Solder a Guard

Your welcome. I'm new to knifemaking but I've had LOTS of other hobbies, most all of them using tools and my hands. Some of the techniques used in other trades cross over into knifemaking.
 
Hi David , great tutorial and well presented. This is pretty much how I do it as well. thanks for taking the time .
 
Thanks for the GREAT tutorial, Dave! This TOTALLY kicked my butt last week.

Quick question. On one of the knives I did, the solder just beaded up and wouldn't flow, even though I know I put flux where I needed it to flow to. Have you seen this happen before? Did I not clean the blade well enough?
 
Hi Tedinatl,
It sounds like you soldered more than one blade. Presuming you were successfully with at least one out of 2 blades this is a good beginning.
This is where I would start to look for issues.

Did you put the flux where you wanted the solder to flow? Putting the little pieces of solder in the flux on the plastic lid before you put them on the joint is important.
Add 1 drop of flux to 2 sides of the back of the joint with the cotton less q-tip if you did the above correctly.

Slow heat up is better than fast and overheating. You really don't need to go way past 450f degrees.

Clean with solvent and something that won't leave lint.

When I was learning I was not always successful. But slowly I found out what works.
Here are some of the mistakes I have made.

Wrong solder. I used 1500f degrees silver solder braze by mistake and it never flowed right
Over heating.
To much or to little flux.

Not having everything set up right.
Not using the protective spacer when trying to seat the guard. It dug up the back of the guard.

I hope this helped.
Dave
 
Thanks Dave. I actually soldered 4 knives, and 3 of them had good joints, but they looked like crap. So I decided to remove them all. One thing I didn't do was put the solder in the flux before using it. I think I also used too much solder - about a combined total of 3" per knife. I know this added to how crap it looked afterwards.

I'll try again with less solder, and make sure I let the solder sit in the flux before I use it.

Thanks again!
Ted
 
Thanks again for your explanations, Dave. I tried again last night, and I think I got it! Still a little bit of cleanup required, but what do you think?

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Hi Tedinatl,
Looks Real Good!!!
With time and practice the time it takes to clean up will go down.
If the Guard is sanded to 400 grit before soldering try going "right to" 600 or 800 grit after soldering.
Another reminder, You can not over neutralize the flux after soldering. So after you wash the joint with soap and water, and windex it do it again. Rust is a real downer on a finished knife.
Dave
 
Thanks for the reminder on neutralizing again, Dave. I've cleaned it twice, but will clean it again just for good measure. Does the flux mess up hardened stainless pretty easily as well? Also, I'm glad to hear the clean-up time will be going down. It took almost an hour to clean this one up. :)

The blade and guard was sanded to 1000 before soldering, but is now actually finished with a x-fine scotch brite belt. It's supposed to be a hard use knife, and I want to make sure it's easy for the customr to maintain, hence the scotch brite finish.

Thanks again for your help with this! I'm very happy that this one worked out. 3 more to go!
 
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