To my eye, removing the extra parts will leave you with a cleaner & more symmetrical look.
I have three hidden tang blades on my bench & I’m terrified to move forward on them!I agree. It's the first pommel and guard I've attempted!
Looks much better.
Cleanup is a real pain on soldered guards. Did you try a resist on the blade before you soldered it? I use regular graphite pencil and just draw around the guard and maybe a 1/4 inch or so onto the blade and that helps a lot. Mild steel chisels afterwards to clean it off so I don’t scratch the blade.I'm interested to see the soldering on the fronts of the guard. A challenge I had was getting the solder to blend well enough between the guard and the blade. It's a tough spot to sand.
It definitely looks better without the bump on the pommel.
Cleanup is a real pain on soldered guards. Did you try a resist on the blade before you soldered it? I use regular graphite pencil and just draw around the guard and maybe a 1/4 inch or so onto the blade and that helps a lot. Mild steel chisels afterwards to clean it off so I don’t scratch the blade.
I'm interested to see the soldering on the fronts of the guard. A challenge I had was getting the solder to blend well enough between the guard and the blade. It's a tough spot to sand.
It definitely looks better without the bump on the pommel.
One thing I see a LOT of people do when they fit handles up is illustrated in this drawing. If people have a radius leading into the guard, many times the handle material has a radius “feathering out” onto the guard material. That’s the top two drawings. I have noticed that the handle material tends to chip off where I have “break point” labeled on my drawing. The handle material tapers to nothing, so even if it is epoxied together, it damages, wears, and breaks easily. I make mine now like the lower illustration. The handle material stays perpendicular to the metal guard, and is much less likely to break. I think it looks nicer too.
I know you mentioned it was your first. Not saying it’s bad or anything, just thought I would share my experiences with them.Very nice example for my future guard projects. This is my first.