Steve Sells Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 steve sells Tonigt I will cover various bolsters and how to get them to fit and mount One problem with them is they are small and hard to take a photo and see what I am talking about. So on advice from a pro Photographer and IFI admin Glenn Conner I used mock ups to show what I am doing to make it easy to follow and hopefully understand 3 variations I will cover will start with the cross guard commonto many swords and alrge knives, where we pierce the guard and make a rectangulart hole for passing the tang first I get teh guard to rough shape, in thsi case blocky as its ponly to show what I am doing. I mark off where I want the hole this hole is intended to be smaller that what I want the finished hole to be. I drill out a few holes to get the material out of the way then with hanf files or a dremel tool I remove the rest like so now I have a squared hole that is a little to tight for the tang, Now I carefulls open the hole to fit perfectly so it fits like this one that shows a pattern welded cross guard, that I treated as I just showed in the prior photos its a tight fit so it will not wobble when in use. As you make this you will NOT have a perfect parrelly hole, becaue te tang has a slight taper so the hole must also that is another reason I made the hole undersize. IF dont correctly there is no NEED for solder, but I use it anyway to keep out moistire in most cases I have used PW, wroought iron brass, and nickel silver and even lost wax castings to make the guards. it all works about the same way, drill press and hand files to fit. OK moving along., the Bowie has a slotted guard, that slips into place, rather than over the tang, so I mark another one like so drill the hole the saw or file away the remainder and it slides into place as in this blade shows the sloted guard mounted and visabel in the close up solder and/or pins are required to keep these styles in securely in place, I used nickel silver and matching pins to hols this one Rhettbarnhart did you recess the gaurd in the tang? steve sells no that would make a weak spot in the tang I form the slot to fit the tang. Any sharp transition will be a stress riser, where the streess will focus and may cause afailure, IE break later Rhettbarnhart ok and the solder makes the joint invisible...got it steve sells Yes if we do it correctly for the other style I rarely do this photo shows 2 small holes for the the pins doe the full tangt style blades, and a few other exceptions, wher I use 2 pc bolster, and pin then to each side fo the tang Rich Hale i used no lead plumbing solder that melts at 430f steve sells I use no solder actually, technically it is Silver brazing rod Francis Trez Cole like they use in refrigeration repair steve sells Yes, if you take a look back at you will see behind the PW guard that is a 2 pc nickel silver bolster drilled and mounted with solder and pins as I just explained, these 2 together had this look as it does using thin spoacer material between the nickel sivler and the PW guard for contrast I also used silver sheet and black spacer behind it between the walnut as well Rich Hale I will cover a few things I have not in getting the blade readyh for heat treat, Then a bit about guard When I rough filed the ends aroiund the tang I have to make sure they wiil put the guard correctly with the blade I use a suare along th espine and see where the ga pis? I will file that til there is no gap either side of tang On the bottom of the ricass o there is a spot I want to clean up before heat treat Chain saw file Now at the point where the tang meet the ricasso if youi leave a square inside corner it is a likely place for a crack Some woulde call that a stress riser spot I take a little round needle file and take that corneer off,,,I get into the tanf alittle bit so there is not a sharp corner Now up to this point I have used as cheap of equipment and tools as I can find..however let me step away from that for a little bit I use aproduct called lturco..from knife supplly house..comes in qt can. I dip the ready for heat treat blade in it and it coatrs the steel. Makes it a purty color It prevents scale..it withstands the normalizing cycles and the heat treat cycle. When I get the blade hard I wipe it with old rag and alot of the leftover comes off. Then into a preheated oven 400f for about 45 minutes i use ATF for this blade as that is what I used for test piece of this same steel and it made that steel hard I heat the oil to 110f and check that with thermometor I normalize three times then at non magnetic i dip straight into the oil. I will work it straight up and down til I thing it has quenched enough....long tongs help if it flares up This steel does nto air harden, A lot of steels do I drill a 3/16" hole in tang a half inch for th ee3nd These tongs have fairly heavy haws and are fitted to this thickness tang I hold them to block the end ot the tang from getting quenched as much as rest of blade Make sense? Now about that guard I slot my guards with my millling machine However if you do nto have one i took a piece of the same spring steel as the blade and forge a Slitter Then sleaned it up i sized it so it would not cut a hole bigger than the tang The tip is a little rounded and a end kind of like a chesel,,,not alot Then I forge another one real close to the size of the tang both width and thickness I used a piece of mild steel for the guard,,,,3/4" x 1" i marked where I wanted the slot And used the slitter with light taps to make sure it is straight. I did nt heat treat either of these tools The heatr from the steel will take that away anyway So after I marked the spot,,i heated the steel to hot and hit the slitter a coule of good ones Then back into the fire and let the slitter cool,,,oil would n ot hurt it Then again over the hardy hole When it pops out the back side tap the guard off and cool the tool Straightn the guard a bit and reheat Then flie and do same a little from other side This will widen the bar of steel as we are moving metal not removing it ii wanted it a little wider Now heat and flatten the piece out and leave no hammer marks on either side The other Tool I forged I measure and made a little smaller than the tang,,,it is a drift I heat the bar and run the drift in form one side then the other Then I forge the end a little more like I want for guard,,and work the other side of the slot a little also I want to do some of this before I cut to length as it is easy to put ina nd out of forge After heat treat I will Clean the blade up with abrasives alot I want it pretty nice Then I will use small file like Steve did and final fit this guard Then I will finish all metal on the gurad I want to do some of this before I cut to length as it is easy to put ina nd out of forge After heat treat I will Clean the blade up with abrasives alot I want it pretty nice Then I will use small file like Steve did and final fit this guard then I will finish all metal on the gurad When I am happy that the finish on all metal is right I will use some J B weld around the tang instead of solder Some folks to not have tools to solder Make real sure as the jb dries you clean it off as it squeezes out at joint of guard an tag You can cut the end of a popsicles stick into a wedge to do this If you do nto seal this joint guk can enter and cause rust,,barnacles or green slime me thinks Gunk I forged the tools while turco was drying Then forged the tang and put hole in while blade was in tempering oven. A toaster oven I got for two buck some years back,,,it is right on temp with a thermometor if it was slitting and driftin a hammer size could be a little more loose steve sells I drill a small hole at end of tang for hanging to cool after hardening mike-hr I was taught to make slot punch to slightly undersize,,,,,,,,,,, Rich Hale Will 'splain next week,,,,,but one easy answer is I have it on a wire for turco to dry, Mine is Mike , Driift a little closer to tang size Good thought Steve,,if you lay a hot blade onto anything it willl likely warp mike-hr the bottom line is, make a drift that matches the knife tang, to size it Rich Hale Will 'splain next week,,,,,but one easy answer is I have it on a wire for turco to dry, Mine is Mike , Driift a little closer to tang size mike-hr The issue with this kind of class is... You have to work with what technology you have available for your own set-up at hand.. your brain is the best moderator, think outside the box 'till you can get to the means.. we're all living like kings compared to mideval times, and mideval work often surpasses us... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royce unruh Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 when i was at the abs knife show the eastern US one guy that demoed guards said that when he does them he gets a tiny ball peen. I am guessing 4 oz the 24$ ones at lowes and uses the ball side and spreads the steel so it fits super tight on the hidden tang. he used a hammer and a piece of wood with a slot cut in it to pound it on the tang is how tight it was, like so i aint a good drawer in paint but the small circles are the ball peen strikes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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