How to put groove a guard....

Terry, that is pretty amazing.
I made one full tang knife with a full guard and it damned near killed me. Hours of filing and fitting with needle files and of course, I was limited by the width of the tang which of course the guard had to be able to slide over.
Thanks for unselfishly sharing this. I will gladly take the slap on the hand for you! ;)
btw, do you make any damascus for other people? :D

Mike
 
Awesome thread! Thanks Terry for the great pictorial(s).

One other way--learned this from J.D. Smith--to start the job is to chuck up a Dremel or similar cut-off disc in a drill press. Then just adjust the table height until the disc is dead center and rotate the ferrule/spacer manually. Watch your fingers!

For those ferrules that have two shallower grooves running parallel to each other--I think Roger Massey does some of these--this works great too. Assuming your ferrule is of uniform width and your table square, when you flip the ferrule over you will be able to cut a line that is the exact same distance from the top/bottom as the first. From there you can either leave the grooves the width/depth of the cuttoff disc, or move to files to widen/deepen.

Hope this helps,

John Frankl
 
I saw one bowie at blade 05 that had a deep groove with strait walls, I asked the maker how he did it.
He put a groove in black micarta and polished it...then sandwiched it between two pieces of silver. Looked really nice.

Just another way of doing it.
 
I am glad, as well, that I asked this question! I am blown away
by the craftsmanship here. :eek:

Thanks, again, Terry (and all), for taking
the time to post these pics and for the mentoring.

I almost asked the question myself about how Terry got a big, one piece, oval guard on a full tang knife. Now I know.

Thanks, again, folks!

Dana Hackney
Monument, CO
 
primos said:
Do you mean around the edge like this?

rifleman.jpg


If so, I just use a fresh 1/8" chainsaw file. Once I get the depth I want, I clean and smooth the groove with sand paper folded over a length of pin stock that's just a little under 1/8".
Click to expand...
wow,, hope his knife comes out as pretty as yours
 
Great thread, and subthread! Nice frame handle Terry! I can even see where you got the tang damascus I think. It's right in front of the ricasso, but is flipped 180 degrees.
My old fingerprint classes at work <grin> BTW, is there an advantage to doing this as opposed to simply mortising out the two handle slabs? Strength?
 
Robert,
You are correct sir. H-m-m, I hope I made it clear to everyone that the shot with the handle disassembled was digitally manipulated from an actual shot of the knife.

In that shot I used Paintshop Pro to "lift" one of the ivory scales and sit it off to the side. I could have done a better job representing the frame but elected to just use a silver gradient to represent the steel. Then I "drew" the tang in the frame, created a "paintbrush" that contained a copy of the Damascus in the area of the blade you mentioned, and "painted" it in.

So, in that shot everything from the ferrule to the tip of the blade is real, and everything from the back of the ferrule to the butt is fake. The first shot I posted of the assembled knife is the real deal.

####

Regarding your question:

The only advantage I can think of to doing a frame handle -- other than the fact that it makes people think -- is that it allows you to use pieces of handle material that are too thin on their own. The ivory scales used on that Bowie were only about 1/4" thick each, which was not thick enough for that Bowie. By mounting them to a steel frame I had enough thickness to pull it off.
 
Thanks for the great explanations Nick and Terry very usefull and easy to understand, especially for a begginer like myself. It is something I will have to have a go at now :)

Great knife, great thread and real helpfull folks :D
 
Everything that Sunraven said!!
I do not know if you "old guys" in the game fully realize just how much of a life line you are to newbies like us.

I personally am pretty isolated where I live as far as knifemakers go so I depend so much on info and encouragement I can glean from this forum. What I cannot understand though is how you guys share your knowledge so freely, unassumingly and unselfishly, I would have thought the opposite. That is how it is with most other things in this life, if you have the edge (pun intended) you pretty much keep it.
Clearly a league of extraordinary gentlemen.:thumbup:

I will now stop gushing before I provoke some sarcasm!!

Thanks a lot guys.

Mike
 
I like that idea about using an abrasive wheel in the drill press.

I was gonna mention another way that only requires a round file and flat surface, in case you're worried about the file skipping off the edge if you do it by hand.

You'll need a round file the same thickness as your guard stock, so 3/16" in this case. Lay the file on a flat smooth surface, like a hard countertop, smooth steel bench, or even a plate of glass. Hold the file still, and lay the guard material on the work area. Rub the edge of the guard against the file, working all the way around the edge, until you've got a nice groove started. This way, you don't have to worry about slipping with the file, and it will automatically cut the groove in the center. Once you've got it started, you can use a smaller diameter file if you like.
 
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