2 ?'s: Bonding brass guards, and multiple firebrick forges?

[Robert_Phelps]

I've finally got a little money to use for learning to put guards on my knives, and have a question about soldering brass guards. I've seen silver (either nick. silver or stainless) guards silver soldered on, but on a brass guard, wouldn't it have some silver solder showing around the slot? If so, how else would you attach a guard?

Also, is there any big difference between using nickel silver or stainless, as far as guards and pins?

Q#2:
My one-brick forge got broken in transport recently, so I'm kind-of forced to get a new forge now.

I've seen some forges built from around 7 firebricks or so, and was wondering where their heating quality was at (Heat treating, not forging). I was thinking instead of the cube shaped ones I've seen, a longer (maybe large enough for a foot of blade length) rectangle shape might work better for me. I've got two JTH7 torches; Would having something resembling a scaled up one-brick forge, but with two JTH7's along it's length, function similar to a serious forge? Can soft firebrick forges be coated on the inside like a metal bodied forge? Any tips on building it?

I'll conform and get a heat treating oven, or a metal bodied forge like most of ya'll when I'm less busy with work, someday.

 

[LRB]

In my opinion, and the way I do guards, you should strive to fit the guard with a minimal gap for the solder, and have good mechanical strength in the fit before soldering. If you will approach the process with the goal of having a fit so close that it will not need solder, sooner or later, it won't. When you reach that goal, all it takes is a little J&B WELD, to lock it down and seal it from water intrusion. One tip that works well, especially with hidden tang types, is to taper the tang beginning about 1/16", to 1/8" above the blade shoulders, which need to be dead flat and true to each other. Use a file guide to get the shoulders to this requirement. Just a slight taper is all it takes. That way the crucial fitting is that last 1/8" before the shoulders.