Guard Fitting

M.Griffin

M.Griffin

Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
460
I have only made a few hidden tang knives so far, but am working on a few more now. It seems like I have seen two techniques for filing in the shoulders for the guard. The first is to file all four sides of the tang and the second is to file only the top and bottom of the tang. I have been filing top and bottom with a very shallow shoulder on the front and back so the fit up is better looking. If I only filed the top and bottom, the slot in the guard would have to be exactly perfect to get no gap. Is this correct, or should I only file the top and bottom and work harder on a perfect slot for the guard? This seems like a dumb question, but I can't find a good description anywhere. Thanks.

-Mike
 
I find it much easier and get abetter fit by filing all 4 sides. Using a file guide keeps everything nice and straight.
 
Slightly taper your tang on the sides terminating at about half the thickness of your guard. Another trick is to mirror polish the front of the guard, rough cut the slot, then use the reflection to guide your file in the slot. Keeping the reflection of the file dead straight with the file, as you file, will give you a very, tight and true fit, that after a time of doing can become invisible. A combination of these two proceedures will pay off, but still requires a learning time.
 
I haven't made a shoulder all the way around the tang because I'm nervous about having a stress riser there. I may be just paranoid, but after doing a few I don't have that much trouble fitting them the "old-fashioned" way; plus I can leave a nice radius to the tang shoulder that way.

Perhaps the surest way to be certain of precision is to mill your tang and guard slot. I imagine it would be a good deal quicker, too.
 
Sure, if ya have a mill (BOG)
A month or 2 ago Bill Burke commented on the files he uses to put a radius in this particular area. I believe it was a triangular file with a rounded edge. I tried it and it really beats trying to get that absolute square edge.
 
I taper the tang so that the thickest part is just in front of where the guard will fit. I then file the shoulders of the guard using a file guide. make sure the shoulders are completely flat then file them a little more then double check that they are flat. slot the guard and file the slot into a slight taper with the front the narrowest part. use a safe file and file until it slides onto the tang and stops about a half inch from the shoulders. using a slotted driver and medium blows drive the guard onto the tang, remove and file as needed until it seats flat against the shoulders. remove the guard and color the front with a marker and sand it on a flat plate until it is flat with no signs of the marker remaining. refit to the blade and resand the front then go through the grits to at least 600 grit. you need to have absolutely flat, sharp, square corners for the joint to become invisible. If you buff the front of the guard make sure not to round the corners of the slot! remove the guard and finish the front to the same grit as the blade. you can use a small square of mirror to make sure that the blade comes straight out of the guard. To do this hold the mirror flat on the front of the guard so that you can sight down the blade into the reflection of the blade, if the guard is not square on the blade the blade will apear bent as you sight down it into the reflection. you can file the tight side of the slot at the back of the guard to square things up. DON'T FILE THE FRONT OF THE SLOT OR YOU WILL GET A GAP. when every thing is perfect solder or glue them together.
 
Thank you all. Some excellent information that will be put to use over the next day or two.

-Mike
 
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