Looks like no pins on this one. What epoxy did you use?

It looks great!! Gutsy to use ironwood right out of the gate. :ggodjob:

 

[cheflarge]

lus1: :goodpost: :ubersexy: :bliss:

 

[Dave Martell]

Very nicely done! :doublethumbsup:

 

[Sparklepony]

looks pretty awesome for your first try!