The point is, Vic, the guard has been damaged by people who are NOT beating on the guard directly. Mine got seriously messed up while batoning without me ever striking the guard or handle directly, just by making contact with the log I was splitting. The guard on the SoD, while still made of res-c, has a bit of metal in front of it, to prevent the object you're cutting from digging into the guard, and it works perfectly. All the Regulator would need is something similar, and it would work fine.