I have been planning to get back in my woodshop for several weeks now as the work in Physical Therapy over the last year has been paying off. I have made it to the point that I can almost completely close the left hand, and that most movement is "Almost" pain free. I have moved from Physical Therapy to Occupational Therapy. This means they have me doing things like screwing nuts on fixed bolts, and putting pipe fittings together to improve manual dexterity. I told the therapist that I wanted to get back to work in the woodshop and he said to "Use my own judgement" as to what would be safe at this point.
"Ah... isn't that what got me here in the first place...?"I thought he was going to stroke out....
What I did was get back to work on the knives that have been sitting on the bench for nearly a year. I HAD been out to the shop once, about two months ago, and did some sanding on the three knives, ONE grit level belt worth, maybe thirty minutes, using the left hand only as a guide. This put me at the point where I needed to put the brass pins in place. I stopped, not trusting myself to do the work.
NOW, I felt I could do the work. I grabbed the assortment of brass rods and found the size that was slightly larger. 13/64. I got the bit and set up the drill press and reamed each of the eight holes to the proper size, VERY Carefully, taking my time. Then using a scribe, carefully marked the rod for each cut, clamped it in a vice and cut each pin to length, a fraction oversize. This way it can be glued in and sanded to flush.
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You can see in the above picture the brass rod, the knife in the lower portion has the pins fitted, but not yet glued. The top two haven't been reamed on the drill press yet. I worked slowly but surely and got them all done. I had planned to glue them in place but after the job was done, my hand was telling me that detail work would have to wait. I'll glue them tomorrow, and sand them the next day. Or the day after. I am NOT going to rush this. They have been waiting a year, the job can take some time.
- brass pins 2c.jpg (114.21 KiB) Viewed 1020 times
After they are glued in place, I'll sand them flush then move up in grits to get the final sanding and shaping done. They are far from finished. What you see are a pair of cocobolo knives and a curly cherry. I hope they turn out as beautiful as I'd hoped. Two were to be Christmas presents, and the tanto was to match grips for my 1911.
Then... sheaths. I can see if I can still use the leather working tools for carving and stamping. Hand lacing or sewing will be interesting.
I should have set up ventilation. Too late, just needed to work quickly and get OUT. 
