1999
Looking through some stuff on the Hard drive.
Anybody remember the TIP OF THE DAY threads from back then?
FORMING LEATHER
TJ SMITH
Try using acetone instead of water when forming or folding leather.You don't get cracks and it
doesn't rust the knife.Put a layer of wax paper between the leather and the knife to protect the
finish
AT BARR
When I am completely through with a folder, I clean all threads of the pivot with a degreaser or
acetone before using loc-tite on
the pivot screw.
Matt Harildstad
This is a tip to improve the fit of handle slabs to full tang blades.
They are easier to fit with no gap if you either hollow grind the tang or the backside of the handle
material. That way only a band around the periphery of the handle material will be in direct
contact with the tang. Even though I hollow grind the tang before tapering, most of that is gone
by the time the taper is ground. In that case, the backside of the handle slab can be hollow
ground.
I've countersunk holes, I've scraped high spots, I've gone back to the grinder to take humps off
the tang, and before Brian Lyttle turned me on to this trick, I never thought to just eliminate the
high spots in the first place.
On some designs I do the hollowing on the belt grinder, and in others I just use a burr in my
flex-shaft machine. This improves the glue bond by providing a little more room for the epoxy,
and roughs up the inside of the handle material nicely.
CASE HARDENING COLORIZING:
Fox Creek:
well, this is a traditional method to carburize the surface a few thousandths deep, but as a side
effect you can get the rainbow coloration that is so prized on antique and replica guns. Pack
polished and clean steel in a iron box with charcoal(supplies carbon), charred leather(supplies
phosphorous), and some limestone gravel. bolt top on tightly, heat to red, and hold there for
several hours. Quench from red heat to harden carburized surface. that's it in a nutshell. In
practice I think it is a lot harder to get the effect. gunsmiths do this mostly. The surface coloration
is not durable, but must be protected with lacquer for longest life. Also, in the 19th century when
a lot of iron and non-hardenable mild steel was used for firearms(rendering questions of
tempering moot)steel parts were "heat blued" by simply baking at a low temperature until the
surface oxidizes blue, just as if you were tempering to a blue color. This is supposed to be a
bright peacock blue obtainable no other way. I've seen photos of old gins, etc. treated like this,
and it is a beautiful color. But again it is not too durable, just a surface effect. "Hot salt" bluing or
"rust" bluing is much more durable and actually gives some protection to the surface from
corrosion.
Darrell Ralph
For The cased look bring the oven to about 1450 for . Pack the parts in BONE charcoal
Put them in the oven for two hours
The dump the whole mess in aggitated water.
An little air pump will do fine. Make sure there is enough water to make the parts cold by the
time they hit the bottom. Add some burn leather also if you wish.
The other way to get blue blue us nitter salts ... Brownells has them This provides a REAL BLUE
BLUE...
CUTTING DISCS:
T Haslinger
Learned something the other day, might not be new so.
I used to cut sandpaper for my lap disks out with sissors, but a fellow knifemaker (Brian Lyttle)
showed me a easier trick.
You have probably used some af the dividers they use in sheetmetal work before, and they are
made out of good quality steel. I just went heat treated one side, sharpened it and it works like a
charm cutting out circles of sandpaper in any size.
OAK PALLETS
Fox Creek
LOTS of pallets are made of Oak. Green and nasty when new, but after a few years use, very well
cured and hard as a rock. Oak is one of my favorite woods for handles. try muriatic acid and heat
to stain(jet black) steel wool it back with coarse steel wool and paste wax. Not too smooth, major
gnarly for buckskinners.
CUTTING LINER LOCKS WITHOUT A MILL:
Tom Mayo
the cleanest way to do it is put it in a compound vise/put your foredom tool in some kind of
fixture so it doesnt move..you could clamp it to your drill press quill.....and slowly feed the cutoff
wheel into the ti... ti is tough stuff...and if your cutting tool and your liner are not firmly clamped
down, like you said...it will be a mess....maybe you could go over to someones and con them into
doing it on their mill....i will volunteer...haha....make sure to leave the lock just a smiggen long
so you can cut it back to fit the angle on your blade...and the compound angle part sounds like a
BAD idea to me.
