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(W49) Re bending brass guard?

R

RDog

Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
366
Just got an old (1978) Western W49...someone in its history bent the lower guard making it a little bit of a knuckle knocker, I'd like to bend the guard back as close to original spec as I can, how do I best do this?
 
How much "bend" are we talking about? 1 - 2 mm or so, you are probably - (disclaimer, PROBABLY) - fine to just manually bend it back in place.

Anything more, I would suggest heating it to a dull glow, then quench in water. Brass being a non-ferrous metal, responds oppositely to the way ferrous metal (ie, your knife blade) does when heated and quenched. A knife blade get harder by heating/quenching, brass gets softer.
 
My love for the old W49 makes me cringe just reading this. lol
 
Well, I found a workaround, I will be replacing the handle slabs, so I will just spin the guard around giving me the stock curvature for my knuckles and the slightly more bent section will be on top over the blade when doing so. Thankfully I don't need risk breaking the guard trying to bend it back. Thanks for the info on bending it, all the same.
 
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