Help with Guard Fitting

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me2

Joined
Oct 11, 2003
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I am nearly finished with my first knife, starting from bar stock. I tried to put an aluminum guard on it, and just couldnt get it to fit. I ended up with a wooded guard on a wood handle. I just heated the tang and burned the hole for that. How does one get a good fit on a guard that slides on from the tang?
 
me2, fitting guards is something that takes a lot of patience. The easiest way is to use a filing jig; a clamping setup made of steel that is as hard or harder than a file. The jig allows you to file right up against it and get your guard slots even and flat. Koval sells one that is relatively inexpensive. Uncle Al at Riverside Machine makes a superb version, but it is rather expensive.

To start, scribe a center line in the guard material. You need to measure the thickness of your tang at the shoulders before drilling the holes and drill them several thousandths undersize. An inexpensive set of calipers will do the trick. Center punch along the line for drilling the holes so that you can get your slot started. Drill the holes and use a very small rattail file to connect the holes, then switch to small flat files to get the sides even an flat. You can do this by eye and measurement without a jig, but it takes a lot more time and many more measurements. Ideally, you will file the slot so that it is a slight press fit and use JB Weld for your sealant. That negates the need for soldering the joint and allows you to use any material you wish for guard material.

The beauty of using a jig is that you can also use it to get the shoulders on your blade perfectly square. A filing jig is one piece of equipment that is well worth having if you are going to make a few knives.
 
Sheffield sells a cheaper version, too. Kovals is closed for awhile.
 
Excellent. Thanks fellas. I had trouble because the tang is only 3/32" thick in some places. Its a full flat grind on 1/8" x 1" O1. I dont know where to get a file that small, but I'll look around a little. Next time I'm leaving the tang full thickness anyway, since the thing bends fairly easily now that the handle is in place. I threw it a few times just to see what would happen, and it didnt bend, but hand pressure can do it without a lot of effort. It's meant to be a fine edge hunting knife for a guy at work.
 
fitzo said:
Sheffield sells a cheaper version, too. Kovals is closed for awhile.
Click to expand...

Koval Knives is now open! Call 1-800-556-4837 for information. We look forward to hearing from everyone real soon. We are here for all your knifemaking needs!
 
me2 - Is that knife hardened? You stated that you heated the tang to burn the handle in.Did you do it before or after HT? The small files are called needle files.There are several great tutorials on fitting guards,do a search.
 
I had hardened it already. I kept it wrapped in a wet rag, and held it w/ bare hands while burning the hole. This was not my original plan. I only did it this way when I discovered the drill bits wouldnt drill deep enough for the tang. About 1/8" of the bottom of the blade turned a slight yellow/straw color during the hole burning, but the edge doesnt run that low. It came out of the oven after tempering with the same color. This was the first stick tang knife that I've made. In the future, I'll figure a way to cut the holes the size I need, or I'll burn the tang hole before hardening.
 
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