Making a file guide

I was watching Self Made Knives YouTube video about it his first knife this morning... more listening to it than watching it while I was going to drill these holes...great Video by the way
 
That's a gnarly cut!

I made a file guide out of some 1/2 key stock, very similar to Bruce Bump's style, and then I glued some 1/8 by (I wanna say it was 5/16 wide or so) carbide flats. All in, I think materials ran me about $50 (carbide wasn't cheap!), though I'm sure I could have gotten away with smaller or thinner carbide.

For attaching them, I just used some high temp epoxy putty. One side has held very well, though the other let loose pretty soon. IIRC, I just put it back on with some loctite CA glue, and it's been holding fine. If it pops off, I'll just super glue again.
 
As for size, you all make perfect sense, I’m temporarily shop poor, especially after a little incident this morning. When I can order some more metal I will definitely make a better one until I can pony up for the big boy model.
 
JJB11B said:
So I was gonna just drill a couple holes in my file guide but oopsed on not picking up a piece of 1/8” sheet metal. No more shirts in the shop, no more sheet metal piles
Click to expand...

Yep, when you see the opening roll down like that you know its gonna need stitches.

Back to the subject at hand I bought carbide strips off of ebay, for a good price. Of course you will have to cut to length. A diamond blade like they use for tile will cut them. Another thing I should mention carbide will break if you drop it on the concrete floor, (don't ask how I know)!

I broke a hardened set second use, by overtightening them. Or at least that is what the maker claimed. I actually only tightened till they stopped moving!! Laid it on my bench to do something else and I heard snap! Walked over and picked them up and sure enough they were broke!!

I use key stock and drill both pieces at the same time. I do not harden them, the wear and tear is on the carbide strip. So I see no need to harden them. I used to use JB weld to hold the carbide but, they will eventually let loose from the heat created by the belt running up against them!! Now days I solder them. I tin the metal on the key stock and go back and heat and solder the carbides to the key stock!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top