Fitting scales to tapered knife blade

[jasperdog1]

I know there is a link on here somewhere for this. Can anyone direct me to it?

I'm having trouble getting the guard to match up to the scales because of the taper in the back of the blade.

Thanks.

DAve

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Set the table on your disc sander to a couple of degrees off 90. Test sand the end of a piece of wood the size of your scales. See how it fits against the guard. Raise or lower the table to adjust the angle on the end until it fits flat against the guard. Then sand the real scales and mount them.

Having the rivet holes in the tang a bit oversize ( or even better,oblong) allows the scales to be firmly seated against the guard,too. (This is where many new makers go wrong. The rivet should not be tight in the tang.)
Stacy

 

[micad]

Dave,

I taper my tangs to a point just past the front end of my guards. This puts the guard and handle slabs on the same plane so that you can either set them absolutely square or dove tail them more easily.
Not the only way to do it, but it works well fror me.
And Stacy is right on about the slightly oversize tang rivet holes.

-Mike-