bolster attachment

L

LostElk

Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
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Looking to attach various bolsters out of nickel silver and stainless. Any input or opinion on attachment. Thinking about pins to start, haven't brazed nickel silver before.
 
There is no need to braze it. Brazing creates too much heat, anyway.
Just use a good low-temperature solder that contains about 4 % silver. Use a good flux. It's really soft solder, but the low silver content will allow it to adhere to stainless.
 
I would not trust solder on most knives. The strongest bond is to pin and rivet.
 
I have used silver solder and works and holds wonderful. As I understand it, most makers use silver solder to attach bolster.
 
Much would depend on the knife and it's use. I would not trust common silver bearing soft solder to hold up under a lot of chopping. It is a simple matter to pin and rivet, and that will hold up to most any use, and there is no over solder to have to clean up.
 
The "silver solder" that most makers use is the 4% stuff. It's not real silver solder.
Pinning is good, too.
 
On bolsters and single slotted guards I pin and peen them. I use the staybrite solder not just for holding power but for a completely sealed union between the guard/bolster and blade. Nothing looks worse on a knife than a gap between the guard and blade.It should look like one piece. A great deal of respect should be given to those who can do it without a solder joint.( I'm not there yet.)
 
I am just a beginner so can not give any advise. I am trying different ways to attach the bolster so see what works for me better. This is what I have tried so far:
1. pins+JB Weld - I do not like the thin gray line JB Weld produces between the bolster and the blade
2. pins+epoxy - looks better the #1 but not as good as I want - I still can see the gap
3. just pins and a lot of time to fit the bolster - did not finish that knife yet, but so far it looks better then #1 and #2

Next knife I will be working on will have a slotted guard. I am going to use a single pin and low-temperature solder to seal.

I have watched S.R. Johnson "Making Subhilt fighter" DVD. He uses a pin+solder for the guard and just pins for subhilt.
 
One thing has to be reminded: Solders or epoxy is not for the attachment, it is for waterproofness. The main problem with the guard or bolster attachments, dirt, bacteria, moisture and chemicals can accumulate between the bolsters and knife. You need to use both pins and solder or a good adhesive. For guards mostly you dont need to put a pin as the whole handle will support the guard but you'll need a sealant anyways...
 
I use epoxy to seal them and pins, penned into the countersink hole. They can't come off, and if the fit is perfect you won't see the epoxy joint. One other tip on pins, buy your pin stock from the same supplier as your bolster or guard materials, there are differences in nickel silver from different suppliers, and when polished there can be a slight color mismatch between the pin and bolster, not sure about brass.
Dale
 
Thanks for the input. I was thinking of nickel silver with a nickel silver brazing ron, before the heat treat, but I will try the 4% solder,as well as the other methods, and see how they come out and how they perform.
 
I've made 1 knife with bolsters, and I only used pins. I made sure everything was flat, and there is no gap.
 
I just make sure that everything is dead flat... then pin and peen. I have made some slight changes to my pin/peen method lately. Most folk recommend using a taper pin reamer to help seating the bolster and to pull everything together. This works great... but I have also begun drilling a slight countersink into the back side of the bolsters. For some reason this helps minimize the formation of gaps as the pins are peened. Below is a diagram of what I'm talking about.
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Erin
 
I do mine exactly the way Erin has shown with his great diagram, but I add a tiny amount of JB Weld to the joint to make certain i'ts 100% watertight.

Too much JB in there and you'll get that little grey line, but it's easily avoided. I smear the JB onto the back of the bolster, then scrape it off again with the edge of a piece of thin flexible plastic. I cut the plastic with EMT shears first. This gives the dge of the plastic a very finely toothed edge (the shears are slightly serrated). Scraping once removes almost all of the JB, but not 100% of it. The tiny amount left on the bolster is enough to ensure that capillary action can't draw any moisture into the joint but it leaves so little that the grey line is almost invisible even loked at through a 15X loupe.
As soon as the pins are peened I'll go around the edges of the joint between bolter and blade with q-tips soaked in acetone to remove any JB that has eased out. Do so again every couple of minutes until the JB has hardened and you should get a really neat AND watertight joint.
Getting a joint that will be forever 100% watertight just by mating two flat surfaces, however good and flat they are, is so close to impossible that it makes the addition of the JB a really good idea in my opinion.
 
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