Threading Bolsters
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:39 pm
I decided to post my technique for this in case someone else wanted to give it a try. There’s probably a couple of different ways to do this, this is how I do it.
I start by clamping the knife handle with bolster into a blade vise to hold it steady. I cut the first groove parallel to the straight edge of the bolster using a jewelers saw. Once the initial groove is cut I use thin strips of duct tape to help keep everything parallel. The tape is just thick enough to allow me to use it as a guide for the thin jewelry saw blade.
Once I have all of the grooves laid out and cut deep enough I start filing the grooves a bit wider and deeper. I usually start with some triangular files and then possibly use a few other files depending on what I want the groove to look like;
Here’s the bolster with all of the grooves roughly cut in (they are all parallel even though the photo makes them look skewed);
I like to clean up the grooves to remove some of the roughness created by using files. I use an old steel knife liner wrapped with 220, then 400 and finally 600 grit papers to clean the grooves;
I do a quick preliminary bolster cleanup and then give them a quick trip through the polishing wheel.
Here’s a before and after photo of the bolsters;
Hope this was helpful!
Jeff
I start by clamping the knife handle with bolster into a blade vise to hold it steady. I cut the first groove parallel to the straight edge of the bolster using a jewelers saw. Once the initial groove is cut I use thin strips of duct tape to help keep everything parallel. The tape is just thick enough to allow me to use it as a guide for the thin jewelry saw blade.
Here’s a before and after photo of the bolsters;
Jeff
