The "Treat Yo Self" knife build: shaping the handle

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I am taking you on a bit of a journey today with me in my shop. I took an opportunity to exercise one of my favorite slogans.... Treat Yo Self.

If you are a fan of the tv show Parks and Rec, then you will know this is the saying used by Tom and Donna when they take a day to just treat themselves. Some of the things they do are pretty over the top, but they goal is to do something for yourself that you don't normally do.

As a custom knife maker I make alot of knives, and they are always for other people. I change up the style, the process, and just in general how it looks. So I talked with Stacie D (@freedomtowrite) and she gave me that sweet nod to go ahead and treat myself to a new blade while I am in between projects.

So with this build I have chosen the 3/16" thick 1095 high carbon steel. It is just over 8 inches in over all length. The cool part that really brought this whole idea to life is the scales.

The other month I received a box of goodies from a company that sent me a whole bunch of samples. In the box there where different scales and liners, and other various things I'm not sure how to use. With all of the scalles though were two sets of a canvas micarta. Once is more tan and the other is more green. The only issue was that they were too thin to use as scales by themselves.......problem solved I glued them together!

So now that I have both of them stacked up and glued, I am shaping the handle out in this video. I use the angle grinder and a flap disc to eat away all of the excess material. Then I use the belt sander to give it the initial shape. I finish up by hand sanding it up to 500 grit with tung oil.

I really love how it turned out. It is going to be my own personal everyday carry, and I am thinking about making a nice cross draw sheath for it too. I don't usually make sheathes for my knives that I sell because honestly it is not my skill set. No sense in selling an awesome and more high end knife wrapped in a sheath that looks like a drunk toddler made it.

I spent the day today finishing the surface sanding and putting an edge on it. It is now for functional and ready to work. Now I just have to figure out how to carry it!

Thank you all for joining me, and if you watch the video please have a little grace for the beginning audio...having some mic issues.

Be well
~The Yeti

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