Guard slot by hand - I need tips please

I was gonna suggest Tai's method. Really works well to fine tune things.
Also, like Nick, I get dizzy when I see so many words so I am not sure if Stacy or someone else said it but the important thing is to leave only a small percentage of the guard thickness to be filed. And much smaller than I thought at first. I am not sure but I remember Bruce Bump saying it only need to be in the 10 thou range. Somebody correct me if I am wrong.
 
That is how it is in the book file. Photos will be inserted at each step where applicable. Bold type, color, and headers will accentuate the main points.

The index and appendix will be user friendly for finding things.

There will also be a lot of diagrams, charts, and tables for those who don't get info from print so well.
 
I taper my tang down from the ricasso so that when fitting I can see how far I need to go. It also makes the last part easier. I make sure the guard is bigger than needed before I drill the center. I can't seen to hit the exact center. I then drill out a slightly undersized hole all the way through the guard. I have found that by turning the guard over to the underside and drilling it out slightly larger about halfway through it makes filing easier because you don't have as much material to remove and you can sneak up to the line without putting to much muscle into it and you dont take as much of a chance of going over because you got too agressive with the file. I also braze or solder my guards so this slight gap doesn't make a difference since it gets filled in anyway.
I then start dry fitting. Remeber the tang is tapered so you will be able to get just shy of the ricasso before hammering it home. When it is close to meeting the ricasso. I tape up the blade and put it into a sleave that I made so I can hammer it the rest of the way. I then heat the gaurd up and start hammering. When the ricasso meats the guard and the fit is good, I dunk the blade and guard into a bucket of water to cool the guard. It may not shink up much but you do get a little movement and it does seem to be tight enough to where you can't get it back off without some major effort. I always get a nice tight fit. I then braze or solder the guard to make sure it is solid.
One other idea is a trick I learned from an old blacksmith. If your guard is brass and you filed just a tad too much you can turn it on its side and hammer it a few times to compress the guard into the blade. Again you want to make sure the guard is oversized so the sides that you hammer are not the finished size. You can just grind down to the final shape and no damage or hammer marks will be seen. I try not to over file so I have only tried this once but it did work and you could not tell that the original fit was flawed.
 
Tai Goo said:
Just peen around the slot a little to close the gap. Then sand down the top and bottom if you don't want the peened texture.
Click to expand...

Charlie Matthews turned me on to this trick a couple years ago and I haven't had to scrap a guard since.

I can hand fit a guard in about 5 minutes if I'm not distracted
 
Tai Goo said:
Just peen around the slot a little to close the gap. Then sand down the top and bottom if you don't want the peened texture.
Click to expand...

+1 to that. I saw Phillip Patton do that on a bowie guard (not really a method for a full tang guard) and tried it myself. You can get a really perfect fit that way with a little less finicky filing. Of course, it's best to file the guard to fit well anyway, this just puts the icing on the cake.

That and Stacy's mention of filing so that the back of the slot is a wider, which concentrates the fitting to the front of the guard. We can take advantage of the inherent malleability of our common fitting metals. NS, brass, 416 SS, they all work well peined on the face and driven on.
 
Depending on material, guard thickness i was taught to use lay out fluid, mic out lines, drill holes top and botom and then use a jewelers/coping saw to connect, then use hardened file guide, and your altered guard files, to slowly walk it down, with a last step press fit, for my skill set this is working very well, methods change and get really precise once your using a mill to do guards, either way patience is key. GHaile
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top