Slip-joint pivot questions

[BRad704]

I ordered 2 Gent's Clip patterns from Tracy this morning, as well as some other little stuff. These will be my first 2 slippie's EVER, so I am naturally doubting everything along the way.

One will get a brass bolster and honey-colored buffalo horn scales. I have a 1/8" brass rod to use as the pivot on this so I can buff over the bolster and blend it all together. I guess I am going to be using the same brass rod for the center and rear pins as well.

The second will be mine to keep for a while. It is going to have full black linen micarta scales and I want a large SS polished pivot. I ordered a couple of the Medium sized Corby's, but I am unsure if they are valid for use as a pivot. I am planning on putting some slow-set epoxy on the threads, so that it can't back its way out and get loose. I might be threading the middle and rear holes for some very small screws.

I am not 100% sure about ANY of this, and would love some input from anyone out there with some thoughts.

Thanks in advance!
Brad

 

[Calvin Robinson]

It can be done, I've used 1/4" corby bolts for pivot pins before on a slipjoint that I wanted to look like a shadow pattern with no bolster.

 

[Frank Niro]

Epoxy is a bad choice for a thread locker. There are small tubes you can get made by many companys . Buy the "blue" non permanent type. Frank

 

[BRad704]

Thanks Calvin, that is exactly what I was hoping to hear from someone who had done it before.

Thanks Frank, I'll pretty sure I know of this thread-locking material you mentioned. I'll get some for this...

 

[Cubane]

Also you don't want to have the 2 holes in the spring straight onto threads. Use some of those pins they use for stop pins and drill 2 holes in in between them for the screws. If you have the threads against the spring it will crush the threads and the spring will eventually raise above the spine of the knife.

 

[BRad704]

I have a couple of 6" pieces of SS rod from knifekits.com. maybe I should put them in the lathe and turn them down to about 0.125 or so for the middle and rear pins. Actually that brings up all sorts of options in my mind. Hidden spring pins, and such.

Thanks for mentioning that, I wouldn't have thought about that until it happened.

 

[Cubane]

I use hardened "dowel pins" 3/32 should be good for most slipjoints.

Alistair

 

[BRad704]

thanks Alistair, I just spent some time looking over your website and you do some very very nice work! Question for you, on a bolstered knife, there is a pin at the front (bolster side) of the handle material, how is that held in place?

 

[Cubane]

If you look at this image they a peened in the same way you end up doing the final peening of the knife together.

You should just be able to see where the 2 pins are showing on the inside view in that pic. For the liner side I just use a countersink to make the area to peen into, for the handle material side I use a tapered pin reamer. I peen the liner side first with a bit of cardboard on the other side to protect the handle material and prevent that side from peening too much. I then flat side the liner side before peening the scale side. That way I reduce the chance of warping the handle since the whole liner is flat on the anvil.

 

[BRad704]

Thanks so much for that picture. I'm not a big fan of the double bolster, so I suppose I will add the one pin toward the bolster side and let the spring pins hold the rest.

I got everything from Tracy yesterday and I am very excited to see how this Honey colored Buffalo horn looks with a brass bolster and pins. I just have to remember the steps to take, and not get TOO excited too quickly.

 

[BRad704]

I got the wrong size (WAY too large) Corby to use as a pivot, so I have resigned to doing brass bolsters and pins on both knives.

 

[BRad704]

These blades are a bit smaller than I anticipated, but that is because I read 3" as blade length and not closed length. No bother, I got a good bit done last night and I am having a blast!

I know the spring is up here... I will grind/fit it flush to the liners just before sending off for HT. The important thing right now is that all 3 positions have the same offset on the spring. I need to do a tiny bit more filing on the half stop, and the closes is SOOOO close, but needs some fine hand sanding to get it there completely.