- Joined
- Dec 3, 1999
- Messages
- 9,437
This is a $0.50 shop tip, so you all owe me a nickel. 
A lot of people have asked me about the way I have been crowning the face of my guards lately. Since I'm such a hell of a nice guy, I decided to share how I do it.
Of course there are probably 500 ways to do this, but this is 1 of them, and it works... for me.
Here's my starting point. A damascus fighter that has been taken to the point that the 416 guard stock has been fit up. The yellow paper pattern is what I drew up before I started anything. You can see the crown to the guard face in the pattern.
I start with it fit up nice and tight... just like I try to do with any other guard that leaves my shop.
Drive the guard back off. *side-note, we do not support pencil neck tangs in this shop*
Once taken off, the guard stock is painted with Dykem and some lay-out lines are started with the granite surface plate and height gauge.
Here's a close-up showing the marks I just made with the height gauge. The front one is a little lower than the back one. AFAIK, there is no mathematical formula to determine where these marks should go. I use the, "I want them here," method.
Drive the guard back on, then put the knife in the vise.
I use a brass scribe and mini-square to mark the width of the ricasso across the guard face.
Then I use a tungsten scribe to mark the outer edges (this area will be ground away later on, so deep scribe marks are fine).
Close-up of what we get with the previous step. The brass lines are almost invisible in the photo, but you can see them fine in hand.
Now we play connect the dots... (or tick marks) I have been using this high tech material to make simple patterns for about 3 months. What is it called again? Um.... Oh yea, now I remember. Milk jug plastic. 
It works GREAT. You can scribe it, cut it with scissors or an Xacto knife, it conforms to curves, and it's thick enough to support scribing a line.... and it's pretty cheap. 
A lot of people have asked me about the way I have been crowning the face of my guards lately. Since I'm such a hell of a nice guy, I decided to share how I do it.
Of course there are probably 500 ways to do this, but this is 1 of them, and it works... for me.
Here's my starting point. A damascus fighter that has been taken to the point that the 416 guard stock has been fit up. The yellow paper pattern is what I drew up before I started anything. You can see the crown to the guard face in the pattern.
I start with it fit up nice and tight... just like I try to do with any other guard that leaves my shop.
Drive the guard back off. *side-note, we do not support pencil neck tangs in this shop*
Once taken off, the guard stock is painted with Dykem and some lay-out lines are started with the granite surface plate and height gauge.
Here's a close-up showing the marks I just made with the height gauge. The front one is a little lower than the back one. AFAIK, there is no mathematical formula to determine where these marks should go. I use the, "I want them here," method.
Drive the guard back on, then put the knife in the vise.
I use a brass scribe and mini-square to mark the width of the ricasso across the guard face.
Then I use a tungsten scribe to mark the outer edges (this area will be ground away later on, so deep scribe marks are fine).
Close-up of what we get with the previous step. The brass lines are almost invisible in the photo, but you can see them fine in hand.
Now we play connect the dots... (or tick marks)
I have been using this high tech material to make simple patterns for about 3 months. What is it called again? Um.... Oh yea, now I remember. Milk jug plastic. It works GREAT. You can scribe it, cut it with scissors or an Xacto knife, it conforms to curves, and it's thick enough to support scribing a line.... and it's pretty cheap.
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