A bit of puukko work before the weekend.

Knives you saw on the previous post are under some handle work.

Three of the blades were to get a curly birch handle. Blades and front sides of bolster plates are polished. Blades masked with tape. Curly birch blocks are cut, ends levelled, tang lines drawn.

I drill with regular lenght drills from both ends of the block. First two holes, then moving the drill to form a slot.

Same from the other end, sighting from top and side to follow the lines, and make the holes connect.

Needle rasps complete the work.

Checking every now and then to get a straight fit for the blade. Last centimeter or half is fitted with a punching block and hammer. I use a thin leather or birch bark spacer between the brass and wood. These get leather spacers.

Roughly shaping on a belt sander.

Then it's time to fit the butt bolster plate. Same tools as before, a drill and needle rasps.

I make a countersunk hole, so the tang would form a strong rivet when peened.

Ready for glueing. Parts are take off, then assembled back with slow cure epoxy.

Knife is tightened on a vice, back plate hammered down, end of the tang is cut.

End of the tang is peened with a ball pein hammer. Hammering, filing, hammering, filing....

Result looking like this.

I use worn out coarse grit belt to slightly sand the shape out, to see that everything fits straight after the peening is complete. Using a sharp belt would only ruin it, as the open epoxy will stick on it. Now the glue is let to set properly.

Rest of the blades in this set will get birch bark handles, so at this point the back plates were fitted.

Last work of the day was to cut some birch bark. To be continued after the weekend!