Requesting advice on hiding a gap

weo

weo

Joined
Sep 21, 2014
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Hello all. While working on my 3rd blade, my lack of experience (does that sound better than 'lack of paying attention'?) caused a slightly sloppy fit between the finger guard and the blade, enough to see through. I could forge out a new piece and make a new guard, but because this is my first real knife, I'd like to complete it, flaws and all, to finish the learning experience and to use as a reminder of what not to do in the future. The blade is a 350 layer ladder pattern of 1095/15N20 and the guard was made from a 3 inch piece of the billet after the first fold (22 layers) that I accidently tapered while drawing out the bar before the second fold.
I'm thinking silver solder be a good choice to both fix the guard to the blade and fill in the gap to hide it? Should I jam some shims into the gap before soldering, and if so, could(should?) I use thin brass strips to fill the biggest gap?
Thanks in advance.
~billyO
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

I'll be able to get pics tomorrow, but the gap is where the guard meets the ricasso on either side of the blade, partly due to not keeping the file flat resulting in rounding the corners. With a shim, I can pretty much hide the gap on one side.
 
I take a center punch that I modified into a ball pein punch and run a line on the face,bJust outside of the slot. This will push some material into the slot. Sand the face smooth and done. It really don't go as deep as you would think.
 
Close the gap by hammering the guard. Then, re-fit the guard to the blade.
 
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