Bolster-scale alignment

One tip for cleaning it up is to take a piece of brass, and grind or file it into a tiny cold chisel and a small scraper. They'll make quick work of removing excess solder, without nearly the easy of ruining the knife of doing it with a file
 
I will keep that in mind. I tried the pencil lead trick too and it seemed to work so so. I can definitely see how one can really mess up a liner by filing the solder, i dug in unevenly while filing the scrap i was practicing on. Always good to practice, learn a lot without paying a lot.
 
I started making a knife over the weekend (similiar to the one in the pic in this thread) and got to drill the bolsters and i got one drilled real uneven and my drill suddenly got real wobbly and died on the second bolster. I had been using a cordless craftsman drill and been needing to replace it for a year now, it's had a short in it. Went looking for a new drill and came home with a porter cable bench top drill press for $120. Pretty happy with it.

But y'alls tips so far have helped a lot, i can solder like a semi pro now and making an extra template piece to fit and aligned the bolsters have saved me much frustration.
 
A drill press is the single most useful tool in knifemaking! A very wise investment. I could live without my grinder an buffer, but not without a drill press You should notice things being much easier am working much better for you now
 
Strange how we do things differently. I seldom use my drill press for knives. I drill almost everything by hand with a flexible shaft machine.
 
A new tool is always nice and a drill press will give consistent results as long as you take the time to ensure your table is square to the spindle. Most tables are built to tilt and they have a scale under them to set zero DON'T TRUST IT!!! Take a coat hanger and bend in the shape of a "Z" place one end in the drill chuck and the other end to touch the table. Turn the spindle by hand and watch to see if t touches or moves up or down it should just touch equally all the way around when table is flat square with the spindle. The holes you drill be be square not angled now. Something I used to teach apprentices is always check your equipment don't trust the factory settings.
 
I like that coat hanger trick. I guess i could use an allen wrench to do the same.

I was getting pretty sick of discarding pieces because of angled holes. I can hold a drill pretty straight, and made a drill guide, but sometimes it happens anyway. That cordless drill was pretty well used and abused, glad to be rid of it.

I'm in the middle of buying a house and after the move I'll triple my workspace which will be awesome! I was living in a pretty tight neighborhood and the neighbors always thought i was a little weird with the blowtorches and grinders and what not. It'll be nice not to have neighbors.
 
I would be concerned about the Allen Wrench....you want as much reach as you can get not just under the spindle but outer edges of the able as well...you can shorter the hanger once you check the outer edges to check closer to the spindle. I also have a short piece of 3/8" drill rod that I chuck up and use my machinist square to check the table and the spindle periodically or you can use a 1-2-3 block as well.
 
Replaced the bolsters and soldered on, then started peening the knife together. My wife is about to kill me so i have to stop peening here tonight. I ended up with a gap on one side that is throwing the alignment off a little. I'll watch that better next time. I didn't even notice until i started taking pictures. I usually contour the handle after peening so the pins will get sanded flush, I don't know how people normally do that step. I also sand the bolsters at the same time to make sure they transition to the wood smoothly. I fitted the bolsters before soldering though. It is at least 10 times better than my second best, I'm pretty happy so far.

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