Newbie - Guard Help Please

O

Ogeecheehunter

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I have made my second knife. The first one that will someday have a guard. I probably got out of line with my steps, but thats why Im learning. Its a large Knife kinda like a small bowie. I would like to add a brass guard that comes out on the blade side and is open on the back showing the blade running the length of the knife. These are my plans............

1. Do I buy one somewhere to fit and shape? Website?
2. If I were to make one, how? Where to purchase material? Website?
3. Without welding tools, how do I tie it together?

Thanks for listening to a learning rookie.
 
You're fine on the order of your steps. I assume that what you mean is that you want a single quillion guard that shows the back of the full tang on the spine side of the blade. You can purchase a guard blank from some place like Jantz or Sheffield or you could purchase a bar of brass and shape your own with some sort of a grinder and files. Speedy Metals or other on-line sites carry brass in flat brass bars. Besides the knotch in the guard that you slip over the tang there is usually also a shallow knotch make in the edge side of the tang just wide enough for then thickness of the guard. This helps keep the guard properly allined during assembly. To attach the guard you could solder it on or pin it on. When I pin a guard or bolster on I also use a little coat of epoxy as a sealant. If you pin it on you could use a contrasting material, like German silver or stainless steel or a matching piece of brass. You would flair the ends of the holes for the pin stock with the next size of drill bit up from the diameter of the pin stock and pean the ends of the pin over into it with a ball pean hammer. Strike the pin a little more towards the edge to fill in the crack between the the pin stock and guard. If done right with matching brass the pin should all but dissapear once the guard is sanded and polished smooth. If you use mosaic pin, do not flair the ends of the holes or pean the ends of the pins. Also on drilling the holes you have to drill a slightly larger hole than the actual diameter of the pin stock. Most of the pin stock that I have purchased is was accurate to 1/1000" but I did have some that was slighlty undersized so it's a good idea to confirm the size with a dial calliper. I purchased one form Lowe's that had a digital display that gave the measurements in metric and English measures in decimal or regular fractions of an inch for less than $20. Choose a drill that is about 1/1000 larger than the actual diameter of the pin stock. For a pin stock with a true diameter of 1/8" that would be a 3.2mm or a #30 bit and for 1/4" pin stock a 6.4mm or an F size bit will give a good fit. Going 1/64" over will work but it will leave the pin a little loose in the hole. You may need to get carbide bits to drill up at the juction of the tang and the ricasso area if it gets hardened. Carbide Connection carries carbide bits in fractional, number, letter, and metric sizes.

Doug Lester
 
Doug, very well written. and accurate response. Looks like you really got this one covered! I wish I had talked to you B4 I did it the hard way many times!! figuring out the right way! :)

Ogee. Have fun and please post up a pic of the knife when you get r done! :)
 
What can I say-good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from making mistakes. Of course, if it's true that we learn the most from our mistakes, whay am I not a flaming genious by now?:9:

Doug Lester
 
Hi There

I am a newbie too and from your description it seems that you want to do, just what I did with my first one (http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?14706-My-1st-knife-built-from-scratch). As explained by Doug, it is fairly easy. I think the instructions are fairly explanatory, unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show the process.

I used a piece of brass from an old sliding door hasp. The process of making the guard itself was fairly straightforward

1) cut the piece of brass to size (I cut a rectangle and finished the rounded edge afterwards)
2) mark the centerline of the brass
3) measure the tang thickness (X) using vernier caliper
4) divide the tang thickness measurement in two, and mark a line either side of the center line to correspond
5) measure the width (Y) of the tang from front to back using the vernier caliper
6) measure from the rear edge of the brass (the tang width- Y) and mark the end of the slot
7) drill a hole in the tang at the end of the marked rectangle (use a drill bit slightly smaller than the width of the slot - to allow filing to shape
8) put the brass in a vice and using a hacksaw cut a slot open from the rear edge down to the edge of the drilled hole (NB! - cut at least 0.5 - 1mm inside the marked lines to allow you to file the guard mounting slot to the correct thickness for a tight fit.
9) using a small flat file with a blind side (no teeth on one edge) (I used a small flat file and a couple of needle files) file the slot open slowly, and then file the end of the slot square to match the tang edge). Go Slowly and measure regularly with the vernier, until the tang will fit in the slot relatively tightly (side to side and front to back)
10) Once the guard fits nicely - fit it to the tang, clamp it and drill the pin holes (as described by doug)

When you are ready to fit the guard permanently you have a couple of options - either to solder / pin the guard in place, as described by Bob Loveless in his book (I was originally going to do this, however obtaining the low temp solder was difficult and expensive) and as a beginner I didn't want to risk affecting the blade's heat treatment by soldering, so I opted to use JB Weld to "glue" the guard to the tang, with the pins peened into the slightly oversize holes.

When you sand and finish the handle and guard, the peened brass pins are no longer visible, they merge into the brass of the guard.

Hope this helps
Rick


12) when I filed the
 
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