horse stall rubber handle newbie ramblings

[nate d.]

i'm stumbling along with this horse stall rubber handles on kitchen knives and felt like an up date may do some good.
#1 you can put vulcanized spacer material between the knife steel and the rubber handle material.
#2 the vulcanized spacer material smears and does not leave a clean line.
#3 you can put palm swells in this stuff and not screw anything up and they are really grippy by the way,
#4 i've been able to finish sand the steel in the handle down to a 220 grit finish and not have any rubber smearing or discoloration issues and it looks OK.
#5 to round the corners on the handle. using a belt sander do not try and grind perpendicular to the handle or you will cup the rubber steel handle interface. put another way the rubber is softer and wears away and there is a lip or step between the steel and the rubber at the interface. i screwed up two or three that way before steph #6.....
#6 to solve problem is #5, instead grind length wise and will not have this problem.
#7 i'm using loctite 326 with the primer and am having good succes with it. none of my knives ever go in a dishwasher.
#8 be careful pressing it all together. After putting it all together with aluminum rods the front edges were not straight across but had a step in them and i don't know how that happened. the rubber is really grippy on that Al rod and i have to press them in with a press.
I'd like to find like a loveless bolt of sorts to bolt this rubber to the steel next i'm going to work with a flaring tool, tubing and flare the ends of the tubing when i'm done. I still have not put the file work and a rubber handle together don't know if i want to try that yet or not. hope this is of some help.