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pouring a pewter or lead bolster on a knife.
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Greenhorn
posted
hi,
how do you pour a bolster on a knife without
the molten pewter or lead running away? any help
or ideas would be welcome as i have no idea how you do it.
 
Posts: 19 | Location: england | Registered: 17 October 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of woodman
posted Hide Post
Since both lead or pewter has a low melting point, use manilla paper taped in place for a dam.
 
Posts: 357 | Location: Colorado Territories | Registered: 20 March 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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What is manila paper and where do you get it?
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Willis Creek
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Use a manilla folder or similiar paper. Cereal box works as well.


"touch not the cat without a glove"
"Much of the social history of the western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. . ." Thomas Sowell
 
Posts: 143 | Location: South of the Arkansas, on the slopes of St. Charles Peak, Colorado territory | Registered: 25 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of GreyWolf
posted Hide Post
Here's a link to a quick tutorial on how-to courtesy of the late Ben Hunt:

Pouring a pewter bolster or butt cap

for pewter you can use the low heat silver bearing solder available at most any hardware store. You can also buy harder pewter and babbit metal at Rotometals on line. If the shape of the handle is a bit odd shaped like antler sometimes is you can use two or three layers of aluminum foil attached via masking tape (DO NOT use duct tape - ohhh what a messs...)


aka Chuck Burrows
 
Posts: 616 | Location: Southern Rockies | Registered: 03 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Rifleman - The technique is simple, doing it well a bit more difficult.

First, you should create a "shoulder" on the end of the handle material where the bolster will be- if you are able, it is good to taper this shoulder so it is deeper at the handle end - this to create an angle in the poured material to help retain it in place. Early on I followed the Hershel House video suggestions and used masking tape, but I found that the glue (or so it seemed) on the tape bubbled under the heat and caused some small voids in the pour - too deep to fully file out. Now I use a wrap of alum foil, which I then retain in place with a wrap of tape. This seems to give good results. Warming the blade a bit does help but don't over heat!

Clamp the blade in a vise so you can have both hands free - be sure that the area where the blade end of the bolster will be is level - makes filing to finish easier. Have the open end of the dam well open so you can pour, and do so slowly.

Most times the cast will be pretty smooth, but likely not fit as well as wanted - a bit large, perhaps. This is fine because you want a bit of extra to be able to file to final shape. Polish with successively finer grades of sandpaper, ending with perhaps 600 grit.

If you want the bolster material to extend a bit down the handle it may be best to punch a tiny hole (pinhole) near the inner end of that to help exhaust any air that might be trapped when you pour, causing voids. A hole this small may leak a bit of metal, but you can easily file that off in the finishing steps.

Hope this is helpful.

Col Boone
 
Posts: 728 | Location: Volcano, Hawaii | Registered: 22 September 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I made a knife with a pewter bolster. It's not that hard really. I carved some lines in the antler handle to give the pewter some more grip. Take some shiney paper like the cover of a catalog and wrap it around the area you want the bolster to be. Melt the pewter (very easy with a torch and bullet ladle)and pour it in. When it cools shape with a file and fine emory cloth. Easy as that.

 
Posts: 552 | Location: SC | Registered: 03 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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thanks for all the advice,i will give it a go.i am now off to scour the charity shops for pewter
tankards to melt down.this forum has some really
knowledgable people,it's great.thanks again for the help and a happy new year to everybody.
 
Posts: 19 | Location: england | Registered: 17 October 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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AAAAHHHH!

Please Don't destroy an old piece of pewter, unless it's really mangled, AND a lot of the dealers want a pretty penny for a finished piece of pewter... even with it having enough lead so that one cannot use it for food, etc. So you might be spending more than needed.

Consider using modern pewter, or melt down some common Britannia-metal buttons. Plain "pewter" coat buttons for 18th century repro clothing will work fine.

You can get a pound of food safe modern pewter from Jas Townsend, or you could get some buttons and melt them as you need them plus you have some buttons on hand as well.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Josh Crain
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I've always felt the same way that Dave has said. I couldn't bear to melt down a pewter antique! Eeker
What I use for my bolsters is lead-free solder. It's much cheaper than pewter, and works just as well. Though, on second thought, I guess its not very "period correct."

