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When all the pieces had dried thoroughly, I began to reassemble the pieces, beginning with the smallest piece at the bottom of the grip area. Since this is a weak part of the handle, and alignment is critical, I first held the small piece in place and used a cut-off 1 1/4 in brad to drill a hole through it and into the larger piece to which it attached. I then applied glue to the mating surfaces, and used another 1 1/4 in brad as a "steel dowel" to hold it while the glue dried. The brad appears as a small dot in the photo of the glued-up section.
A note about the glue I prefer for this type of work. Breaks of this sort are often uneven, with chips missing, etc., so gap-filling is often necessary. After trying a variety of glue-sawdust mixtures, I found the best results were obtained with a mixture of Weldwood's Plastic Resin Glue and sawdust from my bandsaw. Enough sawdust is mixed with the prepared glue to obtain a soft putty-like consistency. The resulting joint is strong and water resistant, and the color of the dried mixture is dark enough to blend in. Most importantly, it dries very hard and the excess glue can be shaped with files and sandpaper without the gumminess and clogging found with other mixtures. The next joint was the break in the medallion area. After applying the glue sawdust mixture, the pieces were held in place using straps cut from inner tubes. The blade slot was kept open and aligned properly using a wood wedge and a screwdriver.
Finally, the entire handle was glued together. A small wood clamp was used to keep the angled joint at the bottom from slipping out of alignment. The darkened areas are the glue-sawdust mixture.
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