Sanding & Buffing Composite Handles

[brad90049]

I've just finished my first fixed blade and had some problems when sanding and
buffing the handle assembly. I got a partial-tang damascus blade from Tru Grit
and made my own guard and handle from brass, nickel silver, thuya burl and
stag. Sequence of materials from guard to butt is:

Guard Brass 0.500" thick
Spacer Nickel Silver 0.040" thick
Spacer Black Fiber 0.040" thick
Wood Thuya Burl 2.0"
Spacer Black Fiber 0.040" thick
Filework Brass 0.125" thick
Spacer Black Fiber 0.040" thick
Butt Stag Button 3.0"

Used three brass pins on the handle.

I shaped the guard first, cut the spacers and the filework piece to fit the
shape of the stag, then rough-shaped the wooden piece to fit. Sanding was
no problem, but when I started buffing the metal pieces, the Zam and red
rouge compounds on the buffs quickly discolored the light wood section.
I tried putting a few finish coats of my Watco Danish Oil finish on the wood,
but that didn't help much. I finally solved the problem by masking the wood
with tape. It worked for the guard and fileworked spacer, but didn't help
with the 5/32" pins.

Question is what's the best practice for sanding and buffing my next handle?
How can I polish the metal pieces without messing up the adjacent wood.
I'd like to use some matrix pins in the future, and they appear to give the
same problem.

Thanks,

- Brad Smith
Los Angeles

[Ray Rogers]

Everybody will have a different answer for this one, but I mask with tape and buff the metal parts first. Then mask the metal and buff the other parts. Aside from that, I cheat. If you get Zam or red rouge on wood or other light colored natural product it will discolor (as you found out). So, if I must buff both at the same time as I would have to do with mosaic pins, I buff the pins with the compound I use for wood or plastic. For wood and plastic, I favor White diamond and No Scratch Pink.

There is a forum for Fit and Finish, you may want to run this question past them........

[AwP]

Using a white buffing compound on your handles will take care of part of your problem, it won't show in the grain like colored ones. You want a different wheel for handles then for blades, the buildup of steel on your blade buffer will also discolor your wood. Taping off like you did is the best way I know of to take care of alot of it. For going over the pins I just use my white compound handle buffer, the pins don't seem to leave enough residue to discolor my wood.

Edit: Looks like Ray was quicker on the draw, he must have done his post while I was typing.