Adjusting a Blade

MadMaximus

MadMaximus

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Joined
Feb 26, 2014
Messages
318
I have a GEC that rides a little high when the blade is closed, the tip is nearly out of the handle. Is there any way to adjust that? I thought that filing the kick down a bit might do it, but not really sure if the geometry of the tang would jive with that. Anybody ever do that? Comments? Ideas? Thanks!
 
Filing the kick down will take care of that. It doesn't take much so be careful and check it often as your doing it.
 
As others mentioned, filing the kick will drop the blade into the handle. But it will also drop the spring in the closed position. So you want to make sure you file just enough to make the blade tip disappear.

Wolfe
 
Done this many times, just go slow & check often as Wolfe said!

Here's an image that may help with terminology (borrowed from Great Eastern Cutlery):

knifeparts.png
 
Grsat diagram onespdfrk! I've filed down a number of kicks, and recommend that you put a strip of leather or denim (even using your jeans) over the blade in case you slip off. I've screwed up two edges because I didn't cover them, now I have learned my lesson.

Connor
 
Thanks for the help! I well definitely go slow, I'm always scared I'm going to ruin something! Echoing above, great diagram! I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Anyone that sharpens and uses knives will need to lower the kick eventually and it's a question that comes up frequently. For specific advice, a photo of your knife would be helpful. In addition to dropping the spring, there is risk that the edge might hit the spring if there's not enough clearance... especially if it is allowed to slam shut since then it may over travel. If you're not sure how much room you have to work with... You could GENTLY press down on the spine of the blade when it's closed--that'll give you an idea.

PS Where's "Lakeshore Wisco"?? I'm not familiar with a city called "Lakeshore" in Wisconsin. Are you going to the Badger Knife Show?
 
supratentorial said:
Anyone that sharpens and uses knives will need to lower the kick eventually and it's a question that comes up frequently. For specific advice, a photo of your knife would be helpful. In addition to dropping the spring, there is risk that the edge might hit the spring if there's not enough clearance... especially if it is allowed to slam shut since then it may over travel. If you're not sure how much room you have to work with... You could GENTLY press down on the spine of the blade when it's closed--that'll give you an idea.

PS Where's "Lakeshore Wisco"?? I'm not familiar with a city called "Lakeshore" in Wisconsin. Are you going to the Badger Knife Show?
Click to expand...

I don't have any pics uploaded of the specific knife yet. It's a GEC #25 watch pocket barlow. Theres quite a bit of room to work with the blade rides quite high and it has a quite prominent kick. Thanks for the help.

Oh, and Lakeshore Wisco is the Lake Michigan Shore. I'd thought about going to the Badger Show, but I have to work those days...rotating shift electrician...
 
It sounds like you have plenty of room. GEC has huge kicks on some and barely anything on others. In particular, some of the spears are tight fitting.

......On a somewhat related note, I really wish that GEC would take greater advantage of the well space with their coping blade secondaries. They have huge kicks and half of the blade is outside the well. They could be much more full.

If you bring the knife to the show, I'm sure someone could give you some advice. But it sounds like there's plenty of room so it should be straight forward.

I'm hoping to go to the show but I think it's unlikely since I will need to make it round trip in one day (either Sun or Sat). I'm not sure if I'll be up to 6 hours of driving in one day. It'll depend on how much energy I've managed to reserve. I hope you and Cory make it to the show!
 
supratentorial said:
......On a somewhat related note, I really wish that GEC would take greater advantage of the well space with their coping blade secondaries.
Click to expand...

To tie the two subjects together, I did a little work on the coping secondary of my 77 barlow. I rounded it into a wharncliffe and lowered it a bit to give my fat fingers more room to grab the spear in order to make it pinchable.



That secondary used to ride up parallel to the main blade, so I lowered it quite a bit. There's still a mile of room in the well under the blade. They could have made the blade twice as tall as it is and it still wouldn't have had any trouble fitting. Oh well, it's still a great knife. :thumbup:
 
Cory Hess said:
To tie the two subjects together, I did a little work on the coping secondary of my 77 barlow. I rounded it into a wharncliffe and lowered it a bit to give my fat fingers more room to grab the spear in order to make it pinchable.



That secondary used to ride up parallel to the main blade, so I lowered it quite a bit. There's still a mile of room in the well under the blade. They could have made the blade twice as tall as it is and it still wouldn't have had any trouble fitting. Oh well, it's still a great knife. :thumbup:
Click to expand...
I think they left it so thin because it is a coping blade, which is thin by design, to reach and cut in ways a sheepsfoot can't. Nice work!

Connor
 
Thanks for the diagram and the tips, fellows! :thumbup:
Got the same problem here with an old Camillus Electrician knife.
 
Cory, Looks good!

Connor, I also have a few theories of why GEC did it that way. But I don't agree with them. I would prefer a much more full coping blade. A sheepfoot would be fine with me also since I'd probably round the corner off a coping blade anyway (similar to Cory). It could be debated whether or not a coping blade is even appropriate on a barlow (or eureka jack etc). They definitely weren't used on the old knives. But I do prefer a straight edge blade over a pen blade, in general.
 
ConBon said:
I think they left it so thin because it is a coping blade, which is thin by design, to reach and cut in ways a sheepsfoot can't. Nice work!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment. When I'm commenting on a knife, it's usually in the framework of what would work best specifically for me and my uses. My comment here wasn't a knock on GEC or their coping blades. I'm assuming that anybody that sought out to make their knives exactly as I want them would go out of business pretty quickly. It'd be similar to the Simpsons episode where they let Homer design a car. ;)

homer2.jpg


supratentorial said:
Cory, Looks good!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm always a bit stressed when working on a knife that I really like. This one was 90% perfect from the factory, so I really didn't want to do something stupid and ruin it. This time it worked out pretty well and I'm really happy with the knife.
 
Cory Hess said:
Thanks for the compliment. When I'm commenting on a knife, it's usually in the framework of what would work best specifically for me and my uses. My comment here wasn't a knock on GEC or their coping blades.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I was wondering 'Why is he saying a coping blade is too small? I thought that's what they were for?' Now I see it's too small for you not as a design, which is very understandable. I don't buy knives with a coping blade unless it is a whittler, as I much prefer a big and tall sheepsfoot.

Also, you can't beat Homers horn :D

Connor
 
ConBon said:
Ahh, I was wondering 'Why is he saying a coping blade is too small? I thought that's what they were for?' Now I see it's too small for you not as a design, which is very understandable. I don't buy knives with a coping blade unless it is a whittler, as I much prefer a big and tall sheepsfoot.

Also, you can't beat Homers horn :D

Connor
Click to expand...

I was speaking about my preference. I'm the world's leading expert on my own likes and dislikes. ;) But I'm not sure that there are strict rules for the fullness of coping blades. Klein sells a knife that has a single large coping blade. It occupies the entire well. It doesn't have a narrow blade and a huge kick.

http://www.kleintools.com/catalog/p...ocket-knife-carbon-steel-3-76-mm-coping-blade

Typically coping blades are thin but typically the knives are smaller also (whittlers). A barlow has much more room. If you're going to break tradition and put a coping blade in a barlow (or dogleg jack or eureka jack etc) then in my opinion you may as well make it proportionate to the handle.

Here's a quote with some definitions from Case.

Primble said:
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From W.R. Case & Sons

....
Click to expand...
 
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