Fredeen Blades

hey i got one last question before i finish my knife. I can't seem to get a nice finish on my handle wood. Its macassar ebony finished to a 320 grit  i'm trying tung oil finished with wax paste but i can't seem to get the luster i'm looking for, any suggestions?

also what are the dimension of your handles? I finished this one to about 5.25" long by 1" wide by 0.75 thick. I've had some people tell me its too small and others say it good. Its my personal knife and i think its fits ok but i've never used a nice knife with a real good handle.

As far as the finish goes you might be running into trouble with the tung oil. Ebony is a pretty dense wood and generally does not want to soak in the tung oil very well, meaning that it will sit and "gum" up the surface rather than penetrate deeply. I would try removing the tung oil (you can try some acetone and a light sanding) and then sand to a higher grit (500 maybe). After this you should be able to take the handle to a buffer and lightly buff it. I use scratchless pink buffing compound (it doesn't leave any residue on the handle), but you can probably get by with either a plain wheel or one that is very very lightly loaded with some fine compound. This will shine up handles quite nicely. You can try to treat it with something like linseed oil, but its not going to be glossy in finish. You can use mineral oil as a maintenance treatment to prevent the wood from drying out and cracking. Wax paste should be more than enough of a finish, or just go with the natural wood.

Handle dimensions will depend on the size and type of knife. I can't really do much with your dimensions without seeing the knife itself. You'll want a handle that visually looks proportional to the blade (in other words you don't want a handle that is too long for the blade, or a blade that is too long for the handle). You'll also want the dimensions of the handle (width and thickness) to also match the proportions of the blade (you don't want a handle that is super wide and fat with a thin and sleek blade, or a thin handle on a big fat blade). If the proportions are correct, the next things is that it is important to make a handle which is comfortable. There's not a whole lot more I can explain about this in writen word as a lot of it is all visual and by feel. If the handle looks right and feels right, it is. If something seems off, it probably is. And there will be differing opinions on this as well. There are some folks that love big bulky handles, some that like thin sleek handles. Some like boxy handles, some like curved and flowing handles, etc.   

hey so i figured it out, i wet sanded with tung oil and 600 grit paper, this seem to pull the colours out of the wood real nice. then i buff by hand to get a nice luster i want, i repeat it till i get the colours to show the way i want.

thanks for your help even if i figured this out, ill post a pic a soon as i finish the handle then you can tell me if you think the handle fits the blade.