First restore

[Louis]

I finally got around to getting my first restore under way on a ebay special I got dirt cheap a while back. The blade is a R. Sutcliffe Sheffield wedge, that had a decent amount of active rust and deep pitting on the blade, and a nice amount of patina on the rest. The scales looked like they were used for BB gun target practice, so I'm building new ones out of a dark exotic wood, can't remember the name. I'm now wishing I would have taken before pics! I like the look of patina so I decided to tape up the tang to preserve it. I then went through progression or grits 60, 80, 100, 220, 400, 600, 800, & I'm planing on taking it up to 2,000 or as far as I think it needs to go. I personaly like the results I have ended up with( left some slight pitting on the blade to tie it in with the tang) but to each his own. I know I havn't seen it before thats for sure. I got the scales grinded down to 1/8" planks and ground them into rough shape. Now I just need to drill the pin holes, separate them & flip them, re-tape them, and give them a rounded finish sanding & some coats of CA glue.Pretty proud of my first attempt. Oh, the scales are inside out, the grain pattern looks ten times better on the sides that will be facing outward on the finished product!(taped together in the pics)Also the grain will match because I cut the piece down the middle, so it will look like the grain runs perfectly through the set of scales!

I have a question though, should my scales be very very close to their finished shape before I do a CA/Gorilla glue finish? Also do I add the glue like one would stain a similarly sized peice of wood? ( rub in with rag, let dry, sand, repeat several times) Do I sand the last coat/finish?
Thanks in advance for any sugestions.












Regards
Louis.