What is the process for pinning damascus bolsters?

I'm not sure Chris, I have pretty much gone to gaurds, and the way I do it after soildering is to etch blade and gaurd together. On a folder or some other combination I have seen screws, and I think you could etch befor atching, thin pien your pinns, then carefully file the pin down, and put a drop of etch on the fresh spot. I have also seen a few art folders with the pin just left piened.

Hope this helps, maybe some one with more damascus exp. will chime in.
 
Chris it is a eight step process.

Drill and locate bolsters.
Temprarily pin in place.
Shape and polish the bolsters.
Remove bolsters and etch paying particular attention to edges.
Peen bolsters in place.
Grind down pins and repolish faces.
"Mask" off the blade and tang edges with axle grease to avoid etching blade.
With a fine paint brush re etch the face of the bolsters.

This normally takes me several hours.

Now the easy way.....use a stellite blade, install and polish bolsters completely, throw the whole thing in the etching liquid. The bolsters will etch and the blade will not.
 
drill the holes part way through the bolsters then put them to gether and grind them so they match together then blind solder them on the blade then you can etch it all at once and the pins wont show
 
Wow George, great method!!!
Short of making some pins out of the damascus that sounds like a good plan!
 
I like Gerome Weinand's solution. If you don't want to solder, you can follow the link below. I have done this with mokume as well.

Hidden Pins

This method won't "rust, bust, corrode or explode".


C Wilkins

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"Heck, I can't even afford my own knives".
 
In the past I have used false pins to hold things and done my profiling. I've then put a deep etch in the bolsters and assembled everything. I ground the pins off close to the bolsters. I then took a piece of .002 shim stock and punched a hole just larger than the bolster pin. This shim stock is placed over the pin and a file is used to remove the rest of the pin without maring the finish. It leaves about .002 of the pin sticking up which is easily removed by hand sanding.
 
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