Hand inletting of shields

B

Brian.Evans

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Aug 20, 2011
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Hey all. I wanted to try my hand at hand inletting a couple of my slipjoints with shields. Any good tutorials out there? I haven't been able to find much past Tony Bose's tutorial on his back pocket and he uses a parser plate an end mill.
 
I never waist anything!

If/when I have unusable but hardened blades or springs, I save them and make/grind gravers (small chisels) out of them. I have many of them in different configurations. Some wide some thin, some straight, some dog legged. Epoxy them into a length of 1" dowell rod Shaped for comfort. Then scribe around your shield and carefully scrape and scratch out the inside material with your new tools. After its inset nice and tight. I drill two 1/16" holes through shield, scale, and liner. Then you can remove shied. Hint.... I take a sharpie the appropriate color and darken the freshly cut edges and interior to hide imperfections... Not that I would have any imperfections. Ha! .... Next put A few drops of glue in hole and set shield. Pin it into its place and polish.

This it how I do it, hope it helps.
 
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Thanks B&G. I'll try that. I kind of thought that would be the way I'd need to do it, but I wasn't sure.

Where can I find a Purple Heart colored marker........ ;)
 
Many sources have the shields and the matching template cutout. You position the cutout and remove the handle material from the hole area.
 
I know, but I wanted to try hand inletting. Maybe just do it the easy way first. My problem is all the shields are stainless and I use nickel silver for everything.
 
And where to get the sparser, or how to make one. Try inletting some bone or cutting into some grainy wood !!! Frank
 
Ok, ok. Maybe for once I'll listen to the real blade makers. I'll wait to do shields until I get the plates. However, I will still need them in nickel silver rather than stainless.
 
OK, I respect you and know that you can do a lot when you set your mind to it.....so:

Start with a drawing or photo of the shield you want. Re-draw that to the desired size on a sheet of nickel silver. 12 to 16 gauge is good, depending on the size. Making a reduced copy and gluing it on is an easy way of doing this.

Cut out the shield with a 3/0 jewelers blade. Cut just outside the lines. File the shield to exact shape, putting a slight bevel on the edges. About 70-80° is good.

Place the shield on the handle, using a TINY drop of CA to hold it in place. Trace around the shield closely with a very sharp pointed scribe. A bicycle spoke ground to a thin point, or a sewing needle in a dowel works well.

Pop off the shield, using a little heat if needed.

Start by removing the inner part of the pocket. Use a flex shaft or Dremel and a 1mm or 2mm cylinder burr. Use it like a router. Stay away from the edges fro now. You can make the pocket about the desired depth for now.

Use a smaller burr and work right up to the line. Test the fit, and trim as needed to get the fit just barely there. Remove a little more in the center, leaving a "rim" around the pocket. This allows for the glue to have a reservoir under the middle. Drill a small hole through the scale in the very center. about 1/64" is fine.

When the shield is just starting to fit, double check all the edges, remove it and put in some slow cure epoxy, set the shield in place, and tap it home, and when it is down all the way, put a clamp on it.

Let the resin cure overnight and then file/sand the shield flush.

You should make the shield a little thicker than needed, and the scales should have a little extra to remove, too. That way, when the shield is shaped to a curve, and the scales are sanded smooth, everything is just right.
 
Don't forgrt to drill and pin it thru the liner and peen it on the backside. Or silver braze a post
to the back of the shield and peen that on the backside of the liner. One of the very last things
you want to happen is one fall out, the customer lose it, and now you have to make a sheild to fit the
cavity. Edited to add - looks like Brent already covered the pinning part.
Ken.
 
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I would think a parser bit could be made to be used in a flexible-shaft machine.
 
Guys, I'm a bit star struck right now. I've got some serious talent and experience commenting in this thread. I'd like to thank all of you guys for mentoring a new maker.

I think I'm going to try something easier at first, maybe an oval, or rectangle. I am still not sure any of the knives I'm working on now are going to be a candidate for this procedure. Maybe on the next Zulu spear. I'll practice on some scrap first, to see how it goes. I'll be sure to post pictures when I do.
 


The have made the vast majority of shields that I have used on my knives and as such have hand inletted them. I start by making the shield and then super gluing it onto the scale. I have a small very sharp needle that I use to scribe the scale with , using the shield as the pattern. I have a very small dia dental burr, .055 or so that I set in my hand held Dremmel. I use magnifier's and start in the center of scribed area and workout to the line. Time consuming but with patience and practice you get pretty good at it. The photo illustrates a handmade shield in Micarta that would be very unforgiving if there were gaps. Ivory has to the worst! I drill the 1/16 pin/pins hole after the shield is inletted to my desired depth.
 
Maybe a Foredom with 3:1 gear reduction. Of course with a foot control.
 
On the low speed tasks for my Foredom, I use an EM-1 table top controller and my foot pedal. You set the table top control to the Max speed desired ( with the pedal all the way down), and then can go from 0 to the pre-set speed with the foot control. I use this system on my PowerGraver,too.
 
Another thank you today on putting that sparser stuff up !!! I always wanted to be able to do that shield inlay thing in a good looking manner. Frank
 
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