Full Tang Split Guard Pin??

KnuckleDownKnives

KnuckleDownKnives

Time to make the doughnuts..
Joined
Feb 12, 2015
Messages
1,715
I'm finally getting to a knife I've had sitting on my bench for about a year now. It's a loveless drop point design with a full tang and guard.

Is there a post that describes the best way to do the guard? I'm kinda at a stump at how to get the holes drilled in the guard to line up with the holes in the tang. I didn't want to pre drill them because I knew material would be coming off of the thickness of the knife after heat treat which would in turn leave a gap and the notch on the guard would then be too wide. I could simply measure, mark and drill but I fear the chance of them lining up with the holes already in the tang would be slim.

How are you all doing this? I don't have means to solder and would rather pin it. I'm open to hear what you all have to add. Thanks

This is basically what it looks like except for 2 pins in the guard.


Loveless_DropPoint_Hunter.jpg
 
i would just drill the holes in both the tang and guard, but use an over sized guard (little extra material on spine and edge side) so you can pin it on, then remove the excess.
 
Kevin McGovern said:
i would just drill the holes in both the tang and guard, but use an over sized guard (little extra material on spine and edge side) so you can pin it on, then remove the excess.
Click to expand...

That was sort of my plan, but the blade is hardened. I'm fairly confident it's pretty hard where the guard will go so drilling all the way through unless I buy a bit that will drill the hardened steel.
 
I covered that portion of the blade with clay since I was doing a hamon and was able to drill through the entire works.

Otherwise assemble and drill through just spotting the blade, then take apart and drill through blade with carbide.

Also I've had good luck tempering 1075 to blue with a torch and being able to drill it.
 
kuraki said:
I covered that portion of the blade with clay since I was doing a hamon and was able to drill through the entire works.

Otherwise assemble and drill through just spotting the blade, then take apart and drill through blade with carbide.

Also I've had good luck tempering 1075 to blue with a torch and being able to drill it.
Click to expand...

You don't happen to have a pic of how that one turned out do you?
 
I have not done this exactly but have done a bunch of crazy setups like this with rudimentary equipment.

You could try fixturing your blade down and positioning it so that the drill is lined up with the existing hole. Now without moving the blade, set the gaurd up on the blade and you should be in the ballpark.
You could also now spot your mark on the gaurd and use a punch or some kind of accurate tool in the drill press to ensure you have a good path set up for the drill. I have found this step critical to reduce drills from walking.
 
KnuckleDownKnives said:
You don't happen to have a pic of how that one turned out do you?
Click to expand...

No I still haven't finished it.

The fit of the guard is more important than the alignment or size of the holes in my opinion because you're going to swell them when you peen. If the guard slot is tight on the blade and the blade slot tight to the guard, minor inconsistencies in the holes shouldn't matter and will get filled as the pins are peened.

If guard to blade fit is sloppy at all, peening the pins will start moving the guard around trying to align the holes as the pins swell.
 
Can you super glue the tang to one side of the guard and just spot drill a dimple for each of the two pin holes then remove the guard and drill the one side of the guard. Then you can align with the notch and ensure the holes line up and just drill through the guard and tang through the other side of the guard???
 
KnuckleDownKnives said:
That was sort of my plan, but the blade is hardened. I'm fairly confident it's pretty hard where the guard will go so drilling all the way through unless I buy a bit that will drill the hardened steel.
Click to expand...
Bye this and you can drill any known hardened steel , with easy like in wood ;)

Natlek said:
HkNPw98.jpg

vW1Up67.jpg
Click to expand...
 
KnuckleDownKnives said:
I'm finally getting to a knife I've had sitting on my bench for about a year now. It's a loveless drop point design with a full tang and guard.

Is there a post that describes the best way to do the guard? I'm kinda at a stump at how to get the holes drilled in the guard to line up with the holes in the tang. I didn't want to pre drill them because I knew material would be coming off of the thickness of the knife after heat treat which would in turn leave a gap and the notch on the guard would then be too wide. I could simply measure, mark and drill but I fear the chance of them lining up with the holes already in the tang would be slim.

How are you all doing this? I don't have means to solder and would rather pin it. I'm open to hear what you all have to add. Thanks

This is basically what it looks like except for 2 pins in the guard.


View attachment 838212
Click to expand...
If this is knife /marked/ you work on , I would take flat piece of steel that I will use for gard and drill hole thru hole in knife in that steel .From there you can continue to work on gard ..........?
gPBFInC.jpg
 
I do things sometimes backwards. I drill # 40 hole for pin in blade and where guard seats on blade I drill 7/64 hole at edge then mill it straight and square to blade. To install the pin I take fine magic marker and draw line both sides of hole centering it hole in blade. I drive the guard into slot on blade then mark where lines match guard. I center punch guard and making sure sides are square take it to drill press and drill hole. I use tapered reamer on both side of guard stock and put pin through it and blade.
 
Thansk you all for the input.


DevinT said:
An easy way to do these is to drill an over size hole in the blade before heat treat. After HT, peen a brass rod in the hole and resurface, then you just drill with a normal drill bit wherever it lines up.

Hoss
Click to expand...

Devin that is a wonderful idea.. I think I'm going to attempt this. I have a carbide bur I can use to enlarge the hole. Since I'm running my drill press on a VFD I can crank the speed way up on it. I'll center it up with a drill bit then put the bur in and see how it goes. I'll do a test run on a jacked up blade I have that's already hardened to see how it goes. If not I'll try one of the other suggestions.
 
Devin,
Great idea !! I drill oversized holes in the tang and fill them with thickened epoxy. Then I leave the scales slightly oversized, drill the pin holes and dry fit them. I take them off and sand the front ends together to ensure they are an exact match before epoxying them on. The pins assure that the scales return to the exact same place. For the guard your idea makes for a much stronger joint, since everything is metal to metal.
Tim
 
Well this is what I ended up doing. I didn't want to take a chance with the lager holes so I mounted the blade to a 123 block and clamped the guard material to it. Used my granite plate to make sure the 123 block and guard material were square and bolted the blade to the top of the 123 block so it was inline with where I want the gaurd to be. Made sure everything was square in drilled it. By the looks of where the bit came through it went straight all the way through. I shall see when I slot it and fit it up.


image.jpg
 
I make sure the blade is finish sanded where the guard is going preheat treat. Then I fit the guard, secure where it goes on the blade and drill my hole.
After heat treat you will have to clean up the blade but it will not effect fit of the guard after it is pinned.
Always finish the front of the guard before finishing the blade cut as you will remove enough material to effect fit and finish.
 
J. Hoover said:
I make sure the blade is finish sanded where the guard is going preheat treat. Then I fit the guard, secure where it goes on the blade and drill my hole.
After heat treat you will have to clean up the blade but it will not effect fit of the guard after it is pinned.
Always finish the front of the guard before finishing the blade cut as you will remove enough material to effect fit and finish.
Click to expand...

I'd be concerned fitting a gaurd before ht. I should have drilled mine, but afraid if I fit it up before ht I'll have gaps. I ht in a gas forge and usually have quite a bit of decarb to grind off. I've done brass bolsters before just not a 1 piece gaurd. Hoping to start cutting and fitting it up today.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top