AT BARR
Toms right, that compound angle would be a bear to fit to the tang. I first use my
band saw to cut the portion that will become the lock. I cut it about .020 longer than
needed, so I can file to fit. I then use a foredom (Wear Eye Protection!!!) and a cutoff wheel, to
cut about 1/3 of the slot. With my band saw turned *OFF*, I put the liner in and cut the rest of
the slot. I'm not sure how to explain that, but it does work.
Courduroy
I have used two techniques to cut out the locking bar from the liner.
The first technique is to drill a hole at the point where the locking face (front of the bar) meets
the cut that defines the side of the bar. This allows me to use a very narrow band saw blade to
make first the cut across the locking face, then turn 90-degrees in the hole, and make the cut
straight down the liner. This could also be done with a jeweler's saw.
The second technique, which I now prefer, is to make the short cut across the locking face with a
bandsaw (or any other saw, so long as the cut is straight). Then I take the liner and place it
horizontally in a vise that can slide smoothly along my drill press table (for poor man's freehand
miling). I chuck a Dremel cutoff wheel in the drill press, lower it to the correct depth, and lock
the stop. By running the drill press and sliding the liner (in the vise) against the cutoff wheel, I
can make a perfectly straight, burrless cut which meets the other cut at 90 degrees. It usually
takes 10-15 minutes and several cutoff wheels, but the result are very nice.
This trick of using a cutoff wheel in the drill press and a sliding vise is also a good way to make
evenly spaced, parallel grooves in a variety of materials.
Barry Jones
Scooter,
I cut the slot in the liner using a slitting saw. The saw blade is held using a saw arbor
in my drill press. I drilled and filed a slot
into a piece of 1/2" thick steel. I place this steel plate into a cheap cross slide vise that i got from
a woodworkers supply catalog (i think it cost 50 bucks). The vise is bolted down onto my drill
press table. I
then clamp my liner onto the steel plate and line it up making sure that the saw cuts in the right
spot. Run your drill press at the lowest speed and slowly feed the saw into the liner. Make sure
that you use plenty of cutting fluid (i use COOL TOOL II). I don't have a milling machine either
so i had to improvise.
BTW, you can buy the slitting saw and the arbor from Sheffield's Knifemakers Supply.
C J
I use a foredom tool which is just a dremmel on steriods! I use dremmel cut off wheels #409 if I
remember right. I drill a hole to where the liner is split and a hole to where the end of the
liner/split ends up. I hand cut the first cut to the first drill hole. Trying to keep it as square as
possible. This is what meets the back of the blade. I have also used my drill press. I have a vise
mounted on the table and can clamp the liner in there and just move the vise with the hand cranks
to make a perfect straight cut. If you use alot of tapping fluid you can cut a full liner with 1 cutoff
wheel. If you don't you can go thru 4 or 5 pretty easy.
After the first cut I change to cutting length wise and cut about 1 inch worth and then go to the
bandsaw and finish up the split with it.
Just a few notes on liner locks. The angle of the back of the blade should be around 7 1/2
degrees. Liner cut flat. Also don't forget where the detent ball for the liner lock goes. It needs to
remain on the blade when opened and closed. Hope this helps!
PEARL:
Darrell Ralph
A couple of things to look for when picking pearl.
Check the sides of the slabs for carcks and to see if the color goes all the way through the slab.
Hole it up to a light to see if there are light spots.. also..
Just a few tips
. Please add more ... Im sure we could all use it..
:]
CJ
I have only bought 1 set of scales but learned a very important lesson. When I got home and took
the tape off the back of them, one of the two slabs cracked in half. I was gentle, just a flaw I
didn't see. I will "NEVER EVER" buy a set of slabs without first removeing the tape prior to my
purchase. All was not lost though, the knife I was making just got longer bolsters!
I wish I would have talked to you earlier Darrel!
SLOTTING GUARDS:
Roy Knives
When you have to drill holes in a row such as drilling a hole in a guard, I scribe the center line
and then use a coal chisel to make a groove down the scribe line. So when I drill holes next to
each other, the drill bit has a place to go and all the holes are perfectly straight!
Rene
Work Rests:
Darrell Ralph
I have a burr kind grinder that I bought a few years back (wish I have 10 of um)
It has a aluminum work rest on it., I changed up and bout a metal one from koval.
Then I bought a 3.5 in wide x 18 in bar of P ground low carbon from msc.
I drill and tapped it and afixed it to the work rest. I love it for laying the whole knife on and
finish grinding without it falling off the edge..
