First and second restorations before and after, thoughts?

[UPD]

Keen Kutter got a tip fix, breadknifed the slight frown out of it, hand sanded the blade, and bocote scales w/CA. Honed it to my version of shave-ready, this one is a gift to LarryAndro since he sent me 4 free blades to practice honing with. Kept the original bearing washers and wedge to give it some character.

The barbers notch needed aggressive breadknifing to correct a very uneven edge and chips. Hand sanded the blade, curly maple scales w/CA, original wedge. Needed a lot of time on the DMT 325 to grind out that breadknifing, but it is shave sharp now.

Thoughts/comments? complimentary or critical welcome.

[Str8Raz0r]

I'd say you did well. The scales turned out well and the finish on the blades is good also. With the nasty chip in the toe it was always going to be hard to get the blade looking great, but it looms servicable now.
What was your finish on the scales?

Well done.

Stu

[UPD]

Thanks. I used gorilla glue to finish.

[Mastershake]

Nice clean-up! Great job straightening out the edge on the one with the barber's notch. Did you bread knife it?

[Maxi]

I think you did really well. The blades look good, and the scales are really nice. I think you used the grain of both woods very nicely, especially on the curly maple where the grain seems to effortlessly float towards the tang. Really nice. My one "maybe next time I'll try...." would be for the wedge fitting. It's still the hardest part of the whole restore process for me.

One thing that I've found, is that when I'm working with wood, I'll often drill the toe hole, put the wedge in, and then belt sand to flush. Sanding towards the higher grits, I don't touch the toe very much....just enough to take the scratches out. It takes some fiddling....but I've found it works for me. Hope this helps.

[UPD]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I'm going to be doing quite a few more of these.