[Ed Tipton]

I admit that I am barely beyond what I would call a "newbie", and am still very much learning this fantastic craft.
Having said that, I have noticed that many people expressed frustration and spent many tedious hours in getting the correct fit in the area where the guard fits onto the blade. I admit that I have only made guards from steel, and never attempted this with brass or any other metal, but I have had great success with the tried and true metheod of "hot punching" the guard using a punch especially made for that purpose. I am wondering why I have never heard or read where anyone else has tried this metheod since it is a quick and consistant technique for obtaining an exact close, tight fit in this area. This to me, seems to be a very obvious and easy approach to solving this perplexing problem. Comments please.