Hi Todd
Sending your guard out today Monday. Korth asks how to fix to the blade. A variety of choices depending on style of blade and shape and fit of guard….One nice way is if the cutting edge had a step before the handle forming a ‘notch’. If so the guard can be run up the handle till it stops at the blade. If the handle material is pinned tight against the guard, the guard cannot move. If there are tiny gaps (due to the shape of the guard not being perfectly flat- while handle material is perfectly flat) You can fill in with sanding dust off the handle material and super glue and or sand over the gap after super glue put in and the dust drops in the crack.
This also works on top of the guard if there is a slight gab due to the guard slot not being a perfect fit to the blade width. I do not want water to be able to get down along the guard and reach the hand material. Sometimes I use copper dust or filings with the super glue.
Solder can be best, especially for white bronze. Or if one does not mind if it shows a little with brass or copper. That would be the biggest disadvantage is the solder may show against the copper.
Or more the solder can look like the steel of the blade and blend in…. but it seems better if the filled gap looks like the handle material….
Oh, and sometimes I pin the guard for a really strong fit for heavily used knives. I fix the guard to blade with super glue, set the handle on in the rough and drill through the guard and the blade at the same time (that area of you blade should not be hard as if it is, this is where it may snap when flexed) – small pins of copper or brass wire – Usually two so the guard could not pivot on one pin.
And I’m a bit of a maverick. So far out in left field I feel like I am not even in the same game. Sometimes I want to be more helpful? But I feel like when I speak, there is a dead silence in the room (chuckle) followed by “That’s not how it’s done” I usually know then, I am on the right track. It’s the best way to make a knife like no one ever saw before. Which leads to no one else could do it, which leads to, I want it. So the theory goes.
And the guards should be at least a little adaptable and can be put on a belt sander to be made thinner or more flat and the blade gap can be worked to the exact for of your blade, much as would be so with any bought rough guard. But if you want more info email me directly or phone me.
