AEBL

@fredk your "be careful" comment ... you must know my neighbors! I think these people spend their retirement on fireworks. One guy has a show (in the mountains several miles away) that is bigger than the city's show - and the city spends >$10k on it!

wow - talented artist indeed!

I googled "how to download data from WhatsApp" and found a few pages. Here's one https://www.imyfone.com/whatsapp/download-from-whatsapp/. After that, you would have to figure out how you wanted to host the file. It would have to be somewhere that you could hyperlink it like my link above (i.e., on a web server of some sort). Permanent storage will likely incur a per-month cost.

You might get more traction in the "computer help" subtopic. All ways I know of posting involve shrinking things to 800x600 pixels. Hosting files is a different beast, you could try GoogleDrive or something (but then, only people with Google accounts would click on your links).

@dikman, you might try Loctite SF 768 to remove the thread locker - or perhaps acetone.

Thanks, I had seen a couple like that. This one was like that because of a cutting disaster that I was able to sorta recover from. My intent was to have something like that.

In case anyone was interested, I attached some photos. I punched the holes through the back piece before gluing. Once I cut the holes and trimmed the uneven parts, it looked ... bad ... I also messed up a few other things. Gave it to the guy to try out. If he liked it, I told him I'd make him another one that wasn't messed up.

@mbnaegle, those sprayers look a lot like external mix airbrush (like a Badger 350) ... @AlZilla, see if a "bar mister" would work for you. You ordinarily fill it with vermouth to spritz a martini. I'm sure you could use it to spritz dye (wear gloves, obviously, unless you want to match your work). Some of them look like old-fashioned perfume bottle sprayers.

Someone recommended here once that you backstitch with double needle (saddle stitch) if you want it to look great and don't have to do too many of them. I have been doing that with my very low volume hobby (translates as "business that I lose money doing").

@fredk, *some* sorts of stainless steel are magnetic. Types like 304 are nonmagnetic (Austenitic), other kinds are more or less magnetic (Ferritic, Martensitic combinations thereof called "duplex"). Stainless steel is sort of a trick question these days because there are so many boutique varieties of it specializes for various things.

@Dwight - I was also in the Navy, and there's some accidents I saw there that I'd rather forget. Some that I was glad I didn't see was a fella being grabbed by a 5" 54 caliber loading pawl and stuffed into the loading breach. In college, there were all sorts of warnings around the lathe. You had to take a safety class before you were allowed in the building. So, despite all of that, there was a gal who was running the lathe wearing a long pony tail. It was a closed casket funeral. Rotating machinery is terrifying.

Thanks Bruce

@bruce johnson, what's the contact info for the VA guy who might want tools? That's something I could probably help out a tiny bit with.

I'm not sure if you were asking about the original pins or the ones I used. The pins originally looked like they were fat near the outside and skinnier near the inside. The handle I replaced was a plastic casting. If you get a file or a dremel tool, you can easily remove them. Another trick is to use a box cutter blade. Wriggle the tip in between the steel and the scale and give it several good whacks with a hammer (wear safety glasses) the box blade will shear the pin, and isn't hard enough to do (much) damage to the tang. For the replacement - if you have a band saw, cut the scales a little bit thicker than you will want them to end up being (like 1/16 to 1/8 thicker, depending on how you will be finishing it).I cut the scales a bit oversize, then glue one of them on. I drill through the tang and through the scale. Then I glue the other scale on and drill all the way through. For the pins, I got a stainless welding rod and ground it to fit the holes carefully. If you don't have a 2x72 ... that takes forever. I would really recommend German silver instead, SS welding rods are *tough*! Anyhow, handle is shaped up to 220 grit, then the pins are cut so that they go all the way through and stick out slightly on each side (I file them down so that they are cylindrical). Then I peen the pins. I don't beat them mercilessly, but I wind up tapping them pretty solidly about 200 times apiece. This mushrooms out the metal and makes sure that I don't bend the pin over, just carefully tap straight down on your anvil / block of steel / whatever. Once the pins are good and flat to the surface, I get the file out again and flatten the pins flush with the scales and do the fine sanding with a hand sanding block. I don't use my fingers and paper, because that causes the pins to stand out since they're harder than the wood. Even though I glue the scales on, the peened pins are really what holds the scale on. Also, if you use purpleheart - if you spritz the wood with acetone (nail polish remover) and leave it in the sun for a few hours ... it turns a really rich shade of purple. An old guy near me was teaching me how to re-handle things. I can share what little I know if you had more questions. However, the largest source of information on re-handling knives might be a forum like "blade forums" ... scroll down to the "Bladesmith's Q&A" section. Some of the best knife artisans in the world will answer your question, surely much better than I ever could. However, nothing teaches like hands on experience. I'm looking to refinish pocket knives and supply nice leather sheaths for them to local folks. I get to carve leather and file steel, it's the best of both worlds.

If you have a hand plane, sharpen up the blade and try to skim it off. I've planed HDPE slides for tablesaw sleds before ... planes cut it like butter. Oh (edit): If you havent had experience flattening things with a plane, work from left to right or something, you can dish your project pretty easily if you aren't careful. I use a big straightedge to make sure that I'm not dishing things.