guard help

[Don Cowles]

Steve, I just finished up a knife for a customer, and noticed a couple of scratches under the ricasso, between the plunge cuts and the face of the guard. I taped off the face of the guard, and put a 1/2" strip of 45X Trizact belt on the Burr King and cleaned it up nicely. When I removed the tape, I discovered two tiny nicks near the edge of the guard face from the sanding belt.

I gave up on soldering guards a long time ago, primarily because I was absolutely unable to clean up the guard face to my satisfaction after the soldering operation. Now I'm faced with the same problem.

If you have found any tricks to re-polish the guard face on a finished knife, I'd sure be glad to hear about them. Thanks!

[mike koller]

A thin piece of spacer material on the blade( secured with tape) and popcicle stick with the abrasive attached to it (spray adhesive allows you to make one side "safe" like a file if you need it to be.

Also (pracher talking to the choir I know) make sure you work the area beneath the ricasso at the same time to prevent the groove from developing that will occur from just working the sides.

Thanks again Terry for the solderless guard tutorial It sure makes guards a breeze with the J-B weld.

[Don Cowles]

Mike, that's exactly what I used to do, but I was never happy with the results. The guard would start out with a highly polished face, and wind up with a bunch of grooves and obvious sanding strokes all over it. I was thinking along the lines of a Foredom with a felt bob and diamond paste, but I know that is capable of digging a pretty good groove too. Sigh...

[Mike Hull]

Don, what about a cratex wheel, the kind with the flat surface tapering to a pointy edge. Like the type some use to remove excess guard solder.:confused:

[Dan Graves]

Don,

I also have problems in this area so I may not have THE ANSWER but here are a few things that have helped. First, If it is a hidden tang knife Finish blade and gaurd first and assemble where no cleanup is required. If a fault occours I use a planer blade to back my sand paper as it gets in the 90% area without scratching blade or gauard. I also use 400 grit paper to cleanup with as no deep scratches occur. If it is a full tang knife I find the planer blade helpfull. I have known Terry Primos for years and got him away from using files to buying a grinder. years later he has come back to impress upon me to FINISH THAT BLADE AND GAURD before assembly. I hope this helps. I hope this tread keeps going because I can also use help.

Dan
www.theknifemaker.com

[cactusforge]

Don, try a blue knife edge or flat wheels that you use with a fordom. I can't live without them way to handy to not have.
Get them from Rio Grande, page 151-157 in the cataloge, the ones I use are on page 153 bottom of the page, High Flex Polishers, If you don't have the cataloge the #1 800 545 6566
Gib

[Don Cowles]

I guess maybe I didn't make myself clear: I DID finish the guard before assembly. After the knife was completed, I nicked the face of the guard, and need to repair it before I can ship the knife.

[m williams]

For those little nicks on a finished guard I can sometimes pull my fat out of the fire by doing it this way. I put a drop of super glue on the ricasso then place a safety razor blade on it, butted carefully up against the guard. Then I use the stick, glue and paper as Mike does. The hard thin blade protects your blade yet allows very close sanding for that" I never screw up look". A little heat and some acetone will remove it easily.

[Don Cowles]

Gib, I ordered some of the high-flex poslishers. Thanks for the tip.

[cactusforge]

Don, You will find that those wheels are used a lot, cleaning up file work for one. Gib

[Steve]

Sorry I'm slow. See above report as my excuse.

Sounds like good advice. I've used the razor blade on the ricasso before with good results It's very difficult to do much sanding without messing up the edge of the guard after the knife's done, as you know. I assume you're satin finishing. For a polish, use at least 600x or finer to finish up prior to buffing.

We've all done it and it's maddening!

[Dan Graves]

All this sounds great, but what is a foredom and blue knife edge? Im still in the old world of using solder for my gaurds. I ordered that catilog today. Thanks for the tips guys.

Dan
theknifemaker.com

[Steve]

A Froedom is a Moto-tool type hand grinder, but more expensive. The blue knife edge must be some type of Cra-tex polishing wheel with a sharp edge on the wheel, tapered from the center to the edge. Anone else?

[Robert Washburn]

Aetrick that I use is an old wood chisel.They come in diffrent widths.

[cactusforge]

Steve, A blue wheel is a rubber like wheel about 1" in dia that has an abrasive in it, it will do what a cratex wheel won't, it will remove material and polish at the same time, fix a solder joint in jig time to perfect if you are at least close to start with. Thy wear fast so you need a few and a mandrel. Gib