C L WILKINS
I understand that some folks that hollow grind are quite fond of their organic tool rest....their
hands tend to rest about an inch or so above the belt line.
On a serious note, not so much as a tip for a tool rest but when I flat grind I leave the spine of the
blade straight and profile it once I finish grinding the blade. This allows a for a straight grind
line.
TIP ON FINAL INSPECTION:
A T Barr
I use fluorescent lights throughout my shop. But when I get down to the final finish I
use an incandescent light (light bulb). The florescent lights hide a lot of sins. The
incandescent shows all.
George Tichbourne
I agree with you about the fluorescent lights. You show up at a show with blades that looked
great in the shop and they look like you dragged them to the show behind the truck.
I went to mercury vapour for an even more unforgiving light source for inspection.
Dr. Lathe
The Mercury vapor lights do make everything show up. I've finished knives in my shop and they
looked fine, then brought them to work to show off..... Under the mercury vapor lamps at work
they look like hell!! The light fixtures at work are about 3' tall. I've never seen a merc vapor lamp
small enough to hang from an 8' ceiling. So one for my shop is out of the question.
Neil
C L Wilkins
This is a tip more valuable than one would think. I have been bitten by this same thing in the past
and had attributed it to my eye sight failing. I also use incandescent lighting set up real close to
my grinder so I can see better while I grind. I had tried a quartz light at one time but it just wasn't
the same.
SMALL WHEEL:
T J Smith
Take a 6 inch piece of wood dowel. Cut a 2 inch slot with a scroll saw or similar thin blade.Cut 2
pieces of wet or dry sandpaper place them back to back then place in slot chuch it up in your drill
press and sand or grind your finger cut outs.Use 1\2, 3\8, or 1\4 inch dowels
LINER ASSEMBLY:
George Tichbourne
I usually use multiple layers of linerboard when assembling knives with liners and I have found
that by pre laminating the three colours together with epoxy makes the final knife assembly
easier.
I take three sheets of linerboard spread epoxy on both sides of the center board, place the
resulting sandwich between two layers of polyethylene sheeting and weight them down until the
epoxy cures.
After curing the composite sandwich can be handled as one piece. this makes final assembly less
messy than trying to assemble three liner pieces and a handle scale.
MOKUME:
Harry Jensen
The best advice I ever got was KEEP THE SHEETS SURGICALLY CLEAN! Wipe with
acetone & wear gloves while stacking.
Once in the press plates & heating, watch for "sweat" to begin forming on the edges, pull from
the heat, and give it a couple "light" raps of the hammer to insure a solid weld.
(Thanks to one Randal Graham!)
Achim
The correct japanese expression is mokumé gané, which means wood pattern, for obvious reason.
David, the "e" in both words is not silent.
To make it even more difficult, the japanese have several different etching solutions and for
every colour etching effect there is a different word.
They also use compositions from metals for single layers in mokumé gané which are completely
unknown in the west. For example shakudo is a metal made from 95 % copper and 5 % gold. It
looks like shiney copper but doesn't get green but black when oxydizing.
Darrell Ralph
The easiest way I have found to make it is
Make a furnace press Two peices of steel say 1/2 in thick with holes in ines all the way around
the fixture. Then fill is withcopper and nickel, or whatever you want as you contrasting material.
Heat in a reductucing forge atmosphere untill the sides of the metal look like the starting to
bubble(this is a very small change.. The put the whole fixture under the press or in a strong vise
and squeeze.. Then remove and forge to flat and pattern like damascus. Anneal at bright orange
color quench in water..
SHOULDER JIG
Barry Jones
Have you ever made a stick-tang knife and had trouble with the guard not fitting flush against the
shoulders? Maybe you are just having trouble getting the shoulders squared off. I took 2 pieces of
D2 steel (1/4"x2"x6")
and drilled 4 holes in each one. 2 holes are for precision ground pins. They keep the pieces lined
up. The pins are press-fit into one piece only with the other piece having clearance holes (not too
oversize). The other
holes are for screws to hold the whole thing together. You will need to space the holes far enough
apart so that you can slide a blade in between. Once you get the pieces made you should harden
the D2 to full hardness (no drawback). After hardening, assemble the parts and surface grind the
edges. The jig is now complete.
To use the jig, simply loosen the screws and slide your blade into it. Line up the blade to where
you want the shoulders and tighten the screws. Once this is done you file the shoulder area down
to the jig. You should have square shoulders to fit the guard up against.
