We will now interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for this good old blues micro podcast. Dovetail bolsters can be a really cool uh feature uh to bolster work on on knives that um it doesn't really get done as much uh in the modern knife making era as it did back in the 70s, 80s, and even 90s. Um, it is you know traditional in that sense, but um not a lot of makers do it anymore. So I thought I'd go through some of the steps that I've done uh for dovetail bolstering and what I found to be the easiest. Now, if you go to YouTube and look for dovetail bolsters, there's a few really good videos out there to actually demonstrate the process. Um but essentially um the idea at least being that if you uh if you think about a knife and bolsters as having the the front chamfer um towards the ricoso of the blade, the dovetail is the uh opposite on the uh on the tang side of the blade. And uh it looks like a little dovetail when you have both of them um uh positioned correctly. I I think the the largest thing that you have to remember uh about dovetailing is that there are several vectors of of geometry that draw your eye to the dovetail, and if you don't get it lined up correctly, it can look pretty bad. Uh so uh the steps that I'm gonna tell you to follow are basically to help you align them. Now, um when you're choosing your your material uh to do dovetail bolsters, um you're going to want to be able to pin those bolsters. When you pin those bolsters, um you're gonna want to be able to hide them. So you got to get good at hiding um hiding pins. Um the easiest way, obviously, is to choose like material. If you choose copper, brass, or nickel silver, uh the largest problem that you're going to have is that pin stock and bar stock uh tend to be of a different alloy, uh even like ever so slightly. And so you might luck out and you might get a uh nickel silver or something that um it matches your your flat bar stock material. Um and you might get copper the same way and whatnot. You might you might do pretty well. Um but uh just know that your pins might show up or have some silhouette or ghost of the pin. Uh and if that happens, it's typically because uh the alloys are different just ever so slightly. Um, where I've found that this is not much of a problem is when using stainless steel, but specifically 416. So you can get 416 bar stock, and if you go to a welding supply place, you can get 416 uh uh 332nd uh rod like rod, uh uh TIG rod, and that's the cleanest kind um uh to use. Uh it's it's it has a mirror finish on the outside and everything, it's super clean, and that's what I prefer to use because sometimes matching up uh nickel, silver, or um copper or brass can sometimes be a problem. So moving on, um, once you get your uh pin stock and your bar stock uh and it's the right alloy, then you're going to want to take a single um a single piece of your bar stock to do your dovetailing. Uh reason being is that uh to cut bar stock down and then to do dovetailing, you're going to have geometry differences because they're going to be ground differently. Um and uh it's just a lot easier unless you're doing a milling operations or whatever, like if you're doing this all by hand um with disc sanders or your uh belt grinder or whatever uh that you you do all at one piece in one piece, and then you'll just cut it later. So measure the total width of your blade and then double that and then add a few a few thousandths more because you have to account for the curf of your saw, um, specifically if you're using a band saw to cut it in half. There's no real problem with having more material, but if you have less, you're gonna be doing all this stuff, and when you cut it in half, you're not gonna have enough for both sides of the knife. So um everything on the show side of the bolster has to be done uh entirely up to your final grit um in order to make it look right. Because um, once you attach them to the blade, there's not a lot that you're gonna be able to do with finishing unless you're very, very careful because you might um you might actually uh sand the blade, even if you have it taped off, it's just kind of like a real pain in the butt. Uh trust me, I know I've tried it, and it's just easier if you finish everything up to your final um your final um finish, whether it's a satin or a buffed finish, um, before you put the blades, uh put the bolsters on the blade. When you when you're doing the reverse side that's supposed to be dovetailed, um you you don't have to have a very high grit. Um I usually do about an an 80 to a hundred grit. And it's mostly because uh when you're putting your handle scales on and everything, uh you're going to be doing the opposite in order to hit fit into that dovetail pocket. Um, and you you want to have that a lower grit too because you'll epoxy that in. So it'll have several points of contact, not only to the tang, but then also to the entire surface of the bolster, and you want to make sure that adheres really well so it doesn't flex or anything. Um, so you you uh a disc sander is probably the the most straightforward and true way to to grind down your bevels. Um, but you can also do it on a tilt table or a work rest that tilts if you can do like a a 45 to a 60 degree angle, I think looks the best. Obviously, the more the more aggressive you are in the angle, the more uh swallow tail versus dovetail they'll kind of look. Um but you can kind of play around with it as long as you can uh match that same angle on the reverse side of your scales, uh, and it's repeatable, you should be fine. So um, you know, grind both sides, finish out the front side, and then cut the bolster in half. And then what I do is uh on the knife itself, you have to uh usually drill two holes, is is uh the preferred method at the very least. And um what I do is I super glue the bolster to the tang and I use a square to make sure that everything is squared up right on one side, and then what I'll do is I will drill through the opposite side of the tang to drill into the bolster. Then you go through and just deburr it, and uh you can you can choose to pop that off or uh you can affix a file guide, uh file guide to the to where the Ricasso is at and everything will hold that line in place, and then you pop your other bolster on, you super glue it, and then you drill through the other bolster that you already you know put holes in uh and and uh drill through the bolster that you just popped on. Um, if everything's all fair and equal and the super glue holds and whatnot, you'll have