Bolster hole drilling problem...

P

Pedro G.

Well-Known Member
I am trying to make bolsters for the first time and I just received a nice 1/4"x1"x 12" brass flat bar. Regretably I already ruined 3-4" of it trying to make the holes perfectly alligned with the knife and each other (Makes me feel pretty guilty XD)... But after that last inch I thought... no...

Can anyone please tell me what I'm doing wrong. I have a craftman drill press. It's worked wonders so far. My big problems are that I get the holes in the wrong places by probably 1mm or less. Usually its just one hole. Other times they fit but the brass is so uneven it won't work. And other times the holes came out wierd. As if the bit bended and drilled at an angle and the pins just won't go through right... Help please? :)

I also think I made a mistake by drilling the bolster holes in the knife part one size bigger. I thought "If their a bit bigger maybe they'll slide through better and I can fill the rest in with JB weld anyways." I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not..
Thank you,
-Pedro G.

P.S. Here is a picture of what i've so far ruined...
IMAG0296.jpg
 
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Try this: Glue one bolster in place on the blade with just a drop of cyanoacrylate. Use the blade as a template and drill your first hole. Put a small piece of pin material in the hole to help hold in place and repeat for the second hole, then pin and repeat for the third hole. Remove the pins and knock the bolster off of the blade. Now glue the two bolsters together the same way with a drop of cyanoacrylate. Drill the ifrst hole, pin, repeat etc, etc. Remove the pins and separate the bolsters and clean them. Try them on the blade and all holes should line up so pins slide through. Apply yor JB Weld and peen your pins.
 
Haha yea, I was just browsing through my glues and I saw on the corner of the package of super glue it said cyanoacrylate. I tried it and it worked amazing! Thank you very much for this!!!

-Pedro G.
 
The super glue trick works for drilling lined up holes through just about anything except wood, it will leave a chunk of wood stuck on whathever you glue it to and is a great way to ruin a set of scales.
 
You can do the same thing with an epoxy but you will have to leave it clamped in place longer, even with the fast setting type. I do it slightly differently when I do a bolster. I drill the holes in the tang, glue on one bolster blank and drill the holes in it using the holes in the tang for guides. Then I glue on the other bolster bland and use the holes through the first black and tang to guide those holes. Then all you have to do is give the bolster blanks a sharp smack with a hammer or mallet and they will shear off the tang. You can then use temporary pins to hold the blanks together to do any preshaping before reglueing and pinning to the tang. Not much different than Justin's method. Either will work.

Doug
 
After I have the bolsters on the knife and welded/epoxied and what not. How do I get the brass even with the blade without scratching the tang?
And When you want to put spacers on a knife handle, Do you also put spacer material on the bolster or just the handle?

-Pedro G.
 
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If you had bought the book I told you about , you would've had the answers to your 20 last questions . And your 20 next questions ...
 
You won't get it even without scratching the tang. You will refinish the tang at the same time that you do the finish on the bolsters. You shape the bolster material with a grinder or files and sandpaper.

I highly recommend the book that Bill suggests, by the way. It presents everything that you need to know to make a basic knife from stock removal and you won't have to ask "what do I do next" because you will have read through the proceedure already. I read that book and two by Wayne Goddard before I bought my first tool or piece of steel so I started out with a basic idea of what to do and the people on these boards only had to expand on what I read or explain them.

Doug
 
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