Looking through some stuff on the Hard drive.
Anybody remember the TIP OF THE DAY threads from back then?
FORMING LEATHER
TJ SMITH
Try using acetone instead of water when forming or folding leather.You don't get cracks and it
doesn't rust the knife.Put a layer of wax paper between the leather and the knife to protect the
finish
AT BARR
When I am completely through with a folder, I clean all threads of the pivot with a degreaser or
acetone before using loc-tite on
the pivot screw.
Matt Harildstad
This is a tip to improve the fit of handle slabs to full tang blades.
They are easier to fit with no gap if you either hollow grind the tang or the backside of the handle
material. That way only a band around the periphery of the handle material will be in direct
contact with the tang. Even though I hollow grind the tang before tapering, most of that is gone
by the time the taper is ground. In that case, the backside of the handle slab can be hollow
ground.
I've countersunk holes, I've scraped high spots, I've gone back to the grinder to take humps off
the tang, and before Brian Lyttle turned me on to this trick, I never thought to just eliminate the
high spots in the first place.
On some designs I do the hollowing on the belt grinder, and in others I just use a burr in my
flex-shaft machine. This improves the glue bond by providing a little more room for the epoxy,
and roughs up the inside of the handle material nicely.
CASE HARDENING COLORIZING:
Fox Creek:
well, this is a traditional method to carburize the surface a few thousandths deep, but as a side
effect you can get the rainbow coloration that is so prized on antique and replica guns. Pack
polished and clean steel in a iron box with charcoal(supplies carbon), charred leather(supplies
phosphorous), and some limestone gravel. bolt top on tightly, heat to red, and hold there for
several hours. Quench from red heat to harden carburized surface. that's it in a nutshell. In
practice I think it is a lot harder to get the effect. gunsmiths do this mostly. The surface coloration
is not durable, but must be protected with lacquer for longest life. Also, in the 19th century when
a lot of iron and non-hardenable mild steel was used for firearms(rendering questions of
tempering moot)steel parts were "heat blued" by simply baking at a low temperature until the
surface oxidizes blue, just as if you were tempering to a blue color. This is supposed to be a
bright peacock blue obtainable no other way. I've seen photos of old gins, etc. treated like this,
and it is a beautiful color. But again it is not too durable, just a surface effect. "Hot salt" bluing or
"rust" bluing is much more durable and actually gives some protection to the surface from
corrosion.
Darrell Ralph
For The cased look bring the oven to about 1450 for . Pack the parts in BONE charcoal
Put them in the oven for two hours
The dump the whole mess in aggitated water.
An little air pump will do fine. Make sure there is enough water to make the parts cold by the
time they hit the bottom. Add some burn leather also if you wish.
The other way to get blue blue us nitter salts ... Brownells has them This provides a REAL BLUE
BLUE...
CUTTING DISCS:
T Haslinger
Learned something the other day, might not be new so.
I used to cut sandpaper for my lap disks out with sissors, but a fellow knifemaker (Brian Lyttle)
showed me a easier trick.
You have probably used some af the dividers they use in sheetmetal work before, and they are
made out of good quality steel. I just went heat treated one side, sharpened it and it works like a
charm cutting out circles of sandpaper in any size.
OAK PALLETS
Fox Creek
LOTS of pallets are made of Oak. Green and nasty when new, but after a few years use, very well
cured and hard as a rock. Oak is one of my favorite woods for handles. try muriatic acid and heat
to stain(jet black) steel wool it back with coarse steel wool and paste wax. Not too smooth, major
gnarly for buckskinners.
CUTTING LINER LOCKS WITHOUT A MILL:
Tom Mayo
the cleanest way to do it is put it in a compound vise/put your foredom tool in some kind of
fixture so it doesnt move..you could clamp it to your drill press quill.....and slowly feed the cutoff
wheel into the ti... ti is tough stuff...and if your cutting tool and your liner are not firmly clamped
down, like you said...it will be a mess....maybe you could go over to someones and con them into
doing it on their mill....i will volunteer...haha....make sure to leave the lock just a smiggen long
so you can cut it back to fit the angle on your blade...and the compound angle part sounds like a
BAD idea to me.
AT BARR
Toms right, that compound angle would be a bear to fit to the tang. I first use my
band saw to cut the portion that will become the lock. I cut it about .020 longer than
needed, so I can file to fit. I then use a foredom (Wear Eye Protection!!!) and a cutoff wheel, to
cut about 1/3 of the slot. With my band saw turned *OFF*, I put the liner in and cut the rest of
the slot. I'm not sure how to explain that, but it does work.
