Learn to build in a take-down assembly where you can disassemble the knife right up to the end. That way you can clean things up as you go.

There are many ways to go about this.

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Learn to build in a take-down assembly where you can disassemble the knife right up to the end. That way you can clean things up as you go.

There are many ways to go about this.

There is a lot of wisdom in this. Every knife I make is assembled and disassembled several times before final assembly, even full-tang models. Guards get 100% finished sanding before final assembly as do the blades/ricasso. One thing I have started to do is get the whole thing ready for glue-up and I set it aside for a day or two then come back to it. I inevitably see small scratches that I hadn't noticed before.

Ha! Karl, I should have seen that answer coming. Josh, I also get everything to a nice finish before assembly...but then I muck it up!

So that's what we've got? Either don't let it happen or disassemble if it does? Does anyone have neat methods to protect surfaces so refinishing usn't required, at least?

If you don't want to think of it happening to you, imagine a customer asked to have a knife refinished. How would you do it?

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If you don't want to think of it happening to you, imagine a customer asked to have a knife refinished. How would you do it?

Very carefully.

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So that's what we've got? Either don't let it happen or disassemble if it does? Does anyone have neat methods to protect surfaces so refinishing usn't required, at least?

Guy goes to the Doctor, raises his arm over his head and says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this."

Doctor says, "Then don't do that."

Karl has simplified it very appropriately. If you don't attend hammer ins you are at a disadvantage. You wont get to see and handle the tools you are asking about. In some cases you have to invent tools for you specific need.

I tape off the guard and use my beveled sanding sticks so I can sneak in right up to the guard face and draw the sanded lines toward the tip. Again, even this is over simplifying things. You have to make tools as needed. No way around it. You can consider yourself a tool maker from now on and hope the results of all those tools are cleaner knives.

If you think we're playing games with you and avoiding answering,... well, you're wrong.

Different makers approach their process differently. Karl does take downs most of the time but not always. So, this accommodates the problem of clean up very nicely.

Some never make take downs. So their process has to be different, not better, not worse. They have to avoid the two steps forward/one step back kind of thinking. Make the blade and PROTECT IT AT ALL COST. Then move to the next step and PROTECT IT AT ALL COST, in addition to the blade. AND so on.

When you (and I) get tired of re working things, we will be more careful.

Karl's quote: Guy goes to the Doctor, raises his arm over his head and says, "Doc, it hurts when I do this."

Doctor says, "Then don't do that."

Hey Lin!

Thanks for your reply! I'm glad I'm on the right track with taping things off and going at it with a beveled stick. I would just feel like a sucker if somebody had a simpler solution I was just too proud to ask about.

I've really been thinking about the prevention part lately, kind of going along with your advice about finishing each step completely before going on to the next. I've heard it said in a different context, "You go from step one to step two. You don't go back to step one,"

I appreciate everyone's feedback, really. Please let me know if there are any other ideas!