I had some pretty lofty plans for the guard on this damascus san mai tanto (until things went sideways, that is). I started off by forge welding a san mai billet made from 1095 and ladder pattern damascus. I forged it out into a bar that was around 5/16" thick and ground it flat and square so I could scribe lines on it accurately. When I first tried to drill out the tang slot the steel was still hard so I had to anneal it again. After annealing it the drill bit slid through nice and smooth. I tried a couple different methods for hogging out the material between the holes including a carbide burr on a dremel and a cold cutting chisel. As it turns out, filing it is still the best way to go. I wasn't completely happy with the fit up of the guard (there was a slight gap on one side of the tang) so I got it hot and squeezed it into place with my leg vise. The fit up was acceptably tight after that but it still could have been better (this is a skill I really need to work on more often). I filed the guard to shape, sanded it to a 400 grit finish and moved on to the heat treat (Damascus does not etch well if it isn't hardened). I normalized the blade three times and then quenched it in oil and tempered it with a blow torch. When I began sanding the forge scale off of the guard I saw something horrible. The quench opened up 2 huge delaminations and the guard was no longer usable :(
Well, you can't win 'em all, I suppose. I'll have to make a new guard so be sure to subscribe so you can see when that video comes out next week! Thanks for watching!