Fixing Offset Bolsters?

D

dwaterfield

Joined
Feb 24, 2022
Messages
115
I'm working on a knife that so far is the best I've made. This is the first I'm making for someone that is not family. Very happy with it so far - except for one mistake that (to me at least) needs to be fixed.

The knife has olive wood scales and brass bolsters. Somehow I managed to have leave one bolster slightly longer than the other. I'm not entirely sure how that happened because I ground them together, but I managed it.

The question is - can this be fixed? If so, what's the best approach? I have some very small files I've used in rifle making that I think could be used here but of course I'm worried about scraping the blade steel. I thought about using a dremel but I'm really worried about controlling it and getting a good result, again without marking up the blade.

https://flic.kr/p/2nGpqL7
https://flic.kr/p/2nGpr6F

I appreciate any thoughts/advice!
 
Pinoy Knife said:
pull them off ..use both pins and re grind them both as 1 piece..
might not be what you want to hear !!! but that is the best way to fix it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. My concern there is that I'd damage the wood scales trying to get the bolsters off. There is epoxy between the brass and the wood. Is there any way to do that safely?
 
dwaterfield said:
Thanks for the response. My concern there is that I'd damage the wood scales trying to get the bolsters off. There is epoxy between the brass and the wood. Is there any way to do that safely?
Click to expand...
Grind teeth on fine file from one side and polish that side little and If you are careful you will do that without scratch on blade .You understand on which side you grind teeth , right ?
Also you can temper that file on higher temperature to make ii softer then blade .Brass is soft so ........
 
A important lesson learned in knifemaking is you will spend more time and screw it up trying to mickey mouse a fix and taking it off and doing it properly is a big time saver and always a better out come.

The reason you bolsters came out uneven, even though you ground them together, is you flipped it front to back.
 
Natlek said:
Grind teeth on fine file from one side and polish that side little and If you are careful you will do that without scratch on blade .You understand on which side you grind teeth , right ?
Also you can temper that file on higher temperature to make ii softer then blade .Brass is soft so ........
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I believe I know which face you mean. You're talking about the face that would touch the steel, right? So for most flat files it would be the narrow side.

I'll have to look later but I'm pretty sure the file is already smooth on its edge. Tempering it is a good idea.
AVigil said:
A important lesson learned in knifemaking is you will spend more time and screw it up trying to mickey mouse a fix and taking it off and doing it properly is a big time saver and always a better out come.

The reason you bolsters came out uneven, even though you ground them together, is you flipped it front to back.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the response, Avigil. I think you're most likely right about how they ended up uneven. My only concern with taking it off is the possibility of damaging the scales. I've been reading about freezing the blade to make the epoxy brittle and then pushing out pins with punches. Sounds good in theory but I've never done it so not sure how well it works. Is that how you would do it?
 
Fixing it in place is succumbing to the "sunken costs fallacy".
Starting over will take less time and effort than trying to fix it in place. It sucks to hear, but that's the way it is...

That's not saying you can't reuse the metal bits, but the wood is probably toast.
 
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Just an update. I appreciate all of the advice. I chose to attempt filing it, mainly for two reasons. First, the amount of brass that had to be removed was a bit under a millimeter across the face. Second, the risk of destroying the wood was an issue because I would have to either have some shipped to me or drive 40 minutes to the nearest supplier (the person who requested this knife specifically wanted olive wood, which is hard to find around here). I decided that making the attempt was worth the time - keep in mind that I'm still getting started so I'm willing to treat this as a learning experience.

Overall it went well. I spent about 20 minutes using the flat face of a half-round file with a "safe" edge that I had in the shop. I probably could have gone faster but I was being very cautious about hitting the face of the blade. With that done I sanded for about 30 minutes, going up to 1500 grit. It's not as polished as the other bolster, but some time on the buffer will correct that. So it took me under an hour to do all told.

I want to say that I completely understand those that said I should just take everything off and start over. I didn't ignore that advice, and I do think it is good advice. Given the small amount of material that had to be removed, the cost of getting new scales, and my willingness to possibly waste my efforts I thought is was worth it this time. Next time will probably be a different story.

Thanks again everyone.
https://flic.kr/p/2nGGQnx
 
You did good on the front, but what about the back?

If it was longer on the front it will shorter on the bolster scale junction.

I can see that it is not even at the rear.

That would drive me crazy.
 
AVigil said:
You did good on the front, but what about the back?

If it was longer on the front it will shorter on the bolster scale junction.

I can see that it is not even at the rear.

That would drive me crazy.
Click to expand...
I think that must be an optical illusion, it is even at the rear.
edit: Just took another look at it to confirm, and the join is ever so slightly thicker on the left side, but that is fading as I'm sanding the spine of the handle. I think it will be ok.
 
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dwaterfield said:
I think that must be an optical illusion, it is even at the rear.
edit: Just took another look at it to confirm, and the join is ever so slightly thicker on the left side, but that is fading as I'm sanding the spine of the handle. I think it will be ok.
Click to expand...
That's good, it looks offset in the picture.
 
dwaterfield said:
I think that must be an optical illusion, it is even at the rear.
edit: Just took another look at it to confirm, and the join is ever so slightly thicker on the left side, but that is fading as I'm sanding the spine of the handle. I think it will be ok.
Click to expand...
Hope it comes out great, but if they were ground together and were the same dimensions it would be impossible for them to still be the same size after you removed material from one end.
 
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