Courduroy
I have used two techniques to cut out the locking bar from the liner.
The first technique is to drill a hole at the point where the locking face (front of the bar) meets
the cut that defines the side of the bar. This allows me to use a very narrow band saw blade to
make first the cut across the locking face, then turn 90-degrees in the hole, and make the cut
straight down the liner. This could also be done with a jeweler's saw.
The second technique, which I now prefer, is to make the short cut across the locking face with a
bandsaw (or any other saw, so long as the cut is straight). Then I take the liner and place it
horizontally in a vise that can slide smoothly along my drill press table (for poor man's freehand
miling). I chuck a Dremel cutoff wheel in the drill press, lower it to the correct depth, and lock
the stop. By running the drill press and sliding the liner (in the vise) against the cutoff wheel, I
can make a perfectly straight, burrless cut which meets the other cut at 90 degrees. It usually
takes 10-15 minutes and several cutoff wheels, but the result are very nice.
This trick of using a cutoff wheel in the drill press and a sliding vise is also a good way to make
evenly spaced, parallel grooves in a variety of materials.
Barry Jones
Scooter,
I cut the slot in the liner using a slitting saw. The saw blade is held using a saw arbor
in my drill press. I drilled and filed a slot
into a piece of 1/2" thick steel. I place this steel plate into a cheap cross slide vise that i got from
a woodworkers supply catalog (i think it cost 50 bucks). The vise is bolted down onto my drill
press table. I
then clamp my liner onto the steel plate and line it up making sure that the saw cuts in the right
spot. Run your drill press at the lowest speed and slowly feed the saw into the liner. Make sure
that you use plenty of cutting fluid (i use COOL TOOL II). I don't have a milling machine either
so i had to improvise.
BTW, you can buy the slitting saw and the arbor from Sheffield's Knifemakers Supply.
C J
I use a foredom tool which is just a dremmel on steriods! I use dremmel cut off wheels #409 if I
remember right. I drill a hole to where the liner is split and a hole to where the end of the
liner/split ends up. I hand cut the first cut to the first drill hole. Trying to keep it as square as
possible. This is what meets the back of the blade. I have also used my drill press. I have a vise
mounted on the table and can clamp the liner in there and just move the vise with the hand cranks
to make a perfect straight cut. If you use alot of tapping fluid you can cut a full liner with 1 cutoff
wheel. If you don't you can go thru 4 or 5 pretty easy.
After the first cut I change to cutting length wise and cut about 1 inch worth and then go to the
bandsaw and finish up the split with it.
Just a few notes on liner locks. The angle of the back of the blade should be around 7 1/2
degrees. Liner cut flat. Also don't forget where the detent ball for the liner lock goes. It needs to
remain on the blade when opened and closed. Hope this helps!
PEARL:
Darrell Ralph
A couple of things to look for when picking pearl.
Check the sides of the slabs for carcks and to see if the color goes all the way through the slab.
Hole it up to a light to see if there are light spots.. also..
Just a few tips
. Please add more ... Im sure we could all use it..
:]
CJ
I have only bought 1 set of scales but learned a very important lesson. When I got home and took
the tape off the back of them, one of the two slabs cracked in half. I was gentle, just a flaw I
didn't see. I will "NEVER EVER" buy a set of slabs without first removeing the tape prior to my
purchase. All was not lost though, the knife I was making just got longer bolsters!
I wish I would have talked to you earlier Darrel!
SLOTTING GUARDS:
Roy Knives
When you have to drill holes in a row such as drilling a hole in a guard, I scribe the center line
and then use a coal chisel to make a groove down the scribe line. So when I drill holes next to
each other, the drill bit has a place to go and all the holes are perfectly straight!
Rene
Work Rests:
Darrell Ralph
I have a burr kind grinder that I bought a few years back (wish I have 10 of um)
It has a aluminum work rest on it., I changed up and bout a metal one from koval.
Then I bought a 3.5 in wide x 18 in bar of P ground low carbon from msc.
I drill and tapped it and afixed it to the work rest. I love it for laying the whole knife on and
finish grinding without it falling off the edge..
C L WILKINS
I understand that some folks that hollow grind are quite fond of their organic tool rest....their
hands tend to rest about an inch or so above the belt line.
