# Western handle attempt #1



## James (Jun 3, 2015)

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.


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## Godslayer (Jun 3, 2015)

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.


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## chinacats (Jun 3, 2015)

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


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## marc4pt0 (Jun 3, 2015)

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...)


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## chiffonodd (Jun 3, 2015)

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


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## James (Jun 3, 2015)

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.


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## Chuckles (Jun 4, 2015)

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:


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## cheflarge (Jun 4, 2015)

lus1: :goodpost: :ubersexy: :bliss:


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## Dave Martell (Jun 4, 2015)

Very nicely done! :doublethumbsup:


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## Sparklepony (Jun 20, 2015)

looks pretty awesome for your first try!


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