How do you shape your spacers on hidden tang knives

[andrewh2011]

Hey guys I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to shape the spacers on my hidden tang with a "plate" guard. I super glued them together last night so I could shape them as one piece. I don't have any pics because I'm at work I'll upload some tonight. In thinkin just file test fit reapeat.

What do you guys do?

 

[Jason Fry]

Superglue is good for that. Guide pins are better. I typically use two 1/16 pins in a guard stack. Like this. Also, note the 1,2,3 punch marks in the same location on each piece. This helps you keep the stack in order and oriented correctly as you continually disassemble and re-assemble.

 

[kuraki]

Do you mean the outside? I cut them out into oversize squares, put the tang hole in them, pin them to the guard, then grind them to shape with the handle. I don't really do any shaping outside of cutting them into big enough squares before grinding as an assembly. Pinning them makes sure it all goes back together relatively close so final finish sanding doesn't take long.

If it's a metal stack of spacers I might pin them all together with peened pins so they stay 1 piece.