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Written by Dave Neevel
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Sunday, 14 March 2004 |
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Page 3 of 14
A little more detail on some of these items and their use:
Jigs
A jig is a device that holds a blade bent while it is being wired and while the glue is drying. A non-portable jig can be made from a length of board by drilling an angled hole at one end for the tang to fit in and several angled holes at the other end, spaced between 60-70 cm from the tang-hole, for the point. The multiple holes for the point are there to accommodate different blade lengths, tang lengths, and different amounts of bend.
A portable jig can be made from a ~75 cm length of lightweight chain and pair of small copper pipe end-caps. Punch or drill a hole near the edge of the caps, bend open the link at each end of the chain and hook it through the hole in one of the caps, and then bend it shut. If you remove one link from the chain before attaching the pipe caps, you can loop it through one of the other links and bend the free end open to make a hook. You can then shorten the effective length of the chain by placing the hook through another link further down.
There are a variety of other materials that can be used to make jigs. I’ve seen plastic film canisters tied together with strings, and even one made using a couple of spent 7.62 mm x 39 (i.e., AK-47) cartridges.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 May 2007 )
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