bolster pin question

Gigemtxaggies

Gigemtxaggies

Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
109
I have been doing a ton of reading while I collect tools and put my work area together and had an idea pop into my mind.

Has anyone tried to secure bolster pins in place by welding then with a tig setup. Seems like it would work if you welded with enough material in place so that the weld puddle could be cleaned up with the shaping of the guards.

thank you,

Allen
 
Let me make sure I understand what you mean.
You want to weld the pins in place instead of peening them?
If this is what you're talking about, it is possible, but I see a problem with it. When you peen the pins into the beveled holes, it not only swells the pins, it also presses the bolsters onto the blade. If you weld the pins, you would not be getting the downward force on the bolster so you would need to be able to clamp it to the blade and be sure it was totally flat against the blade.
Also, wouldn't your pin material need to be the same as the bolster?
Just my 83 cents worth! :D

PS; As small as pinnage is, wouldn't the welder just burn right through it?
 
I had a thought like this once, when I didn't want to rivet an AK47 receiver. It worked, but I can't really speak for the strength of the receiver or the welds...and you can't just grind off the heads and re-rivit if you goof. It also worked as a filler for a botched barrel pin hole in a trunnion, but again strength may have suffered. They also pin/tig flash suppressors on rifles this way so they can't be removed.

In his book, David Boye slots the guard and grooves the blade just in front of where the guard rests, then brazes the open end of the slot to close the guard over the blade, then brazes all around the groove and the joint where the front of the guard and blade meet- he leaves the guard/tang joint alone- no brazing there. Then he heat treats. Then he grinds the brazed joint even on both sides with a belt grinder. It is seamless and looks great. I have tried this with brass/brass as well as 304 stainless/nickel silver braze rod and monel/nickel silver braze rod. My results were adequate, but I wouldn't use photos of them to illustrate the how to section of a book-practice helps and I need more practice...but I found this less frustrating than soldering the guard/blade joint. Best/same color results were with the brass- use a strip of the same brass as the guard for the braze...if you use those little 1/16 or 1/8 rods from the hardware store, you get alot of bubbles- the book says its from lead added into the alloy to increase machinability. Just get a can of powder flux, heat the braze material, dip it into the flux and you have your fluxed braze rod. The nickel silver braze soon turns a slightly darker color than the 404 and the monel and is very hard to grind. I also notoced some bubbles as I ground down.

L6steel, I used to go to school in pcola. Milton or Laurel Hill near you?
 
You could tig the pin heads I think if they were just above flush and the holes had a slight bevel you could melt them down and tie them in and sand off and polish and they would be completely invisible.and never come out. You can do some extremely fine work with a good tig rig. You would have to clamp them tight because you would lose the tightening effect of peening. I have tigged on a couple guards on to blades and they will never come loose and they flow one material to the next after some filing and sanding.

You can tig brass to steel. It is just about like brasing only with a much better heat source and you can localize the heat way way better. Plus I have done a stainless guard to a damascus blade and was able to create almost a perfectly line where it went from one material to the other. I was not able to do it myself in a square joint, but was able to in a slanted one.
 
I don't mean this to sound like I am being a smartypants, why would you do that; weld pins? It seems to be an overcomplication to me.

Keep it simple and you will be a happy knifemaker. :) Drill holes and taper the bolster holes 10 degrees. Use the same material for pins as the bolsters, peen vigorously(check with a loop) the pins will disappear and never come loose. Done!:D
 
Kerry Hampton said:
I don't mean this to sound like I am being a smartypants, why would you do that; weld pins? It seems to be an overcomplication to me.

Keep it simple and you will be a happy knifemaker. :) Drill holes and taper the bolster holes 10 degrees. Use the same material for pins as the bolsters, peen vigorously(check with a loop) the pins will disappear and never come loose. Done!:D
Click to expand...

I second the motion! Knifemakers in general make things more complicated than they need to be.
 
Yep, what Kerry and Tony said! Rember the KISS system. Keep It Simple Stupid!!! Keeps me out of trouble. Haa! Mike
 
ok so where can i get a 1/8 drill that tappers
i thinkkim gogitno get the SS for the bolster and the ss rod but how special order is a 10 deg. pin drill
 
I'm with Kerry and Tony on this, peening is just too easy and effective.

The tip of a wood spade drill bit, spun by hand works great to put a taper at the top of the hole. I cone shaped bur works very good also.
 
butcher_block said:
ok so where can i get a 1/8 drill that tappers
i thinkkim gogitno get the SS for the bolster and the ss rod but how special order is a 10 deg. pin drill
Click to expand...

Here's what I got from http://mscdirect.com for 3/32" pins. Use it in a pin vise and do it by hand after drilling with a 3/32" drill.

p/n 72400971 Taper Pin Reamers Industrial Size: 4/0 Flute Type: Straight Small End Diameter: 0.0869 In. Large End Diameter: 0.1142 In. Material: HSS

*** To make it extra handy, get the double ended pin vise and put the 3/32 reamer in one end and a 1/16" (or your two most used sizes) tapered reamer in the other...another Tony Bose step saving idea. ***
 
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