Spacer between woods

I am wanting to use some red spacer material under my scales, and am planing on using Dymondwod for the rear of the scales and cocobolo for the front, seperated by the same red spacer. What do I epoxy first?

Thanks
Mike

When I have multiple pieces like that I try to glue up as much as possible on the bench first, preassembly avoids a lot of fuss when there is wet epoxy involved. A little plastic wrap prevents glue from actually sticking to the bench, clamp everything up, let it dry, sand flat then drill the pin holes.

Finish by gluing the preassembled slab in place like any other handle slab.

Mike, here is how I would do it.Start by gluing up a sandwich of your handle materials as shown below.



After the epoxy is set, trim the excess fiber, and bandsaw the assembled block right down the middle to make two scales.

NOTE: If you are starting with separate scales rather than a block of handle material, just do the initial gluing job twice, and skip the bandsawing part.




Flatten the cut surfaces, and glue them to more fiber material. You now have two flat, assembled handle scales which are much easier to glue in place than four separate pieces per side.

George, looks like we were posting at the same time with the same advice. Great minds....

Thanks fella's....That was what I was thinking.....I guess I need to quit asking so many questions and just do it. If I screw it up, it's not a mistake, it's a lesson!!

Thanks again
Mike

Don after you have tried to do it once the hard way there is only one way. I have had the experience of wet epoxy and pieces shlipping and sliding all over the place before and decided not to do it again. I even glue up my liner combinations ahead of time to reduce the number of pieces that I have to handle during fitting and drilling.

Me, too. No substitute for bad experiences; lessons well learned.

8o

i really like that red material -- where do i get some?

K&G, Texas Knifemakers, Koval, Sheffield....

Please forgive my ignorance on this subject (I'm new ) but what is the purpose of the spacer between the woods and also the scales and tang?

Is it decorative or does it add protection of some sort?

Just curious.

-Pete

It is strictly decorative, adding a line of contrasting color. Look at some of the straight knives listed in the CKD fixed blade section, and you will see a number of good examples.

Make sure when you order to confirm that it is BRIGHT RED, some of the suppliers carry BRICK RED or both. The brick red just doesn't stand out like the bright red does.
Mike