While it is not necessary, we prefer to glue the plates into position on the tang. An ‘Araldite’ type epoxy cement is ideal for this purpose. It will prevent moisture, blood, etc. from getting beneath the plates and rusting the steel. For a field knife, this is important.
Have your plates ready, and the rivets on hand. Before you start it is a good idea to pein one end of each rivet into a mushroom shape. If you grip the rivets in the vise, you can easily upset one end into an even mushroom that is just a little larger than the diameter of the rod.
Slip the rivets through the plate and fit the plates. Then file each rivet off so that it is about 1mm above the plates, when clamped up.
When you are satisfied, slip on the handguard. Mix up the epoxy cement, and apply a liberal coat to each plate. Fit and rivet together. Make sure you have a hard surface below the rivet so that you have a solid base to hammer against. Remember that the plastic can only absorb so much rivet expansion, so don’t try to upset the rivets too much. All you are trying to do is to prevent them from pulling back through the holes, and to hold the plates in position.
To this point, we have made no attempt to fit the large brass liner to the lanyard hole. Wait until the glue is fully dried (24 hours, minimum). Only when it is hardened should you go to the next step.
You may recall the lanyard holes in the plates were deliberately left under-size. With care, and a round file, you should open the holes out to the same size as the hole in the tang. Check your brass cartridge case, or brass tube, for fit. When you have a good fit, ease out the top of the hole with a countersink drill, or a very large twist drill. You want a shoulder at the outer edge of the hole, and mark it so that you have about 2mm projecting above the plate on each side. This amount should match the amount of countersink made by the oversize drill.
To flair out the drill you will need two marbles, and three hands. Set the knife in the vise so that you have a marble on each side, as shown below. Carefully tighten the vise so that it flairs the tube to fit the countersink. Again, don’t overload the plastic, as it will split if unduly pressed.
From this point on, it is a simple matter to remove excess plastic before giving the grips a final polish. Before doing that though, we’d suggest that you wrap several layers of insulation tape, or adhesive tape, around the handguard to protect it from the file. You’ll have to file the plastic down to the same level as the tang. If you are using any of the new generation of toughened plastics, you’ll need sharp files. A lot of the new plastics take quite a bit of filing to actually remove any waste. It is not that the material is hard, so much as being resistant to abrasion.
When you are filing the plates to size, stop just before you reach the level of the tang .If the plastic is about the thickness of a page above the metal, it will leave sufficient to polish down to the metal. Use fine emery cloth, well moistened with oil. This will leave a matt finish, which is suitable for field use, since it won’t show minor scratches and abrasions.
If you want to achieve a mirror-like finish, you will have to finish off with a very fine abrasive. There are a number that are suitable. Brasso and Silvo are good for polishing plastic, as is toothpaste. Car Duco rubbing compounds work well, and a tin full should last a lifetime. Probably the best, general purpose fine abrasive is whiting. This is the base from which putty is made. It can be obtained from the larger hardware stores. The main advantage of whiting being that is can be used dry, as an abrasive powder; or wet as an abrasive paste. Either way, it does a fine job. It can be used for polishing metal as well as plastic, thought it would be very slow cutting if you tried to polish the blade with it.
Make sure that you file the ends of the rivets off, where they pass through the plates. Also, if you fitted the lanyard hole liner, file the ends of the tube off flush. You don’t want to leave any projections that could catch on your hands.
With the polishing of the handle, you have finished construction of the knife. We suggest that you give the blade a wipe over with an oily cloth. This will prevent any tendency to rust. You should wipe the blade over after use. There is no point spending time and effort polishing, to let it rust later.
