Making Dovetailed bolsters

[ArtinNC]

I'm going to try to take you through my way of making dovetailed bolsters . And feel free to ask questions .

#01 The knife and two piecse of 416 SS cut to length.
#02 I mill the two insides of the bolsters flat.
#03 Now sand the two bolsters to take out the biggest mill marks.
#04 Next I mill a 30?angle for the dovetail. You can see my high tech setup way of clamping in the angle vice.

[ArtinNC]

#05 Milling the 30? angle on bolster .
#06 If you don't have a mill I use to grind the 30? on a disc grinder.
#07 Now I tape the blade to keep from getting scratched.
#08 With the right bolster squared to the knife and clamped I drill the first hole in the bolster. Using the knife as a template.

[ArtinNC]

#09 Then I put a pin in the hole I just drilled so the bolster to keep the two holes alined while drilling.

#10 Now put the two out sides of bolsters together And make sure the points are square against the 1" square block again and clamp together.

#11 Now with both sides clamped together drill the first hole in the second bolster.
#12 And again put a pin in the first hole and set them against the 1" square block to make sure the dovetails are in line and clamp.

#13 And drill the second hole in the second bolster.

[ArtinNC]

#14 Now I put the right side bolster on the left side of the knife .
#15 And mark the outside where the bolster will be finished to. You can see my marks.
#16 Now With the two insides of the bolsters together and pins in both holes . I mark how far I'm going to round the front of the bolsters . About .100 from the edge.

#17 Another view.

[ArtinNC]

#18 With the two bolsters clamped together I just radius the front of the bolsters to the
.100 mark on both sides, and grind the front till the line between the two bolsters disapears.

#19 I see in the picture I don't have the same radius on both , but will correct that when I grind the 60 grit marks out with a 400 grit belt.

#20 Now I clamp in the vice and hand sand with 600 grit paper. Because I didn't have any 600 grit belts . Then still clamped together buff the front of the bolsters to a high polish finish.

#21 This is a step that no one does . I use a 1/8" tappered pin reamer and clean up the inside of the rivet holes . And don't ream to the bottom of the hole in the bolster , because you need to a tight hole in the bottom to keep the right and left bolsters lined up when riveting.

[ArtinNC]

#22 Showing about how long the pins are on both sides .
#23 Show the pins peined flat.
#24 Bolster ground slightly round and shaped to the knife.
#25 Just another view.

[ArtinNC]

#26 And finished knife.

[R. Yates]

Well Done good show of how to do them .

Sam

[ncrobb]

Thanks Art. I really appreciate you taking time to post "how to" threads like this. I am gonna try my luck with some straight cut bolsters first though!

Robb

[ArtinNC]

straight cut bolsters Works the same way just don't have the 30? angle cut .

[aith]

excellant tutorial again......can we make Art's (and others) tutorials a sticky?........Lou