On a serious note, not so much as a tip for a tool rest but when I flat grind I leave the spine of the
blade straight and profile it once I finish grinding the blade. This allows a for a straight grind
line.
TIP ON FINAL INSPECTION:
A T Barr
I use fluorescent lights throughout my shop. But when I get down to the final finish I
use an incandescent light (light bulb). The florescent lights hide a lot of sins. The
incandescent shows all.
George Tichbourne
I agree with you about the fluorescent lights. You show up at a show with blades that looked
great in the shop and they look like you dragged them to the show behind the truck.
I went to mercury vapour for an even more unforgiving light source for inspection.
Dr. Lathe
The Mercury vapor lights do make everything show up. I've finished knives in my shop and they
looked fine, then brought them to work to show off..... Under the mercury vapor lamps at work
they look like hell!! The light fixtures at work are about 3' tall. I've never seen a merc vapor lamp
small enough to hang from an 8' ceiling. So one for my shop is out of the question.
Neil
C L Wilkins
This is a tip more valuable than one would think. I have been bitten by this same thing in the past
and had attributed it to my eye sight failing. I also use incandescent lighting set up real close to
my grinder so I can see better while I grind. I had tried a quartz light at one time but it just wasn't
the same.
SMALL WHEEL:
T J Smith
Take a 6 inch piece of wood dowel. Cut a 2 inch slot with a scroll saw or similar thin blade.Cut 2
pieces of wet or dry sandpaper place them back to back then place in slot chuch it up in your drill
press and sand or grind your finger cut outs.Use 1\2, 3\8, or 1\4 inch dowels
LINER ASSEMBLY:
George Tichbourne
I usually use multiple layers of linerboard when assembling knives with liners and I have found
that by pre laminating the three colours together with epoxy makes the final knife assembly
easier.
I take three sheets of linerboard spread epoxy on both sides of the center board, place the
resulting sandwich between two layers of polyethylene sheeting and weight them down until the
epoxy cures.
After curing the composite sandwich can be handled as one piece. this makes final assembly less
messy than trying to assemble three liner pieces and a handle scale.
MOKUME:
Harry Jensen
The best advice I ever got was KEEP THE SHEETS SURGICALLY CLEAN! Wipe with
acetone & wear gloves while stacking.
Once in the press plates & heating, watch for "sweat" to begin forming on the edges, pull from
the heat, and give it a couple "light" raps of the hammer to insure a solid weld.
(Thanks to one Randal Graham!)
Achim
The correct japanese expression is mokumé gané, which means wood pattern, for obvious reason.
David, the "e" in both words is not silent.
To make it even more difficult, the japanese have several different etching solutions and for
every colour etching effect there is a different word.
They also use compositions from metals for single layers in mokumé gané which are completely
unknown in the west. For example shakudo is a metal made from 95 % copper and 5 % gold. It
looks like shiney copper but doesn't get green but black when oxydizing.
Darrell Ralph
The easiest way I have found to make it is
Make a furnace press Two peices of steel say 1/2 in thick with holes in ines all the way around
the fixture. Then fill is withcopper and nickel, or whatever you want as you contrasting material.
Heat in a reductucing forge atmosphere untill the sides of the metal look like the starting to
bubble(this is a very small change.. The put the whole fixture under the press or in a strong vise
and squeeze.. Then remove and forge to flat and pattern like damascus. Anneal at bright orange
color quench in water..
SHOULDER JIG
Barry Jones
Have you ever made a stick-tang knife and had trouble with the guard not fitting flush against the
shoulders? Maybe you are just having trouble getting the shoulders squared off. I took 2 pieces of
D2 steel (1/4"x2"x6")
and drilled 4 holes in each one. 2 holes are for precision ground pins. They keep the pieces lined
up. The pins are press-fit into one piece only with the other piece having clearance holes (not too
oversize). The other
holes are for screws to hold the whole thing together. You will need to space the holes far enough
apart so that you can slide a blade in between. Once you get the pieces made you should harden
the D2 to full hardness (no drawback). After hardening, assemble the parts and surface grind the
edges. The jig is now complete.
To use the jig, simply loosen the screws and slide your blade into it. Line up the blade to where
you want the shoulders and tighten the screws. Once this is done you file the shoulder area down
to the jig. You should have square shoulders to fit the guard up against.
