Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Need a little help with a damascus blade......

Question for everyone....how do you finish off a Damascus blade after the handles have been fitted???

I would like to buy a pre made Damascus blade blank to fit my own wood scales to, I normally epoxy then grind/sand the scales to fit the handles flush to the blade tang of my knives like this....

http://gunnerblades.com/KnifePics/GB22-1.jpg

How do you clean up and redo the ferric chloride treatment on the tang after fitting the handles? Will the FC hurt the wood and/or the epoxy? Or do you just leave the polished tang alone and have just the blade showing the pattern? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gunner

Shape and finish the front of the scales before you put them on the blade, tape the blade off and don't scratch up the blade. You shouldn't need to etch the blade after you attach the scales. The ferric chloride won't hurt the scales if you wanna etch the edges/spine. Just use a qtip and tape off the scales. Be careful around wood that might absorb the ferric chloride though. You might consider liners if you wanna etch the edges to give yourself a margin of error on wood scales as well.