CS 1075 Kiridashi

Second in this series of kiridashi-inspired knives. Yes, once again we are going old school and shaping all faces and bevels with hardware store files. 

In fact, this knife features an even more mundane attribute. I used a door transition from the local hardware store to make the handle scales. There was more figuring in the wood than I expected. To bring out the lines, I swept the handle with a propane torch and then lightly sanded the handle with 600-grit paper. I melted some beeswax onto a torn strip of terry cloth and worked the wax into the wood with a flossing motion to generate friction and melt the wax. 

Just as with its predecessor, the blade itself uses 1075 heat treated with a propane torch and food-grade oil.  

Now for a dose of hard, cold reality. after gluing up the handle and carefully cleaning up all the squeezed-out epoxy, I absent-mindedly added one additional spring clamp toward the transition and didn't think to clean up the epoxy once again. Hours later, I discovered a whole bunch of extra epoxy. Totally set up and rock hard where you never want it to be. I tried my tricks but could not remove it. I resorted to carefully cutting the epoxy with another knife and left several gouges on the knife's face. While the function of the knife is not impacted, it does look pretty amateur. Oh well!