I was lucky, the handle came in some light brown color already. The screws though, same luck. But I only allowed one to break before I went to the hardware store and bought some tacks. Brought the side panels with me to make sure the tacks would go through, and the heads wouldn't stick out oddly. The final result was that it ended up looking really nice, rustic, yes, with those metal-colored tacks and their irregular-shaped heads giving it some 14th century flavour, but with a caveat: Don't run your hand naked along the langeletes (sp? - I mean the side panels) because the tack heads, even when super close to said panels, still protrude a bit, and will bite into your skin. So yeah, 100% rustic haha!. Thanks a lot for the video. Got a lot of tips I'll apply in future projects. I didn't go full rustic on the head for example, the mustard idea was great and totally forgot about the linseed oil, and this coming from a guy who's had to use it a gazillion times on rifle stocks - haha! May you have a great day sir!
I left my wood the stock color but I did modify how the langets(long metal side pieces) mount and interact with the head. They are meant to reinforce it all by spreading any force exerted by the head onto more of the handle but on this as deigned they are separate and don’t reinforce each other. I fixed this by placing the langets higher on the handle and under the head. I had to Dremel out langet shaped depressions on each side, place langets in the new spaces, slide head on over the handle and them, and then install all the screws into the langets. Far stronger than stock design.
