Buck 110 scale swap

[Deep6Osama]

I want to swap wood scales between two 3 pin 110's. Has anyone here done this or should I have someone do this for me? Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[chickentrax]

OK, OK...stop pushing!!! :grumpy:

Long Answer

Here's what I've found...The rivets you see in the scales are brass [duh!], and the size of the rivet shaft is 1/16"...but the head (what you see) is ~1/8"...the liner holes are slightly countersunk on the inner side for the rivets, and the end of the rivet is hollow...

I imagine the workers on the assembly line have a crimping tool of some sort to crimp the hollow part over into the countersunk holes...and they assemble the liners & scales before the rest of the knife...

So, if you're going to do a change now, with the knife assembled, you really need to disassemble the knife (drift out the 4 rivets & take the blade, spacer, spring, and rockerbar out)...then you can get at the countersunk rivets and drill the ends off and drift them out...

Then you can get some brass nails/brads/escutcheon pins and cut them about 1/16" oversize for the length of the hole, push them in from the scale side into the liner, and gently peen them over into the countersunk holes...

Then reassemble the knife...and file/sand/buff the new pins & the bolsters...

I've done a couple so far...but I intended to change blades, so I had to take them apart anyway...

After you've done it a couple of times, it doesn't really seem like all that much work...

Short Answer

Get Leroy to do it.

 

[DarrylS]

...Hey Trax...Scales are something that, in my opinion, would be considered really tough to replace. I haven't had to do it yet but I'm sure there'll come some excuse for me to end up doing it somewhere down the road. Just how in the world do you remove them without gauling or damaging the liners to some degree?...I'd also assume that the lenght between bolsters would be critical with the width being much more forgiving as long as it is slightly wider versus narrower...

 

[Mike Kerins]

It would seem to me that the easy solution would simply be to eliminate the pins with the new scales and just glue them in place.

 

[chickentrax]

It would seem to me that the easy solution would simply be to eliminate the pins with the new scales and just glue them in place.

Sounds good to me.

I'm no expert, but...

You still have to get the old pins out. You could grind off the heads, pry the scales off, trim the rivets down to the liner, punch out the piece left, and go ahead and glue the new ones on. OEM Buck wood scales will still have the rivet holes, but you could just glue the rivet heads in place.

I replace my scales when the knife is apart. I suspect that over the years, Leroy has learned or made a tool to allow removal and replacement without disassembly. Best to get in touch with him and get a quote. :thumbup: