Are knife makers still putting steel bolsters on their knives?

[AVigil]

As a new guy and a "young buck" I personally love the traditional style knives. I'm not a fan of "tactical " knives or sharpened prybar.
I think the bushcraft crowd is probably one of the reasons more traditional type knives might not seem as popular.

Also where do you gentleman get your bolster/guard metals? I can't seem to find 416ss. Thought about just getting silicon bronze from AKS on my next order

Trugrit carries 416 stainless

 

[Don Hanson III]

I always use steel of one type or another.

 

[DevinT]

On a lot of knives, the bolster/ guard area is the focal point of the piece. Even if there is a fancy blade or handle. Makers that put extra effort in this area create knives with greater visual appeal, generating more emotion from the buyer and longer lasting value. It’s an area most of us can improve on.

Put a $1000.00 worth of work into the blade, the guard, the handle, and the sheath, and you’ll have something of beauty and value.

In 1980 at the age of 16, I worked one summer with makers Bob and Jimmy Lofgreen, they were the first to do dovetailed bolsters. Many copied the idea and a few came up with the same idea on their own. Many bolsters back then were added for a place to put engraving.

Bolsters make a lot of sense on some knives.
On fixed bladed knives, the idea or look came from folding knives.

Hoss

 

[Tom Lewis]

Don that is stunningly beautiful!

 

[Geoff Flato]

An overlooked aspect of bolsters is for brittle materials such as mammoth tooth. Front and back bolsters make it much harder to chip the scales if it gets dropped.

 

[Robert Erickson]

I've always planned on using copper, bronze or 416 SS at some point, just haven't gotten around to it yet. One of my early influences was Andy Roy and so that's why I use mostly G10, micarta and contrasting wood for bolsters. I also like the variety.
Lots of inspiring work on this thread, wow!

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Bolsters, by their very name- "bolster" the strength of the pivot area of a folding knife.

 

[Justin Schmidt]

Bolsters, by their very name- "bolster" the strength of the pivot area of a folding knife.

Could also be used to "bolster" the looks, value of a fixed blade

 

[Grayzer86]

I do very little in the way of stainless or brass bolsters. I like the contrast of a bolster, and I do use contrasting materials as a bolster like others have said. Around here people seem to prefer the black micarta, carbon fibre, G10 bolsters over polished stainless or NS. What I hear is that they want something more modern looking, and not their grandpas knife. I like the look myself being a huge fan of the loveless style and others. I will also do what many others probably won't, and be straight up honest. I have done stainless bolsters, I CAN make them look good, but It takes me a lot of time to get them finished right, and therefore I don't like doing them. The extra battle just doesn't seem worth it for me right now. I can do a carbon fibre or G10 bolster in way less time than a properly polished stainless bolster, so it doesn't make sense for me to put in the extra time when demand is no higher here. I like making knives more than I like making bolsters, so I don't typically do it. I respect the hell out of the guys doing them and doing them well, it's just not for me at this point.

 

[Salem Straub]

On kitchen knives, I like to use paper micarta or better yet black G10 for bolsters... Especially for extra light knives.

Or sometimes I'll go a bit more subtle with a contrasting wood for a longer bolster.

Also fun is to actually make a G10 handle, then dovetail inlay scales of a different color so that the fronts and back of the G10 "frame" become visual bolsters...

For folders, a clean bolster in 410 can be nice...

But I really like them in dammy over a hidden pivot.

Keyholes are a fun challenge, and can be done on both ends. In W2:

Forge welded on, in w's pattern, and keyholed:

I like to forge weld matching bolsters onto tiled-out mosaic hunters:

Or what's also fun is to forge weld mosaic bolsters onto a ladder or other pattern blade:

Besides that, one of the ways that I still find most challenging is to make forge integral ss over carbon, leaving the stainless as bolsters...

Years ago I used to make taper tang hunters and stuff with more conventional pinned/epoxied bolsters from SS or NS but I've moved away from full tangs and slab handles so what I've pictured above makes a bit more sense for my style and keeps me from getting bored. Which I guess I must have been just now...

In parting, here's one from like 2010 I think.

 

[Hengelo_77]

I'm actualy working on my first bolstered knife.
Dovetailed black G10 on sheep horn. (I'll try and shoot a pic today)
I don't care about sales or customers, I make something because I like the looks of it or because I feel like taking on the technical challange.
I want to do invisible peened bolsters but I have a hard time finding pin material and flat stock in the same metal

 

[timos-]

here is my handle design i call "dove-wa" as its inspired by the classic Japanese wa handles and the dovetail you see alot of. you and up with a nice curve on a contoured handle or a cool angle on a hex wa shape that reminds me of an arrowhead. I have a few more of these designs lined up for this coming year. I am trying to evolve the design with each piece I make. The way the design works you can use whatever material you want for the ferrule/bolster then use a frame to mount materials that may only come in scale form....mechanically the pin holds it all together. I will be using some M3 material this year ont hsi style for the bolster, I also have some mokume and some damascus i got from HHH I plan to use at some point

 

[Jesse Smith]

Here is a fixed & folder pair I finished about a year ago. The bolsters are ground from damascus forged by Bill Burke. I very much like bolsters or guards on knives, but I think many avoid them because it's more work than just scales alone. And some styles look better without bolsters.

 

[daizee]

As a user, I'm not a fan of the extra weight of metal for bolsters on full-tang fixed blades, and usually dislike the straight perpendicular line they often create in the handle (both full-tang fixed and folders). ON THE OTHER HAND, if the rest of the handle is a more delicate material, then I'm totally down for the functionality. Now if a guard is called for, that's a different story. So I suppose it's just a subset of bolsters I don't like. And for the record, I contribute so little to the buying market that my opinion is worth exactly what you just paid for it.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Don that is stunningly beautiful!

Thanks Tom!

 

[Geoff Flato]

Salem, I'm going to have to try one of those keyholes once I get my EDM running.
Lots of great ideas in this thread!

 

[madcap_magician]

I think the online market tends to be more trend-sensitive. If you look at the local markets at the gun shows and what have you, a lot of the makers I know who are as talented as most are still making very traditional fixed blades with polished finishes and metal bolsters, the tactical and bushcraft trends having largely passed the local markets by so far.

 

[LARRYZ10]

I forgot t mention the obvious....that bolsters are a place to add some pattern or engraving and make a point of interest which accents a fine blade in my opinion. Here are dovetailed nickel silver bolsters engraved by Sarah Smith of Granite Station, California Larry

 

[Horsewright]

Absolutely Larry. Pretty popular in the western world I sell to. Damasteel, sheephorn and engraved nickel silver bolster:

This is an EDC for a cowboy over Santa Barbara way. Engraving by Mike "Tapadero" Vatalero of Taps Bit and Spur Shop.

 

[timos-]

remember when robert eggerling bolsters were on practically every knife in blade mag? well maybe thats a stretch but I always loved those patterns he did and always wanted to put them on one of my own knives some day. Also love the windmanstatten (sp?) meteorite stuff....simply amazing.