Building a knife from a finished blade is more traditional than starting out with a piece of steel and a block of wood and creating a knife. Back in the day of guild rules, a blacksmith would not be allowed to do anything but forge the blade. It would then be sent to a grinder, possibly returned to the smith for heat treating, sent to a polisher, then sent to a cutler for assembly. BTW, cutlers were usually considered to be the senior guild.
Steve, as the others have said, you problem lies with the fit and finish. You didn't mention whether or not you were dealing with a stick or full tang, though with the camel bone scales I would suspect the latter, so I don't know how much leeway you had in shaping the handles. The handles do need more rounding, reguardless. Pins to hold the scales or block really add to the structural integrety of the knife. They help protect the handle from popping off after a shearing force is applied to the handle as with a blow or a hard drop. The best way to deal with stray glue is to wipe it away immediately after glueing. WD-40 is great for wiping away stray epoxy. Use Q-tips and paper towel to with it. After it dries you are going to need something like a brass scraper. That said, you actually didn't do all that badly for first knives.
Doug