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bolsters?????
- Thread starter royboy
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 3, 1999
- Messages
- 9,437
Roy-
Making bolsters on a fairly simple fixed blade is easy. For most knives, the bolsters can be pinned on and still be fairly blocky, the shaping can all be done later so that you just grind/sand down to the hardened blade and match it all up.
Nick
I buy plenty of bars of 416 ss for bolster material, that way I can get the width and thickness to match up as close to the finished size bolster I want before I start cutting and grinding. I like to do radiused bolsters, or bolsters that run down at diagonals and dovetail them...so I buy a lot of really wide stock most of the time. However, you can start off with narrow and thin stock to get the hang of it.
Nick
Making bolsters on a fairly simple fixed blade is easy. For most knives, the bolsters can be pinned on and still be fairly blocky, the shaping can all be done later so that you just grind/sand down to the hardened blade and match it all up.
Nick
I buy plenty of bars of 416 ss for bolster material, that way I can get the width and thickness to match up as close to the finished size bolster I want before I start cutting and grinding. I like to do radiused bolsters, or bolsters that run down at diagonals and dovetail them...so I buy a lot of really wide stock most of the time. However, you can start off with narrow and thin stock to get the hang of it.
Nick
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2000
- Messages
- 5,179
Roy, here's how I do it. I'm sure there's a better way.
1. Get the ricasso area and the knife side of the bolsters flat. I have my ricasso final finish complete before attaching the bolsters. Allow 1/16 or so to extend above and below the knife to be ground flush later, it's a good idea to cut the stock a little oversized all over.
2. Clamp the first bolster to the knife and drill through the rivit hole in the knife, and through the bolster. Clamp over the hole and remove the first clamp. Now drill the second hole. Repeat for the other bolster. Make sure you get the bolsters positioned as near the same for drilling as possible.
3. Since I usually use 1/8" pins to rivit the bolsters on, I have a couple of #40 bolts that fit through the holes I just drilled. I bolt the bolsters together and grind the front faces of both bolsters even, then polish to final finish. Also, grind the scale side of the bolsters flush and square.
4. Cut your rivits just over 1/8 longer than the thickness of both bolsters and the knife. Anneal the pins to make them easier to peen. Chamfer the ends a bit and clean them thoroughly with steel wool, or they will show after you've peened them in. Countersink the pin holes in the bolsters slightly. Clean the ricasso and bolsters for soldering, if that's what you're going to do. There are lots of posts around here on soldering. Getting everything dead clean is most important. If everything is flush enough you don't have to solder, I apply epoxy to keep water out.
5. Assemble and peen down the pins. I've found it helpful to clamp the bolsters in alignment on the knife while I'm getting the pins tightened down. (Yes, it's pretty close working with all that stuff in there.) You want the bolsters to line up perfectly when the knife is viewed from the top and bottom edges. Once you have them peened on you can go ahead and solder if that's your plan.
The main thing to me is getting the ricasso and leading edges of the bolsters to final finish, and making both bolsters the same by bolting them together and grinding the faces to match.
For what it's worth, this is not a fool-proof method; the bolsters I put on Saturday morning got ground right back off again. I didn't get them seated flush to the ricasso, but didn't notice it until I got everything cleaned up. It's an adventure!
Dave
1. Get the ricasso area and the knife side of the bolsters flat. I have my ricasso final finish complete before attaching the bolsters. Allow 1/16 or so to extend above and below the knife to be ground flush later, it's a good idea to cut the stock a little oversized all over.
2. Clamp the first bolster to the knife and drill through the rivit hole in the knife, and through the bolster. Clamp over the hole and remove the first clamp. Now drill the second hole. Repeat for the other bolster. Make sure you get the bolsters positioned as near the same for drilling as possible.
3. Since I usually use 1/8" pins to rivit the bolsters on, I have a couple of #40 bolts that fit through the holes I just drilled. I bolt the bolsters together and grind the front faces of both bolsters even, then polish to final finish. Also, grind the scale side of the bolsters flush and square.
4. Cut your rivits just over 1/8 longer than the thickness of both bolsters and the knife. Anneal the pins to make them easier to peen. Chamfer the ends a bit and clean them thoroughly with steel wool, or they will show after you've peened them in. Countersink the pin holes in the bolsters slightly. Clean the ricasso and bolsters for soldering, if that's what you're going to do. There are lots of posts around here on soldering. Getting everything dead clean is most important. If everything is flush enough you don't have to solder, I apply epoxy to keep water out.
5. Assemble and peen down the pins. I've found it helpful to clamp the bolsters in alignment on the knife while I'm getting the pins tightened down. (Yes, it's pretty close working with all that stuff in there.) You want the bolsters to line up perfectly when the knife is viewed from the top and bottom edges. Once you have them peened on you can go ahead and solder if that's your plan.
The main thing to me is getting the ricasso and leading edges of the bolsters to final finish, and making both bolsters the same by bolting them together and grinding the faces to match.
For what it's worth, this is not a fool-proof method; the bolsters I put on Saturday morning got ground right back off again. I didn't get them seated flush to the ricasso, but didn't notice it until I got everything cleaned up. It's an adventure!
Dave
- Joined
- Nov 6, 1999
- Messages
- 419
Check out my tutorial here:
http://pub42.ezboard.com/fcustomknifedirectoryforumfrm21.showMessage?topicID=16.topic
Don Cowles
http://pub42.ezboard.com/fcustomknifedirectoryforumfrm21.showMessage?topicID=16.topic
Don Cowles
don, thanks for the bolster tutorial! excelent!! i was wondering how to do that red silver red spacer. i was just looking at a pic of a knife with the spacer like that and wished i knew how they do it. now i do.
speaking of bolsters though, i noticed in another forum that you use 416 ss for bolsters.
so maybe you could answer a 416 ss question for me.
i noticed a note under the 416 ad in the koval catalog. it says that for greater corrosin resistance heat treatment is necessary. i just wondered what you thought of that and do you do it? or you don't really need to bother?
thanks a million, chris
speaking of bolsters though, i noticed in another forum that you use 416 ss for bolsters.
so maybe you could answer a 416 ss question for me.
i noticed a note under the 416 ad in the koval catalog. it says that for greater corrosin resistance heat treatment is necessary. i just wondered what you thought of that and do you do it? or you don't really need to bother?
thanks a million, chris