Soldering Guard to Damascus blade

R A Wilson

R A Wilson

Joined
Dec 5, 2000
Messages
54
How do you solder a Guard to an etched damascus blade with out screwing up the etch?? On my non damascus blades, I polish before soldering then clean up the mess the acid and solder make and re-polish. What is the trick? Thanks in advance.

Robert Wilson
Wilson Custom Knives
 
I would use the method described by Terry Primos in the tutorial on this page:

http://www.customknifedirectory.com/CKD_TutorialFrameset.htm

It is a solderless guard that uses JB Weld and it works and looks great. I use it on blades that have blued guards, etched blades, or parkerized blades. The only difference is that I use JB Quik Weld rather than the long setting stuff.

This method is great since the joint is a dull grey color due to the amount of atomized metal that is present in JB Weld.

Doesn't crack like silver solder will in an EXTREME flex either.
 
Hey thanks XRAYED :)

I'm glad the technique has worked well for you. I wish I could take credit for coming up with the idea, but I didn't. I learned the JB Weld method from Jerry Fisk several years ago and have used it ever since.

One thing I might mention; I got many very nice emails about the tutorial, but a few folks got confused about what I was referring to a pressure fit.

The guard has a snug fit and is gently tapped up flush to the guard stops using a light hammer and a seating tool. A few people thought that I was beating the daylights out of the thing and voiced their concern.

When slid up the tang, the guard stops just short of the back of the ricasso, and is just tapped a bit to seat it. If you want to know what gentle tapping is, make a fist and hit your knuckles with the hammer. Did it hurt? If so, you weren't using a gentle tap. :D

The link listed above goes to framed Reference & Tutorial area of CKD, with links to many tutorials and articles. It is a great place to go for references. But if you want to jump right to the tutorial on my site, the URL is: http://www.shreve.net/~primos/guardtut1.htm
 
I was always wondering this question myself years ago....
I found that I could just rub out the finish on the blade then set the guard and solder with LEAD solder (ferric chloride will eat silver solder) and then etch the blade with the guard on .This way I can shape the guard after I etched the blade and then buff the guard and blade and have a clean etch all the way up to the guard and no chance of a scratch or messing up.
If you are wanting a fancy guard and need to make it before you attach it to the blade then you might consider a small collar around the riccasso or just a piece that is soldered on like a guard and then ground real close to the blade then when you set the guard it just has to be a tight fit and is secured with the epoxy when you are setting your handle.
Bruce
 
I was having a problem with solder traveling between machined parts and locking them together, and was told to use milk of magnesia as a block.

I don't know if it would work in this aplication, but it's worth a try
 
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