pocket knife help

[stringnstik]

Ok since the knife kit arrived I have been looking at knives in general with a different enthusiasm.
I found this particular little knife whilst camping, in the mud years ago. The handle wood is missing both sides and it lived in a cupboard draw since.

So as a little get my feet wet I thought Id see if I could re handle it.
The first thing I noticed was that the left pin and right pin holes wont accept a thru handle pin. If I put a pin all the way thru ie from one side to tother the blade wont close. All these questions are raised.
Is the wood not pinned at all? but simply glued.
What are the holes for then? Just locating? do I need them? what stops them from going into and blocking the blade closure.
I think the centre pin is holding it all together so Im not about to pull it out and re pin it or use it to hold the wood.

Thanks for help. then Ill have to sharpen it

[Stewart Townsend]

The ones I have pulled apart and the information from some books on how to make one indicates the following:

Both the liners on the inside are (can't think the right term) "drilled" with a bigger drill bit to the half (ish) of the liner depth. The pins are then piened (?) so they won't come out from the outside and the excess is sanded so the inside of the liners are smooth.

Seems you can epoxy the scales and then pien the pins of visa versa.

Then when you have the handles finished you assemble the handles, blade, back spring, pivot pin, pins, spacer and lock mechanism.

So IMO you can pull it apart to redo the scales or you can just epoxy the scales on.

[pdccr]

Damn , thats confusing

[jindydiver]

I have made folders and you have some options.
The hardest first
You can pull the knife apart. This means drifting out the pins that are holding the rear bolster and the blade in. They are peined and so you need to drill them first to remove the upset ends before they will drift. This is a lot of work and you will have to know what you are doing to put it all back together once you make the pins for the scales.
Much easier
You can tap the holes in the liners and use screws to help fasten scales on. You would be better off drilling them to a known size so you can use the right size screws and you would epoxy the scales also.
You could also just ignore the holes and just epoxy scales in there. It would work just as well and you could make fake pins that you could insert through the scales into the holes to prevent the scales from moving if you dropped the knife on it's spine.

[stringnstik]

Righto all sounds good and makes sense. I dont particularly want to pull it all apart so I think I will simply epoxy on the scales with some semi false pins.

Ill drill the pin hole in the scale larger than the current hole in the liner. Turn the end of the pin down so the last mil or so fits in the liner. This way the pin wont go too far into the liner and clog up the works. a nice tight fit in the scale and a wee dab of glue should hold it all nicely.

thanks

[jindydiver]

Righto all sounds good and makes sense. I dont particularly want to pull it all apart so I think I will simply epoxy on the scales with some semi false pins.

Ill drill the pin hole in the scale larger than the current hole in the liner. Turn the end of the pin down so the last mil or so fits in the liner. This way the pin wont go too far into the liner and clog up the works. a nice tight fit in the scale and a wee dab of glue should hold it all nicely.

thanks

That will work a treat

Epoxy is really all that is needed for a lot of knife handles. It is damn near impossible to pry off a slab handle once it is glued down well, and the pins stop the slab from being able to be knocked off sideways (the weakest direction for the glue).

[nimrod]

mate if your getting interested in making knives then I can suggest no better site than british blades forum cheers