Soldering to fix guard fit up- what are the limits

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iticam92

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Jun 12, 2014
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I'm making a knife- 1075 bowie with hamon, as forged "flats"- its coming out great, I'm in love with the shape and hamon, but I'm stuck on the guard. Still a beginner with forging, and my ricasso is concaved a bit from the hammering. So, 416 stainless guard will never fit properly on the wonky ricasso. My only thought is to fill the gaps with solder, but the gaps are pretty big. Would this work? Trying to make this knife look good without going back to the forge to flatten the ricasso and lose all that time, effort and the hamon.


Open to any and all suggestions. I can post pictures if it would help
 
The only thing you can try is hammering the guard concave, and that probably won't work well.
 
Not a good choice but sometimes the only one available is to use JB Weld to set the guard. When just about set wipe smooth at the ricasso with a paper towel dampened in denatured alcohol.
 
I’m with Stacy, if you are going to bog the joint go with JB weld. As stated solder won’t fill large gaps. Also cleaning up excess will most likely cause you to scratch up the ricasso.
 
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Hi there. It looks like you are trying to link images from your gmail message/client. You'd need to reupload them using an image hosting website such as imgur or similar.
There is a thread with some help here:

How do I post pictures from a.....

Whatever kind of device you have? There may be an app for that. Look for a picture/file sharing host. Prefreably one that is NOT porn related. You can use imgur.com, flickr, or any others. There are tutorials online on the "How To" part, search for it. In the mean time, searching here for...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
iticam92 said:
I'm making a knife- 1075 bowie with hamon, as forged "flats"- its coming out great, I'm in love with the shape and hamon, but I'm stuck on the guard. Still a beginner with forging, and my ricasso is concaved a bit from the hammering. So, 416 stainless guard will never fit properly on the wonky ricasso. My only thought is to fill the gaps with solder, but the gaps are pretty big. Would this work? Trying to make this knife look good without going back to the forge to flatten the ricasso and lose all that time, effort and the hamon.


Open to any and all suggestions. I can post pictures if it would help
Click to expand...
Round file work in slot of guard and use black epoxy ?
Something like this ....................
wO309iv.png
 
Nice, but I still can not see any posts there. It may be that the post you have made is set to "private", which I believe is the default. You can either make the post public, or post pictures with the "BBCode" share link that you get from each image when you view the post.
 
That's a lovely hamon.

Regarding the guard, you can peen the sides of the guard and then reflaten the face. This technique works quite good, however, it may not work on such a big gap. If not, I'd suggest fitting a new guard.
 
JB Weld will do that just fine.

It also looks solderable. A close-up of the guard/blade joint would help.
I use TIX solder and TIX flux. It only takes a little to flow if the surfaces are clean and you don't overheat the joint. TIX flows around 280°F, so it does not affect the temper at all. It is also fairly strong, but that is not something that is needed in soldering a guard, as the handle provides the strength.
Apply the flux moderately and heat from the blade side. Apply the TIX solder from the handle side of the guard and let it draw towards the heat. Use a 1/8" round brass wire with a sharp tip to draw the solder along the seam in any place that doesn't want to flow freely. Heat source should be small - a small jeweler's torch, a small $15 butane torch, a heat gun. Propane plumber's torches and other brazing/welding torches are MANY times to hot and powerful.
Some folks use Stay-Brite solder/flux, which is similar, but melts around 430°F.

TIPS:
Make a guard soldering jig with a light force coil spring and sliding clamp for the tang. Put on the guard, slip on the spring, and slide the clamp on the tang so the spring gently pushed the guard in place. Once everything is aligned and double checked for straightness, solder the guard and let it cool for 10 minutes before taking apart and cleaning up the joint.
The spring is best around 3/4"/20mm to 1"/25mm diameter. Many hardware stores have a cabinet of springs. It does not need to be powerful.
The clamp can be a block of steel, aluminum, or hardwood with a slot cut in it to go over the tang. A hole taped 1/4-20 with a thumb screw will clamp it on the tang. You may want to make a couple for different size tangs. It does not need to be clamped hard to hold the spring in place.

Make a double ended solder graver from an 8" to 10" long piece if .25"/6mm square brass or bronze (NOT steel) with one end sharpened like a skew chisel and the other end as a flat chisel. 45° is a good angle for the ends.
Drill a 0.35"/9mm hole down a 3"/75mm long piece of 1"/25mm dowel (or make a round handle from some pretty scrap on the lathe) and glue it in the center of the solder chisel. The two ends will clean up any solder excess. This will allow you to cut away any excess solder easily with no damage to the blade. The ends can be re-sharpened easily on a piece of fine sandpaper to keep it sharp and cutting cleanly. I use 400 grit sanding sticks to sharpen mine.
 
iticam92 said:
I'm making a knife- 1075 bowie with hamon, as forged "flats"- its coming out great, I'm in love with the shape and hamon, but I'm stuck on the guard. Still a beginner with forging, and my ricasso is concaved a bit from the hammering. So, 416 stainless guard will never fit properly on the wonky ricasso. My only thought is to fill the gaps with solder, but the gaps are pretty big. Would this work? Trying to make this knife look good without going back to the forge to flatten the ricasso and lose all that time, effort and the hamon.


Open to any and all suggestions. I can post pictures if it would help
Click to expand...
What is the thickness at ricasso ? Maybe like this if it is thick enough?

tnzAOX5.png
 
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You could always hot forge that guard a bit.

If it was brass, or another nonferous material. I would say, take a ball peen hammer, and peen right by the slot in the areas you need to close the gap on. And then grind out the peen marks. Works pretty great actually.

That could work cold on 416, but idk. I havent tried that myself so cant say for sure.

Idk if the issue was just getting overzealous with your filing, or the shape of the tang. If it is the latter. Make sure before fitting up bolster/guards. You have the tang tapered in every direction to be thinner than the point it sits up against the ricasso, to avoid this in the future. Even with a hollow on the ricasso you could likely avoid this issue with some careful shaping of the tang.
 
This is awesome feedback. Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith , I am gonna take your advice and attempt to solder with tix and a small butane torch. Do I attempt to remove excess solder while it's hot, or after its cooled down?

N Natlek , honestly didn't think of shaving down the tang like that, your idea will be my plan B.
 
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