fitting a guard w/o soldier/pins

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hodgescl

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Oct 8, 2009
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is there a way to securly attach a guard without any type of soldier or brazing. i am just very limited with tools funds and supplies.

im making the blade out of a file and the guard out of a sheet metal wrench (about 1/8 inch thick) that happened to have a slit cut in the center of it about the perfect size.

i guess i was thinking of pressing it on. would that work?

if anyone has any experience with this or knows any commercial makers that do this, any help would be apreciated.

take it easy, hodges
 
is it a hair too big or to small if it is too small you can heat it up so it expands, and then contract on the blade (no I haven't tried it but it should work only problem is that you cant really use a lot of glue that way you have to wait and fill it in later) if it is too big then use epoxy (somebody will say J.B. cold weld, or something like that), but any good kind should work. heck if it breaks off just glue it on again.
 
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Yep, JB Weld and press it on....makes a water proof seal and strong holding power....:thumbup:
 
Press fit yes. If this is a stick tang the handle will then hold it in place mechanically so any glue/solder is there as a moisture seal. If you want the seal super glue will work just as well as JB Weld.
 
This is about bolsters and JB Weld.

I'm shaping my first bolsters and they are copper. I was going to use JB Weld and peen pins. Since I don't have copper pins, only brass and stainless, I'd rather just use JB Weld. There was a discussion about this in an older thread and at least one person said they would not trust JB Weld alone for bolsters.

Has anyone had bolsters come off when JB Weld was used with no pins? Thanks.

Gerry
 
I would no trust it alone either. While it will likely hold for a good long time, it is also very likely that at some point the jb will fail and the bolster will fall off; with pins, it probably will never be noticed and if the pins are peened it is not very likely that the jb will even fail.
 
if i had a proper drill press i might pin it, but the guard would be dificult to drill because its so thin.
 
A 1/8" guard should be easier to drill than thicker material like 3/16 or 1/4" for a couple of reasons. 1, it's just thinner, 2 allowable tolerances will be greater because of the thinner material. I drill holes in 1/4" material for guards with a hand drill with no problems at all.
 
Hodgescl, Just use the JB weld and press it on. You are right that the 1/8" thick guard is too thin to drill. If it were thicker you have more room for error.

Gerry, you really don't want JB weld for bolsters. It will show up as a grey line and can shear off. use super glue and pins.
 
Gerry, You can use heavy gauge copper wire for pins. Just untwist them and straighten out the wires. At work there are cut offs laying around that contain 12-16 1/8" copper wires. A foot of something like that from a electical suppy house would make hunderds of pins.
 
Sorry, I swear I saw somebody say bolster... Yeah, drilling a 1/8" GUARD would be difficult.
 
If it is a stub tang knife then you can also pin behind the guard, but the handle along with pressing and JB weld should hold it in place either way.
 
i guess it would have been helpful to mention that it is going to be a full tang w wood slabs for grips. would depending on how hard this guard gets pressed on make a difference. im planning on needing to use a good bit force to get it over the tang. would it work if i do this hot and then give the guard a few taps to squeeze down a bit more?
 
Probably not. More than likely you'll squeeze equally on all 4 surfaces and increase the gap rather than closing it.
 
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