|
ill rough a general contour to the bolsters before HT, then once the blade is all finished (except sharpening) ill pin them down. I use smaller pins myself (3/32", or 1/16") and basically pin down the 4 corners. in the pic you've got your pins more toward the front. with pins that size (1/8"im guessing) you could have gone with one front and one rear. sure what you have will keep it on there forever and a day, but my silly OCDish brain looks at the distribution of force holding the bolster down. I know some will use epoxy under the bolsters as a moisture bearer, but you want to keep the pins and holes clean, or else you could end up with dark circles around your pins when youre done.
I finish the inside, and back to 320-400. then using a file guide clamped to the tang to mark where I want bolster and handle material to meet, ill mark/drill pin holes. I roughly mark a box inside the bolster material, area 3/16"-1/4" from the edges of where itll be when finished shape. put a dot of super glue on each side and visegrip into place. drill one hole and put in a temp pin for incase the glue comes loose while drilling. since I use 4 pins myself, the first 2 get temp pins while drilling. after holes are drilled ill knock the parts loose, clean off glue, put in 4 temp pins and shape front edge of bolster. sanding and polishing all the way to finish.
peening the pins.... ill taper the opening of the holes just slightly, trim the pins to stick out each side no more that the pin is thick. (1/8" pin, = 1/8" out each side) ill also slightly dome them. this causes the pins to expand when hit more so than mushrooming down from the top. typically locking the bolsters in the first couple hammer taps. once all pins are secure ill then keep hammering on them till they are nearly flush. making sure that they have fully expanded down inside the hole so that as I contour the bolster later there will not be any visible sign of where the pins are.
hope this is helpful
|