BK14 handle scale problem

[jcwagers]

Hello all! I don't post much(not that I ever did) but I thought I might make mention of something that some of you may have run into. I've had my BK14 for a good amount of time and bought the zytel handles for it. The handles definitely make a difference in the way the knife feels. After looking at the handles a few weeks ago, I discovered some rust on the handle nuts. I removed them and used some rem oil, I think, to go over them and then used some blue loctite to be sure that the handles wouldn't come loose. I'm sure that some of you are already anticipating where I'm going with this but....I reattached the handles and tried to make sure that they were on reasonably tight. Let's just say that I didn't break the zytel but it went through further than normal which caused the bolt to stick out too far on the other side. I backed it off to make it more comfortable but then the scales had a bit of wiggle to them. I was trying to think of a way to fix it without having to buy more scales. The solution that I came up with was to use some of the tape that is used to seal pipes when joining them together. I wrapped it around the bolts a few times and then put everything back together and now they fit about where they should and there is no wiggle. So....if any of you might be in a similar predictament, you might try that to see if it will work for you. I'd be VERY interested to see if people have come up with other fixes and solutions for this problem. Sorry, I didn't take any pics while i was working on it but hopefully I described it good enough. Thanks for taking the time to read through my thread and I hope you all have a great day!

jc

 

[tjswarbrick]

I did the same thing (the defect, not the fix) on a pair of zytel scales on my 16, as well as the mycarta ones I later put on there.
But my wife will tell you I tighten things down like a gorilla. I go until they stop. Plastic doesn't stop allen-head screws as well as steel plate and lock washers.
I just tightened 'em until I knew they were secure, and cut and reground the end of the screw. They haven't moved. They are removable, but you can imagine my hesitation to do so.
If I need to take it apart, I'll be sure to try the teflon tape trick to put it back together.
Thanks!

 

[Tdhurl1103]

I overtightened one of my bolts as well. This caused the front screw hole of the zytel to collapse just enough to make the bolt end protrude past the scales to make it noticeable to my fingers. So I just ground down the bolt a little bit and all was well. I could have added a spacer like you did, but I wanted to keep the scales as thin as possible.

Actually, since we are talking about it, I have an idea to add some spacers to my extra 24.

Thanks for the thread and the idea.