The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Horizontal play is easily addressed. Take some soot/char from a match, get it on your fingertips and try to wipe the bolsters with it so you can outline the pin.
Get a pin punch and tap the punch with a hammer, very light taps since once you go too far it is Much harder to go back...
Once you think one more tap and you are good, Stop! I would rather err on the side of caution than render it too tight and thus being more problematic.
If it is vertical play, some people have had some luck finding a patch for it.
They tried putting a Very small dab of crazy glue on the face of the spring. This would then dry and allow you to sand it down to eliminate just about, if not all of the play.
The issue I have with this is that if any significant force is applied to a cut, the glue can Crack and become lodged in the tang/spring/pivot area and wreak who knows what kinds of havoc.
The only other "fix" could possibly be to put a spot of solder on the spring face, but this would require disassembly of the knife to not have any affect on the HT, and even then, it is possible that the solder can shear at the joint or just deform under pressure.
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I know these are not the answers you were looking for, but they are the only unfortunate options I see.
Glennbad has done quite a bit of work on these and may chime in, as well as some of the other builders/modders.
Good luck, nice find, and keep us posted.
Fwiw, iirc, the steel is close to 440a, so you have a decent user that will respond to a strop, car window, or coffee mug nicely.
It is only one pin. It is the pivot pin that you are going to be tapping on. If you have a securely mounted vise, use the flat spot on the rear, if equipped. If yours doesn't have a plate on the rear, close the jaws completely and use the tops of the jaws as an improvised anvil /work surface.
Tap one side two or three times, then flip and do the other side, it should tighten, but if it doesn't, see below.
》If you notice that you are just knocking the pin back and forth, tap it one way to create a small amount if space and recess one side of the pin into the bolster. Now put a drill bit (the size of the pin) in the vise jaws held firmly and place that in the recessed pin area and now tap the other side of the pin with your pin punch.
By doing this you place the hammer falls on the pin directly and not allowing it to wander in the pivot.
The one thing you might notice is that during the peening, you might cause the pin to seem to "sink" a little, so you can sand the bolsters a touch to even them up with the pin.
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No worries about the typing, now if someone needs it they might be able to find it via search.
Welcome to the fold. You thought modding Beckers took up some time, check out these threads. Come to think of it, the first one might help you here
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1316083-Making-custom-scales-for-a-barlow
And take a look at post #6 in the following thread, that is a modded TL-29.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1184347-Glennbad-is-a-baaaad-man
If it is vertical play, some people have had some luck finding a patch for it.
They tried putting a Very small dab of crazy glue on the face of the spring. This would then dry and allow you to sand it down to eliminate just about, if not all of the play.
The issue I have with this is that if any significant force is applied to a cut, the glue can Crack and become lodged in the tang/spring/pivot area and wreak who knows what kinds of havoc.
The only other "fix" could possibly be to put a spot of solder on the spring face, but this would require disassembly of the knife to not have any affect on the HT, and even then, it is possible that the solder can shear at the joint or just deform under pressure.
You can fix vertical play by tapping the sides of the backspring to raise the bearing surface of the lockface ala this post here.
To keep it topical here are some of my favorite knives in the whole world:
View attachment 583197View attachment 583198View attachment 583196
First one I've seen.
An electrician's Barlow, now that is cool! Does the screwdriver lock?