Contrasting Bolsters

[Jason Fry]

I've always admired Matt Bailey's work, particularly his contrasting bolsters and handles. I think certain knife designs lend themselves to bolsters, but I'm not a big fan of stainless or brass bolsters all the time, particularly on a big-bolstered knife. Here are a couple of my knives where I've used a contrasting wood bolster. The top one has square fitted paduak bolsters and curly maple handles. The bottom has 30 degree dovetailed juniper burl bolsters and mesquite burl handles on a tapered tang.

Thanks for looking.

 

[cbr900son]

Love the top one. Bottom one has a very nice shape but in my opinion the bolster and handle are too close to the same color and almost blen together. Now this is just from a photo and not seeing in person makes a difference and they both look very well made.

 

[Jason Fry]

I agree with you CBR on that second one. The mesquite was a bit lighter before the oil finish, and I was hoping that the juniper would go more towards red and the mesquite more towards brown. Two really nice pieces of wood, just a little too close in color to be great together.

 

[rwn2000]

The bottom has 30 degree dovetailed juniper burl bolsters and mesquite burl handles on a tapered tang.

It may just be the pic but it looks like the taper starts where the 2 pieces join. How do you figure the angle on that? or are both pieces on the tapered part of the tang?

randy

 

[Jason Fry]

I'll admit I fudged that one a little. The taper ends right about the joint between the handle and bolster. I started with 1/8" stock and took it down to about 1/16 at the butt, which leaves a 1/32 difference per side. I don't have the right calculator, but what you're looking at is:

inverse tangent of the angle (x) = 1/32 over 4
tangent x = (gap)/.25

If you can figure the angle x, then you can figure the gap y, and you'll see that the gap is really really tiny. I just glued them up straight and didn't compensate at all for the taper and got away with it this time, mostly. You can't see the gap at all on the spine, but you can see the thin glue line on the side view.