Heres a question

[huntforlife]

I am starting my first hidden tang and have a question about the guard.

Do ya'll heat treat the guard after its finish shanded/shaped etc.?

[DanCom]

Hi,

Not sure what the guard is made of. Commonly we use 416 stainless steel for guards and bolsters. With 416 SS, I shape, file and sand until it's "pretty good,", about 340 grit. Then heat treat like other stainless steel, 1000?C (1850?F)and then and air quench with a compressor. I do my SS in a sealed SS foil wrap, so it looks "beautifuly-ugly" when it comes out of the oven. A light sanding at 400 and 600 grit and polish and it comes up brilliant.

Hope this helps!

Dan

[jmccustomknives]

There's more than one way to do this. The main way I do it is to rough the knife in (to about 95%) then fit the guard. Once the guard is fitted then I will remove it and heat treat the blade and clean up up then put the guard back on. Then the threaded portion is silver brazed on and the knife is assembled.
The second way would be to make a guard that would be pinned rather than using the compressive force from the screw to hold it together. It would be done in the same process.

[Ray Rogers]

I don't HT the guard at all. There are two main arguments for heat treating guards that I know of. One is for color matching and the other is for improved rust resistance. I use 416 on almost all my stainless kitchen knives and many of my stainless hunters. No one has ever complained that the color didn't match the blade well enough and no one has ever mentioned even a single speck of rust.

Heat treating does make 416 tougher also so if you need than then HT you must. Otherwise, I would consider HTing 416 guards as totally optional ...

[BCROB]

No to heat treating the guard

[huntforlife]

Thanks for the replies. I wont be using SS, but D2.