Guard Material?

D

dax51

Joined
Dec 9, 2009
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I am a Newbie and have only made a few knives. I decided I wanted to play around with a small Bowie. I fashioned a guard out of 3/8 Nickel/Silver and polished it up. My question is do you HT guards and butt plates ... they seem to be prone to scratch or is Nickel/Silver a bad choice of material?

Thanks
Dave
 

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Dave

Nickel silver, unless you have a way of work hardening it, is probably as hard when you get it as it will ever be. The rolling process of making it into sheets work hardens it. Nickel silver is a good choice for guards, it is fairly easy to work, doesn't corrode too fast and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Heat treating of copper alloys is usually used to soften the material after it work hardens from forming. So finally an answer, no don't heat treat nickel silver guards and butt caps. If you use an iron alloy then heat treating can be used, usually to bring out color or design in pattern welded steel.

Yes nickel silver does scratch easily, it is also fairly easy to polish back to an acceptable finish.

Jim Arbuckle

PS Thanks for filling out the location information in your profile, its nice to know what part of this rock you live on.
 
I like nickel silver. There has been a fair amount of detraction of it due to its slight softness and proneness to scratching... I find it very easy to work with, solder, pin, shape, polish, you name it. Plus I think it looks nice. Perhaps for a knife that will definitely be "rode hard and put away wet" use stainless instead. Or for a knife that will have a kydex sheath. Those can scratch the hell out of guards.
 
There are those that like NS there are those that hate it. I have no opinion on it other than it's easy to work and looks nice when done right. According to some, most collectors don't like it, Probably the scratch thing and it will tarnish a bit. And from what Ive heard a lower maintenance knife is preferred.
I do however HT my guards out of Stainless, It makes them shine a bit more IMHO and keeps them from scratching as easy.
Rusty
 
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