Bolster nightmare..

swede2207

swede2207

Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Messages
323
Hey fellas its me ..AGAIN!! Anyway..i thought id get cute and put a brass bolster on my current project. Unfortunately i didnt know my skill was what amounted to a monkey having his way with a football. I drilled out 3/32 holes where i wanted the bolster. Then i redrilled to a # 41 so i couldpeen the 3/32 pins to hold them on. Well somewhere i got out of kilter,the things dont line up and i cant get them to work. I realize now that i should have clamped the material together and drilled everything one time. So now im at a point that i dont know what to do,(quite a common thing really) Do i scrap the thing and chalk it up to experience,or should i just make a handle from something else and cover the mistakes?Im leaning toward the latter since i have put so much into the thing. I guess i could use it around the house somewhere. Im going to do a search on bolsters and see what i can come up with.
 
Can't you make some new bolsters?
If you're out of material, and don't want to wait, yes, you can make the scales longer to cover that area up.

Make sure you sand, and finish the front of the scales before you epoxy them to the knife. ;)
 
look at ckd in the how to section don cowels has a tutorial on dovetailed bolsters he shows everything from start to finish it might help
 
Here's my take on it.

You can grumble, but fix it, and be happy.

Or you can settle for the way it is since you're frustrated, and then spend forever explaining why it isn't right.

Bolsters are pretty easy as long as you have a sequence of steps that will work every time.

First you want to clamp up a piece of bolster stock to one side of the blade. Then clamp it in the drill press. You want to have a way to do this so that the holes in the tang (for bolsters) are in line with the spindle of the drill press. If you don't have a tapered tang, this isn't an issue.

Kant-Twist clamps work extremely well for this sort of clamping. You can also use small C-clamps or vise-grips...so long as the bolster is clamped FLAT to the blade.

I like to drill 3 - 3/32"holes in my bolsters. I ream the hole after drilling with a tapered reamer (a cone dremel bit will work) to give the pin room to expand. I DON'T like the enlarge the entire hole, as when you put everything together it will slip-slide around on you.

Drill one bolster. Take it apart, clamp bolster stock on the other side, of the blade, clamp it up, and drill.

Take the two bolster pieces, put them together with the pins, and shape them to your desired shape.

Finish the front face, as it will be nearly impossible to finish that face when the bolsters are in place.

Put them on the blade and try-fit the pins. Everything should be lined up and square.

Take it all apart, clean everything with acetone, and then put it all back together.

When you peen the pins, do a little on one side, and then flip it and do a little on the other side. Continue this until you can really give them some hell. Don't go overboard though, or you can damage the front or rear face of the bolster...and have to start over.

If you do this carefully, you will have to cut and grind the bolsters right down to the blade in order to get them off.

Be careful with the brass as it's really soft and can mushroom out on you. Or, just get rid of it and use 416 ;)

Good luck!
Nick
 
Originally posted by Mike Hull
Make sure you sand, and finish the front of the scales before you epoxy them to the knife. ;)
Click to expand...

Very good point! I know that from experience! :D I also learned the hard way that you better clean that epoxy that squeezes out the front of the scales before it dries! :)

-Darren

p.s. Nick, very very good explanation!
 
I wanted to add, that what I wrote out works for me, it is by no means THE (be-all/end-all) way to do anything.

Don's tutorial on bolsters is EXCELLENT, and is a great photographic explanation of what I tried to write...but since a picture is worth a thousand words ;) I think Don's tutorial is about 7.2 million times better than my little write-up!

Thanks Darren (keep me posted on your salt bath)
Nick
 
You can grumble, but fix it, and be happy.

Loosely translated.."stop whining and get to work.." LOL. Ok guys im going to give this hell until i either get it right or i die in the process. Im going to make new bolsters try again. If i mess up ill try again..until all my brass is gone then ill start on 416 if i still cant get it ill buy stock in a metal company and keep going. I guess when something frustrates you its easy to go the easy route and get it over with. Thanks for the advice and the tutorials ..ill be in touch with the outcome. But im at work today so it wont be til i get another few hours in the shop(or under the carport as it were.)
 
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