Guard soldering mistakes - where to go from here?

[Dalazong]

Hey all, I recently bought an old KaBar Mark II blade and guard only for pretty cheap online. It just has a one line “Ka-Bar” stamp, no military markings, so I’m thinking this thing was like a civilian model made after the war. It’s not in the best of shape but I decided to try to make a new guard and handle for it. While heating up the brass guard to solder it, I let the blade heat up and now there is evidence of color change to straw and blue in the ricasso area . I ran a file over the heated area, and there is no noticeable difference in hardness to the other areas of the blade.

Does anyone know what kind of steel they used for these blades (I’m assuming plain 1095) or what kind of heat treatment they did? I’m wondering if they were tempered to a blue shade, does heating it back up to that shade only affect the temper??

I’m not a professional maker, but I’ve made my share of knives over the years. Part of me wants to pull the guard off, and start fresh with a new heat treat, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. I’ll post some pics but just looking to get some initial feedback.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I would leave it alone and just redo the guard and handle as you planned.

 

[horseclover]

Silver soldering guards is done all the time but not on what amounts to a throwaway knife.

 

[Slice-and-dice]

You noted the blade was pretty cheap, why not give it a try? Do you have the equipment to heat treat, quench, and then temper? Is that what you were thinking of doing?

If you do it, we would enjoy seeing pics!