Attaching guards - what method do you prefer?

Lon Aguiar

Lon Aguiar

Joined
May 23, 2007
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96
I’m working on a stick tang knife and I’m going to use a guard made out of aluminum bronze. I have the guard fitted to the blade and I’m planning on using the JB Weld method to attach it. I’m just curious what method you prefer to attach your guards: solder, JB Weld, nothing?

Thanks,
Lon
 
I solder and use JB weld. Mostly JB weld though. I've never had an issue with this method.
 
I'm working on my first stick tang with guard at the moment (guard is copper in this case.) I had planned on using some type of clear epoxy to glue the guard and handle material, and to do this all in one step.

Should the guard instead be glued first before attaching the wood, and will 'regular' epoxy work OK for attaching the copper guard?
 
P J 234 said:
I'm working on my first stick tang with guard at the moment (guard is copper in this case.) I had planned on using some type of clear epoxy to glue the guard and handle material, and to do this all in one step.

Should the guard instead be glued first before attaching the wood, and will 'regular' epoxy work OK for attaching the copper guard?
Click to expand...

Personally, I don't use clear epoxy for this stage, only JB Weld. I also attach the guard first, then the handle material. However, I have the handle material and guard fitted up first to make sure everything is good.

In addition, when I put the guard on, I place a mirror against the back of the guard and look down from the tip to the guard and into the mirror. If the guard is square, the spine and the reflection will be nice and straight in your view. If the guard is not square to the blade, you'll see an angling off from the spine to the reflection. Nice little trick to get guards nice and square that I learned from Tom Kernan.
 
scottickes said:
Personally, I don't use clear epoxy for this stage, only JB Weld. I also attach the guard first, then the handle material. However, I have the handle material and guard fitted up first to make sure everything is good.

In addition, when I put the guard on, I place a mirror against the back of the guard and look down from the tip to the guard and into the mirror. If the guard is square, the spine and the reflection will be nice and straight in your view. If the guard is not square to the blade, you'll see an angling off from the spine to the reflection. Nice little trick to get guards nice and square that I learned from Tom Kernan.
Click to expand...

Thanks Scott, I'll try that mirror trick! I had considered the clear epoxy in this case for two reasons:

-The JB Weld is somewhat 'steel' colored if memory serves.
-The guard I'm making is copper, and being my first the fit is not much to write home about. I thought clear epoxy might fill the gaps in the steel/copper interface and be less noticeable than JB Weld.

Apologies to Lon, I don't mean to sidetrack your post.
 
P J 234 said:
Thanks Scott, I'll try that mirror trick! I had considered the clear epoxy in this case for two reasons:

-The JB Weld is somewhat 'steel' colored if memory serves.
-The guard I'm making is copper, and being my first the fit is not much to write home about. I thought clear epoxy might fill the gaps in the steel/copper interface and be less noticeable than JB Weld.

Apologies to Lon, I don't mean to sidetrack your post.
Click to expand...

Once you have a gap, not much will hide it. The color of the epoxy doesn't matter much, unless both are JB Weld colored. There aren't too many clear colored steels invented yet. :D
 
PJ234, you could mix fine bronze filings in with your epoxy to hide your fit somewhat. The epoxy is supposed to be there mostly for sealing, anyway. Your handle should hold it all together.
 
fitzo and Scott,

Thanks again. I have had a couple of experiences of less-than-perfect fit between exposed tang and handle material on full tangs that clear epoxy seemed to do a splendid job of hiding. It seemed to blend in well by not having it's own color and sort of 'adopting' colors that surrounded it, and I thought that might make it help with my copper guard as well.

What is the purpose of glueing the guard on first by itself, is this so you can make sure the fit is just right before attaching the wood?

Apologies again to Lon for the hijack!
 
Apologies to Lon, I don't mean to sidetrack your post.
Click to expand...

No worries PJ234.

I've got my guard fitted with no gaps so using the JB Weld isn't an issue. Terry Primos had a good tutorial on this method.

If you end up with a few gaps between the blade and the front of the guard you can use the ball end of a ball peen hammer around the egde of the slot on the front of the guard. This will make the slot smaller and you can file it down until the fit is just right.

Lon
 
Thanks Lon, I'll see if I can find that tutorial, I don't believe that was one of the ones I read. I don't know whether or not I have it in me to try again on the guard fit on this one, but thanks for that tip and I'll ponder taking another crack at it.

Paul
 
Unfortunately, it looks like Terry's site is gone.

If you Google "primos solderless guard" it comes up with the tutorial (not 100% complete though) on another knife forum.

Lon
 
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