how to make a bolster?

Hey guys

I want to try putting a bolster on a knife, whats a simple efficient way to do it?
I plan to use something like micarta or G10 for the bolster

Does it have to ground at an angle at the tang side? Just glue it to scales? Use spacer (between them or betweencthem and tang)?

Any tips would be appreciated

Thanks

Here is my "bolster" method. I don't think it's a true bolster, more of a multi-material scale, but it does give a similar look. I've done this with both wood, synthetic, and combinations of the two materials.

This is a knife that is currently in-progress:

First, I cut out the materials I want. In this case desert ironwood and cocobolo burl with black & white G10 liner/divider. The materials are oddly shaped because I want the juncture of the two to be at an angle and it's much easier to fabricate the scales this way.



After flattening all pieces and fitting the ironwood and cocobolo mating surfaces, I rough all surfaces with 60 grit paper and clean with acetone and alcohol.



Epoxied and clamped to a piece of granite to maintain flatness.



After drying overnight, I flatten the scales again and drill holes using the tang of the knife as a template.



Rough cut on the bandsaw.



Shape and finish the front of the scales to 1200 grit with danish oil.



Dry pin the scales to the tang and grind flush.



Same 1200 grit/danish oil finish.



Prepped for epoxy with carbon fiber pins.



I haven't finished the above knife yet, but here is are some finished examples using the same method.

Thanks a lot Shawn

Thats exactly what i had in mind

I am definitely tring this! (i like the idea of doing it at an angle too!)

That oughta be in the WIP forum

Btw how do you remove them off the grinite without damage? (i am guessing some epoxy gets between handle material and grinite, or just cleaning the exccess epoxy after set up would do?)

Awesome work!

Thanks again!

SHOKR said:

Btw how do you remove them off the grinite without damage? (i am guessing some epoxy gets between handle material and grinite, or just cleaning the exccess epoxy after set up would do?)

Click to expand...

The granite I use has a very smooth surface and the epoxy doesn't adhere to it well. I can usually twist the scales by hand to pop them off. If they're really stuck I use a chisel or standard screw driver against the liner and gently tap with a hammer.

If you don't have a smooth surface or you like to go crazy with the epoxy you can cover the surface with plastic wrap from your kitchen.

Thats a cool style. I like it. For the other style bolster I have used Maxcutters WIP. I tried to link to it but it didnt come through. It's in the new WIP list.

Thanks for the tip and WIP Shawn!

Here is the maxcutter link: http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?9930-Full-tang-bolster-assembly

thanks for sharing Mike

thank,s guy,s good info

Here's my example knife finished up:

SHOKR said:

Hey guys

I want to try putting a bolster on a knife, whats a simple efficient way to do it?
I plan to use something like micarta or G10 for the bolster

Does it have to ground at an angle at the tang side? Just glue it to scales? Use spacer (between them or betweencthem and tang)?

Any tips would be appreciated

Thanks

Click to expand...

There's really no "set in stone" method on doing bolsters. You can use just about any material, angle them any way you want, dovetail or no dovetale, spacer or no spacer, pin or no pin....

That being said, I do typically pin my bolsters if I can, just because there's always that potential for a small piece like that to break loose if the knife is banged or dropped, or if the epoxy fails for some other reason. At the very least I drill "through holes" in the tang at the bolster so that the expoxy can form a mechanical bond between bolsters. If I do pin them, I use a tapered reamer on the holes and peen the pins (or I use corby rivets).

Just a little tip: when mating the bolster material with a handle scale, if you sand your bolster (seam side) tang side down, and your handle (seam side) tang side up, they will match perfectly every time, assuming your work rest and flat platen is flat. For instance, if your flat platen is 1/2 a degree out of square with your work table, and you try to flatten the mating ends of your scale and bolster with the tang sides both up or down, you'll have a 1 degree gap at the seam. If you flip one piece over, they'll match. Hopefully that makes sense. Simple geometry really.

That makes perfect sense Andrew

Thanks for all the info!

SHOKR said:

That makes perfect sense Andrew

Thanks for all the info!

Click to expand...

Awesome. I did just notice that I accidentally said "tang side down" twice when talking about mating the bolster with the scale. It should have read as it does now: one up, one down.

My bad.

I have been googling this for 2 days. Should have known there would be something here. Any issues with mixing micarta and wood I should be aware of?

Do it all the time. None I can think of.

Great info here, I was just wondering about this myself.

Tony Manifold said:

I have been googling this for 2 days. Should have known there would be something here. Any issues with mixing micarta and wood I should be aware of?

Click to expand...

Just be aware that some materials are softer/harder than others. If you use a contact wheel to shape them, for instance, you may remove one material at a faster rate than the other. When that happens I'll often switch to a hard sanding block to ensure uniformity.