Frustration!

SYD32

SYD32

Well-Known Member
I've been working on a drop point with mosaic pins and ironwood handles. Today as I was profiling the handle I noticed that one of the smaller pins within the mosaic pin was too short. Initially i thought i could just make the handle a little slimmer but it was way too short. I am usually very careful and cut all my pins to be slightly oversize so I can be sure that they run the length of the tubing. So now I will grind off the handle scales and bolster and start from scratch. I hate to think about the time and money wasted....

thanks
 

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Couldn't you just drill out the pin ?
Or, heat up a peice of rod a little smaller than the pin and hold it on the mosaic pin till the epoxy loosens up. Replace pin.

Rudy
 
I'm with Rudy on this one. You could heat the knife in an oven to around 200 degrees to soften the epoxy and push the pins out. That will soften the glue on the tang too so you may want to reglue them when you replace the pins. Failing that, I'd drill them out for the next size pin stock. No reason to waste those beautiful scales.

Doug
 
I wish I would have posted this earlier. I kept trying to grind the handle thinner and thinner hoping that pin would appear. Now the handle is thinner than I would like. I think I will follow your advice about the oven to see if I can get the scales off without destroying the bolsters. I'll chalk this up to a lesson learned.


Thanks!
 
If you haven't had to grind the scales off of a knife or two? You haven't made enough knives.:biggrin:

Yes! Just chalk it up to part of that Curve!! The Straight up part of the learning curve. lol.
Been there & Done that!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
 
Amen to what Laurence said! I've come to accept the fact that every day I walk into the shop, I'm gong to stumble on something! At first it's really disappointing when something does't go the way you want it to, but over the years I have come to view those mistakes as "learning what NOT to do"......and sometimes it seems that I do more of that, than I do "get it right". :) Don't let it get you down. As I tell many of my students....."You didn't really make a mistake...you created an opportunity to accel!"
 
It doesn't matter if you're new to knifemaking or have made a thousand knives, you're going to make a mistake now and then when you least expect it. Just except it and try not to make the same mistake again. You don't even want to know how many blades and handles I've messed up!
 
I'm of the mindset that there is not such thing as wasted time and money when it comes to knifemaking....

AS LONG AS YOU LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES.
 
Well, it sounds as if you've reached the point of no return if you've ground the scales way down. I will throw this out, if it ever happens again. The pin is serving two purposes--structural, and decorative. The structural part was probably fine, it was the decorative part that was the problem. Next time try drilling out just part of the pin, say a 1/4 or 5/16 inch. Then, cut a thin section of the same pin from your pin stock, epoxy in place, and blend it to the handle. You basically cap off the existing bad pin with a good surface.
 
NJStricker said:
Well, it sounds as if you've reached the point of no return if you've ground the scales way down. I will throw this out, if it ever happens again. The pin is serving two purposes--structural, and decorative. The structural part was probably fine, it was the decorative part that was the problem. Next time try drilling out just part of the pin, say a 1/4 or 5/16 inch. Then, cut a thin section of the same pin from your pin stock, epoxy in place, and blend it to the handle. You basically cap off the existing bad pin with a good surface.
Click to expand...

NJ, that is genius! I'll have to keep this one in mind, I have yet to cut a pin too short (years of woodworking and military force me to double check everything... measure twice, cut one) but its bound to happen. Thanks.
 
Thanks, but it's not really my idea. Some frugal knifemaker somewhere decided that mosaic pins were too expensive to show only the ends and keep an inch of it hidden away inside the handle. His solution was just what I described. Except he used regular pins to hold the handle, then inlayed the narrow sections of the mosaic pins over the top. I suppose with the new small Corby's you could inlay a larger mosaic pin over a recessed Corby and no one would be the wiser. Strength AND beauty.
 
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