I do pretty much exactly what Col. Boone said. I also use chisels and files to shape the bolster. I use #0000 steel wool for the final finish polish.

~Josh


"Return unto me, and I will return unto you," saith the Lord of hosts.
~Malachi 3:7b
 
Posts: 297 | Location: MI | Registered: 18 August 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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A friend of mine makes hollow handles. Drills two or three rivet size holes through them and matches them to the tangs. He then forms for the bolster and lets the excess flow out the false rivet holes. He then finishes the bolster, wood handle and false rivets at once. Makes for a extremely strong knife.
 
Posts: 238 | Registered: 08 August 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Josh Crain
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I once did somethin' like that for one of my first knives. I had a deer leg bone that I was using for the handle and I drilled holes throught the tang of the knife blade. I placed the tang in the hollow bone and poured in the pewter. The pewter (or in actuallity, lead-free solder) flowed into the holes in the tang and also filled up the entire hollow handle. That made one nicely weighted knife. Due to the curve of the handle, their was no way the solder in their would ever let the blade come out. Really sturdy, but a little expensive due to all that solder! Wink I traded the knife to Jud Brennan for a pair of antique blacksmith's tongs.


"Return unto me, and I will return unto you," saith the Lord of hosts.
~Malachi 3:7b
 
Posts: 297 | Location: MI | Registered: 18 August 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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no worries about melting down old pewter,here in england we have a never ending supply of modern tankards that end up in charity shops that are so naff the best thing for them is to melt them down.
 
Posts: 19 | Location: england | Registered: 17 October 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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i cast my first bolster this morning,it was a spur of the moment thing.i wrapped the antler handle in tin foil and taped around it with masking tape i used solder melted in a ladle used for casting bullets.it came out a bit lumpy but it filed up ok and i finished it off with wet and dry and then polished it up with autosol chrome polish and a scotchbright pad.i am very pleased with it for a first attempt.thanks for all the advice i received i could not have done it without it.
 
Posts: 19 | Location: england | Registered: 17 October 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of Laughing Bear
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Yo Doc,

I just caught this bus...I've done two poured bolsters at this point. I followed the directions from TC Albert printed in Muzzleloader from Nov/Dec 2010.

(Yah, I'm that much of a geek that not only do I have all my own issues from 2008,and some my friend gave me from 1995, but I've created a searchable/sortable spread sheet so I can find the exact article I almost remember from way back then.)

The only change I made from his directions is that I secure the bottom (handle side) of the Parchment paper with modeling clay instead of tape. The clay makes a more secure seal to the handle so there are no leaks when working with oddly shaped (antler) handles.

Before you ask ('cause I had to once)...Parchment paper is sometimes used for baking things like cookies and pies. It is sold in roles like waxed paper, plastic wrap, and foil, all of which are very different, but easy to confuse from the packaging.

And that's all I have to say about that.
 
Posts: 61 | Location: Edmonton, Alberta | Registered: 16 March 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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bear,i must be sad as i have the last 12 years of muzzleloader mag bound up in binders.perhaps i should look at them more as i didn't remember
the article by tim.thanks for all the advice i received.i am off now to find the relevant binder.
 
Posts: 19 | Location: england | Registered: 17 October 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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i forgot to say in england parchment papers is known as greaseproof paper[i think].
 
Posts: 19 | Location: england | Registered: 17 October 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Archie
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Any wax free cardboard will work as a dam for molding pewter. My most successful attempt I used a frozen lasagna box, cereal box works pretty good to. The key is thin and flexible. Be careful with tape, if the molten pewter comes in contact with tape it will boil the glue turning it into a gas and could send gas bubbles up through the pewter.

No tape and no aeration of pewter



Used tape and many small holes like swiss cheese. It's hard to see until the sanding starts.


 
Posts: 100 | Location: Minn | Registered: 13 December 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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If you "flux" the handle where the pour will go with simple pencil lead...yep, just scribble it on...the pour will tend to flow and fill a little better than it might otherwise...
tc
 
Posts: 29 | Registered: 04 May 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of Laughing Bear
posted Hide Post
Thanks TC...

I forgot that part when I was referring to your article.
 
Posts: 61 | Location: Edmonton, Alberta | Registered: 16 March 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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