With the blade finished (other then sharpening) it's time to install the finger guard blank. For those that got here late in the build, pictures of slotting the finger guard can be found on page 8 in post #114. I have covered the blade area with duct tape to protect the "special satiny finish" for the rest of the build.
The finger guard is first pinned in place. Look how big my fingers have gotten! I think it's from eating Spam the other day. I'm going to check with Memaquay to confirm this.
I mushroom the pin hitting alternate sides evenly.
Some of the pin material is driven into the hole and forced the hole out sideways for a tight fit. The pin is now slightly hour glass shaped inside the finger guard. The pin is so tight that later after sanding you won't be able to see it's outline.
You might notice the duct tape stops short of the guard. This is because I am going to silver solder the guard to the tang. The pin holds the guard in place just fine. I do this to seal out moisture and possibly blood from cleaning Canotrouge's moose. If moisture, especially blood, got inside the guard area it could in time corrode and there would be no way to stop it by the time you noticed it working it's way out. I really do attempt to build knives to be handed down to future generations. Anyway, the duct tape protects the blade from the acid fumes of the flux when heated. The flux fumes will etch even stainless steel knives. Ripster's satin finish will be cleaned back up in the bare area after soldering.
In this picture we have an old fool sanding on a finger guard to shape it. At least his ear seems clean. Clean enough to sand a finger guard anyway. I like to rough sand the guard with the wood out of the way. Later when I'm sanding the wood, the finger guard gives me a target of how far down to sand the wood on that end.
I am always amazed in these pictures how close my fingers are to the sanding belt. I don't notice it when I am sanding.
Well sometimes I notice a little skin go poof when it gets too close, then I back up a little. now that my fingers are huge I have skin to spare. If you look near my left knuckle you may notice some of the wheel is showing. This is because I have adjusted the belt tracking so the belt is hanging over the right side of the wheel for this operation. It "softens" the edge of the belt so it doesn't dig in as much, allowing me to "sculpt" with out leaving deep gouges.
The Ripster's guard is roughed out and my fingers are looking back to a more normal size. I suppose I must have sanded them down in the process.
The Ripster is getting a little sassier all the time. Next installment will be gluing up the handle. See you next time when I'll probably glue my fingers to the Ripster. Dave
