kinfe kit- gaps between guard and scales

[cwiehle0]

I had a blade laying around that I gave to my 10 yr old to assemble his first knife out of. The blade was bought from Jantz with the guard already on it. I am a rookie as well with this being my first attempt with a guard. We sanded the front of the scales to fit the guard then marked and drilled holes in the scales, but after all was said and done we had a small gap on one of the scales between the scale and guard. What is the trick?
Thanks Chris

[Bob Hartman]

Drill the tang. Clamp one scale to the tang making sure the scale is fitting properly, and drill through the tang, and scale from tang side. Clamp on the other scale (both scales now clamped to the tang), and drill through the whole thing through the side with the hole in it.
Bob

[george tichbour]

What Bob is talking about is the fact that simply drilling holes in the correct place will not guarantee proper positioning. The technique described effectively line bores all three pieces of material guaranteeing that slight angular misalignment will not cause one of the pieces to move when the pins are installed.

George

[cwiehle0]

I guess the problem was the blade came with those threaded rivets so I couldn't drill through the tang because the rivet heads were larger than the tang holes. I know what you're saying though. I think my drill bits are too agressive as well.
Thanks

[Bob Hartman]

A person could also layout the holes 1/16" in further or whatever it takes, and then carefully work the scales until the holes line up, but I wouldn't want to.