Casting bronze bolster on tang

[Natlek]

I was working on this Yakut knife .I have no idea how to do bolster because shape is little weird there /flat one side convex other side / and I decide to mold carbon for bolster .It come out excellent ....So I got an idea......... WHY not to cast bronze directly on tang ? All it need to be done is to make simple mold ? Making tight fit bolster is most time consuming and probably most difficult task , especially if you have no mill.....It can be cast in two way .....with an appropriate design of blade/tang it can be permanently fitting or to be removable ... When cool bronze will compress around tang and it will have best ever made fitting ? I will try myself this of course .Only thing what's bothering me is mass of tang , it can withdraw the temperature from bronze to fast and make not good cast ? Mold can be made from thin sheet of metal , just like this one I use for carbon . Tang is problem or maybe no ? I think that pouring bronze/and make mold that way / from the tang side is right solution, blade can be immersed in water ... ?
Did someone has tried this ?

 

[Hengelo_77]

Well this is an experiment to follow!
IIRW this is done with pewter

 

[E.Carlson]

Do a search for "eight dollar mountain foundry". He is now retired, but he did military style knives with cast handles. I have a buddy that's been trying to talk me into trying it, but I have no idea how to go about it or how durable of a handle you would really have?

 

[Bill DeShivs]

May as well just make the guard and silver solder it to the blade.
Either way will overheat the blade tang area.
Pewter has a much lower melting point than bronze/brass.

 

[Alex Topfer]

You could do it the other way, and cast the bronze pre-heat treat, but that might lead to other problems. Apparently there are bronzes that melt above 1,000c
You could make a copy of the tang and cast around that, then solder the guard to the tang. Seems like a lot of work for a one off.
Can you TIG braze it?

My two cents, I would just solder it. It's easy, and I kind of like the aesthetic of neat solder lines

 

[Natlek]

You could make a copy of the tang and cast around that,

Well that would work ...Some months ago I try to cast bronze direct on knife tang.But I make mistake, I rinse all in water to early ,bronze was not yet solid and I get this ..... But it can be done for sure.....Today I try your way and it work perfect .I again improvised with the mold but i think that i have now bronze bolster with perfect fit for 3mm blade .To get that steel part from middle of bronze it take good hammering , blade I m working on /3mm/ will fit perfect with little help of hammer .I will made some day several little more serious mold for different thickness and shape for sure !
First try on knife........tang is still hard , not softened from heat

This is from today .....and I like it , anybody wants custom bolsters

 

[Natlek]

OK guys , this thing works . . . I make about ten so far . I clean on grinder this one so far , they fit prefect on tang . It is many time faster then drilling and filling slot and most important they fit tight . Now I really need to make good moulds

 

[john april]

interesting ! i think ruana made cast guard knives too.

 

[allenkey]

Pretty cool, Natlek!