U.S.M.C. Hospital Corpsman Knife A.K.A. "Bolo"

Last weekend I was painting a ammo can to house buckshots and I figured while the paint was drying I'd tackle this project. It was given to me with handle scales broken and the blade already messed with so I can't make the situation worse. So I sand blasted the rust off and gave the piece a nice even canvas. The pins holding one and a half scales were made of iron/steel. Not brass like I seen on youtube and ebay. Mine is just marked USMC Chantillion, NY. Not Village Blacksmith. So this got me wondering which ones were older?

I figure mine was more fast and dirty. Get it done. Since they just used four pins to hold the scales in place. Also the bit under the handle is thinner from the rest of the blade not like the resto on youtube that was pretty even through out. Good enough for government work?

So I'll be hand sanding the blade and even out the spine. Not sure if it left the shop uneven? I'll flatten that out but I'll leave the chipped bits in. The chipped blade edge I'll address. Side of the blades I'll just sand down enough to get rid of the sand blasted finish. I'll use some blue in the bottle to pretty the blade.

Now the handle. I'm thinking of building it up with epoxy to level out the taper a bit. I wonder if I can find black epoxy locally? I got olive wood I think would make nice handle scales. Don't know if I'll go square like it left the shop or more rounded machete handle scales of today? Maybe hexagon like the Japanese knives? I do like the hidden lanyard hole one of the resto dude did on his project but hate what he did to the blade. Then again the thing does have the fourth pin hole that's way out there that would be better served as the lanyard hole. I guess I'll get sanding.