I was recently finishing a knife. I think when peening a pin I peened it too tight? I don't know if that is possible. Like it has good snap opening but it is a killer to get half open and doesn't snap closed...I don't know if that makes much sense...The blade right next to it doesn't really snap either way, open or close. Then the spey blade is perfect, its exactly what I wanted. Any ideas?
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Can a pivot join on a slipjoint be too tight?
- Thread starter crbauhs
- Start date
I was discussing this with you earlier. Its hard to warn you of all the little things that may happen. It sounds like you might have got the liners at the top closer than the bottom where the spring is and the blades are rubbing against the liner when closing. Chris Crawford calls for a spacer to be put between the liners but I don't need the spacer when I put the shim perpendicular to the knife and do not get the shim between the liner and the spring. When peening the pin you might have gave more attention to the side closest to the opening and that may have pulled that side tighter. You could drill the pin out and start over or at the risk of scratching the tang tap two sharp razors between the blades and liners to wedge it back apart again. Be careful! Sorry these things happen sometimes. Maybe someone else will share their experience with you to help you out.
Also don't get too frustrated about this. Slipjoints will make you pull your hair out. I've made around 15 or so over the last year maybe and at least five more are in my scrap box. I'm going to take a long break from them. It is very ambitious what your doing on you first project, you'll get it fixed. Good luck.
It sounds like you have peined the knife together as said...with the spring side a bit looser than the blade side. This can happen when you only pin from one side or most from one side. You must turn the knife several ways and pein to keep it even. Also..did you have a temp spacer in the knife when you peined? I use three pcs of SS heat treat foil with slots for the pivot pin cut into them to evenly space the blades, liners ,etc and then pein. After peining I then pivot the blade with lubrication and pull the shims out with a vicegrip. At times it takes a while...like 1-2 minutes.....they do not just fall out as the peining tightens everything up pretty good. The reason I use three pcs is that when I remove them, I then close the knife, check for centering. IF uncentered, I then shim hard to one side and pein pin a couple more times and this then normally centers up blade and tightens up the space left by the three pcs of heat treat foil. Now......do not pein to much or you will seize the whole works up. If you do....I put open blade in a vise and wiggle the handle being careful not to break blade!! Make sure you do this before grinding pin flush with bolsters or you will see the pin ....a thing you do not want to see when all finished. Good luck and I also have a pile of scrap slipjoints that will never see someones' pocket as they are just too screwed up to finished. It happens.
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2002
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- 12,297
Building slipjoints is fun, ain't it? 
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2002
- Messages
- 12,297
I made my first slipjoint 18 years ago, I swore I'd never make another more than once but keep coming back for more. Because I just like em.
My advise to you, is make single blade slipjoints until you are real good at them, then try and tackle multi blades.
My advise to you, is make single blade slipjoints until you are real good at them, then try and tackle multi blades.
And then, as Tony Bose says, if you ever get bored - just add more blades.
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- Jul 14, 2004
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Why not use bushings?? that way you can avoid pinch.
crbauhs: if I'm understanding you correctly, you might also have an issue with the spring being wider/thicker than the blade tang - so that when you peen the pivot enough to have a fairly tight blade, it would pull the liners in at an angle and give you problems at half stop and closing. (Understand also that you can certainly have this *plus* all the problems listed above - slipjoints are interesting that way. 
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- Joined
- Jul 14, 2004
- Messages
- 2,623
I generally leave bushing .003 - .005 thicker then blade, and have no pinch issues. but we are making two completely different beasts. i'll have to try a slippie one of these days.