Well, I finally got some time off from work, so after church, I decided to get a little work done on the knife (please recall, I ordered the PATCH KNIFE from jantz, and some very-very nice individual here provided me with some very pretty scales! I had previously glued the handles to the blade, so it was really just a matter of cutting off the pins, and getting to the sanding. before I get to it, here is a pic of my 'workstation.' Looks like a candidate for that webiste 'There, I fixed it.' :



Yep, that is on the FRONT PORCH! Hey, if I use the rail on the front porch as impromptu sanding station with some squeeze clamps, does that make a Jeff Foxworthy punchline?

OK, so despite that rather crude-looking setup< i got some pretty decent results, as you can see:







OK, so Rick Menefee or any of the other pros here are not shaking in their boots, but not bad for first attempt! This is the raw knife after I got done with the belt sander. I still have ALOT of smoothing and sanding yet to go. But man, this sure was fun, what a neat little hobby I have picked up! I can't wait to get this one finished so i can start on another!

nice job, I have made 100's of coyote calls on a sander just like that one

Looks like you did some grinding on the blade.I thought the Russell blades were already finished.

They were but the belt grinder got away from me on the top edge - I think you may be seeing glue from the tape that was on the blade