two bolsters that are there and have holes in them, and they're they line up correctly. Um the next thing that you're gonna have to do is clean those things really well because one of the problems with bolsters in general, uh but also dovetail bolsters, is that um because of the the geometry and everything, um if you don't clean it well, you're gonna have gaps. So you're gonna have gaps between your bolsters and your tang. And if you don't line things up correctly, you're going to also have this geometric difference where the uh the tips of the bevels on the inside where the tang is at are not going to line up, and uh the the ends of the of the uh dovetails are not gonna work either. So just make sure that everything is cleaned up really well so you can at least start off the process of mating those two bolsters together on the tang and there's no gaps. Um uh when you're doing all of your final positioning, a file guide helps an awful lot. Um, it'll keep everything lined up really well. Just make sure it's tightened on there uh well enough. And then uh you cut your um you cut your pin stock um the entire the entire thickness of the bolster end to end plus um half the diameter of your rod times two. So you want to make sure that there's enough sticking out that you can mushroom it into the hole. Um, I might add a very, very slight chamfer to the um to the hole itself, uh, but I I really try not to because uh there's uh dirt and other debris and things like that that can get in there. Um and you want to try to hide your pins as best as possible. So you just want to mash the crap out of the um the pin. And if you have a chamfer in there, it really doesn't do a lot for the mechanical holding component of it. Um and it just adds some uh some ability that when you're grinding those pins down and you're uh you're contouring your bolster stock, that you might have gaps or things. So if you can keep the the uh the shaft of the hole uh pretty well straight and not chamfer it too much, then uh that's the way to go. It's the cleanest look that I've seen. It's the easiest uh to maintain. Um a few ways that you can um you can uh mash your pins or uh press your pins. Uh one obviously is you can use a punch and a hammer. Um you can also use a mill vise, and if you have a pin press, um it is a bottle jack and a hydraulic process to pin them where you can do use anvils, you can also use that. But uh some guys make them. Um I I inherited mine, but um, it was made by somebody who had a uh a lathe and a milling machine to make everything true and equal. Uh but I I like that a lot of the time because I get the additional force that I need to push those pins in very solidly. But a really good mill vise, like a kirt vise or something with uh uh strong enough jaws will also do the same thing and you won't mess up your your uh vice. So um press the pins together and make sure it's all um very, very firmly um in place that the pins are are hidden and everything. Um by uh you do that by uh once everything's uh once everything's pressed together, you'll grind the face off of them and make sure that there is nothing silhouette-wise that you see. If you see any gaps at all at the point where you flush those pins up, uh you got to start over again. Otherwise, uh you're just gonna have to accept the fact that it's uh you know an inferior operation of applying the dovetails. Um, you know, uh what you do is if you have any material left on the sides, you cut those off with a bandsaw, and then you can do all of your profiling with those on and um and then contour them. Um I'm pretty big on contouring uh bolster material before I contour handle material just because it helps to avoid um um the mismatch in material hardness and then gouging right behind the bolster. Um so that that's what I do. So everything gets profiled on the on the dovetails, and then I fit up my handle material. Um something to remember with dovetails is that the um because of the way that it contacts the the bolster itself, your handle material has a higher propensity towards slipping and sliding, and you have to watch out and make sure that that uh handle material is square and making contact on all points of that dovetail, otherwise, you'll only find out after you've ground down all this material, and then it is very, very difficult to get that thing out. Um, you almost have to take the entire uh bolster and handle material off in order to get done. You might be able to clean it up a little bit, but you know, your mileage may vary. Um, when you're doing your handle material, uh, you're just going to uh take the the outside facing or the show side of your of your handle material and flip that over so it's facing down on the platen or or your um your work crust or whatever, and you're going to grind that off in an opposite 60 or 60 or 45 degree angle. Then when you flip it back over, you can uh shove it up into the dovetail and it should look right. Do dry fits a few times, and then when you get ready to glue, I will I'll glue the scale material on first or epoxy it on first and let it sit. And then I will drill my holes, and then I will do the same thing on the opposite side with the handle material, and I'll attach both so that way I'm only dealing with one uh possible screw up at a time. And you know, you might be able to get that handle material off, heat it up or something, and still be okay. But the dovetail will have to be cleaned really well in order for you to you know fix the mistake. Um, either way, once you get the um the scales on and the holes drilled and everything and everything set, then you can uh flush up or profile, reprofile the handle material and then uh contour as as need be. Just make sure when you're uh I I use uh can't twist um um clamps. Uh sometimes I will just use regular spring clamps to hold the material in place. The idea at least being that it doesn't shift when it's drying. And if you can do that um and follow some of those basic steps, you can have really uh great-looking bull um bolsters that are dovetail. Um I think it looks real classy when it's profiled up and uh contoured, it looks real good. And um, especially if you're doing taper tangs, uh dovetail bolsters and taper tangs create this arrow effect um that is is really interesting and adds a depth of embellishment to blades. So it's something to think about. Um they're fun, uh they're not as easy as square bolsters, uh, but if you want a little bit of extra challenge, uh try uh doing some dovetail bolsters and uh see see how you like them. Hope this helps.