How to fit a double guard to a tang knife?

LARRYZ10

LARRYZ10

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Feb 6, 2010
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I am fairly new to knifemaking. I have seen many Loveless style knives (in books) with double guards or bolsters installed on tang knives where the back of the tang appears to be WIDER than the opening in the guard. I guessed that the guard was made to slip over the front of the blade and pinned in place midpoint on the tang.... or did the guard somehow slip over the back of the tang and stop at the bolster area? Could the guard be two pieces pinned to each side with the tang extending down and up to form the center of the guard? Will someone please tell me what most of you already know? Thanks for any clues. Larry Lehman, Bakersfield, Ca
 
Hi Larry, I've not done a sub-hilt style knife yet, so I won't butcher the details for you, but I'll tell you that Steve Johnson's video has everything you ever wanted to know about this subject and having it will make you a better knifemaker, give you beautiful, strong children and healthy crops.
 
It could be that what you think is tang between the scales is actually a separate piece of steel surrounding a stub tang
-Page
 
The blade is actually smaller than the handle and the guard is slid on from the front. look for a pattern for the Wilderness blade and you can see the step down that the guard comes up against. It may be only 1/16 inch difference top and bottome but it is enough.
 
Thank you for your answer! One other question please.... it looks like many of the guards or bolsters on Loveless knives are identical in dimension. Also, the top and bottom of the tang is rounded in front of the guard so do you think the holes in the guards are made with with an end mill routing a slot with rounded ends or do you think each guard was drilled and hand filed to fit? I do not have an end mill but am looking for a way to do this without unsightly gaps. Thanks, Larry Lehman
 
LARRYZ10 said:
it looks like many of the guards or bolsters on Loveless knives are identical in dimension.

Also, the top and bottom of the tang is rounded in front of the guard
so do you think the holes in the guards are made with with an end mill routing a slot with rounded ends
Click to expand...

Larry

He is using a milling machine setup just for that.

Round end left in the slots and the blade is rounded with a file to fit that.

You can see it all on his video.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/547...nd-How_to_Make_Custom_Knives-Loveless-Merritt

http://www.amazon.com/LOVELESS-LEGE...1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1269833324&sr=8-2-fkmr2
 
Thanks, I am going to study Loveless's books. I think that I can do this even without a mill. I am going to drill a bunch of holes ands file them out... or buy a guard almost to fit and grind down the tang lightly to fit. Then taper down the blade before grinding the hollow. Thanks, Larry
 
I would file out the guard to fit the tang, not grind the tang to fit the guard. Again, I seriously recommend watching Steve's video. You will learn everything you want to know about this style of knife. He studied with Loveless, along with Gil Hibben, Buster Warenski and a host of other knifemaking "greats" and is now considered one of the top makers in this knife style.
 
I know this discussion is mostly about Loveless style knives, but it's worth noting Page's comment below:

sunshadow said:
It could be that what you think is tang between the scales is actually a separate piece of steel surrounding a stub tang
-Page
Click to expand...

This is an entire other way of fitting up a double guard onto a knife with a larger butt (such as a coffin bowie) and will yield hours of fascinating study, look up "frame handle" here in search.
 
Thanks to everyone for links to info and suggestions. I am reading everything and taking each suggestion seriously. My main problem is completing the task without expensive precision equiptment. I am only fair in skill with a file so I look for techniques that help with minimizing error like using guides and jigs to control my feeble filing. Thanks to all. Larry Lehman
 
Hi Larry - getting in the habit of checking fit too often is the easiest way to keep from over-filing, in my opinion. The difference between removing steel from the blade and removing metal from the guard is that there's a lot less work going in fitting a new guard than there is in profiling, grinding and heat treating a new blade.

Even when you're milling a guard out, you file it to final fit, unless you're one of these machinist whizzes who can use slide rules and DROs to make whole knives :D
 
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