guard hole

If you have made the slot a little to large you can heat up the brass to a dull red then drop it in water ,that will soften it up a bit then slide it onto the tang and squeeze it a bit in a vice or press and you should be able to close the gap . Silver solder is best but if the gaurd ends up nice and tight and you do a nice fitting handle then you shouldn`t need to solder it at all just the glue on the handle should do the trick. My 2 cents worth.
Richard
 
I think what our collector friend was getting at was the large, globby and poorly done solder jobs that fill in gaps, or partially fill them in, versus a very nice tight well done solder joint that is a nice hairline if visible at all. A maker who fills in gaps with solder or uses it to hold the guard on is indeed cutting corners and stopping short of a better job and it has given soldering an undeserved bad name. The tighter the fit the better the solder works via capillary action and too few makers precision fit as well as solder. I believe solder should seal out the elements not hold the guard on. Due to the nature of the knives I am doing these days I am not using as much solder but if I had to do a using hunter, I wouldn't hesitate to solder the guard although you would be hard pressed to tell there was solder present. I have had very anti-solder people compliment me on not using solder on a knife they were looking at, and politeness cause me to just keep my mouth shut and drawn into a smile as they looked at a guard to blade fit that was discretely sealed with that horrible method. This has even happened with my damascus blades, actually more so since I hid it even better on damascus so as not to add the nasty silver line in all that pretty pattern.
 
Kevin, he dissed anyone that does not solder, period.

Posted by "Lawp"
"Speaking of technique and master, some makers who otherwise are skilled do not think the solder joint is necessary. It is. Lack of a solder joint identifies a maker as either lazy, unskilled, or disrespectful of the buyer."

I don't consider you or any other bladesmith that swages on guards to be lazy, un-skilled or disrespectful at all. Anyone who has spent three hours fitting a guard to a tang knows that in no way the process is cheating or taking a shortcut.
 
B Finnigan said:
Kevin, he dissed anyone that does not solder, period.
Click to expand...

And, you somewhat dissed those who do solder, Brent, implying that the solder was simply a means of covering a sloppy fit, and that the heat would hurt a blade. Neither of which is necessarily true.

So, somewhere in between these two opinions should lie an acceptable common ground wherein the guard should be close fit and the sealing method then becomes the preference of the maker and collector.
 
I simply stated it was my preference to swage. I know plenty of makers who solder and do it well. to each his own.
 
B Finnigan said:
...
Would you consider Terrry Primos and Ed Caffrey in that broad generalization? It takes far more skill to machine and file a notch to swage on and have no gaps then to rough one in for solder.

I have never had a guard come loose and I rarely even pin them. The last thing I want to do to a carefully heat treated blade is to heat it up at the fulcrum point again.
Click to expand...

Right there, Brent.

Edited to respond to edit above: yes, to each his own. Just do it well and do it right for the knife.
 
Each to their own methods - if it works for you in your shop that is the correct way to do it!!!!
Now with that said -- I swage my guards on and they are a press fit without gaps. I backcut my guard slots with a mill cutter and then backfill the slot left behind the face of the guard with Acraglas. The Acraglas is not really needed for sealing, but it doubly insures the guard being sealed and a truly stong adhesive fit along with a mechanical fit also. Are guards that are soldered correctly better or worse? Damifino -but properly swaged guards are harder to do.
 
I guess I fail to see why the two techniques aren't complementary? Soldering a swaged guard can still seal along the junction and where shoulders meet guard.

Like you said, Bill, to each their own. Doesn't much matter to me how someone else does it.
 
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