Can we talk about crinking?

Camperspecial

Camperspecial

Joined
Jul 10, 2017
Messages
32


This knife came out when I decided to breath some life into it.
It had a broken scale and no snap left in the blade.
I thought I could regrind the base of the tag to sharpen it up a bit and give it some snap and make a nice carry knife since the blade had some life left in it.
Plus, I liked it. Everything went fine.

As some of you know these Schrade knives use a Swinden Key Pivot, so I decided to drill the bolsters and put it together properly (in my humble opinion).
OK. These are all common practices for knife makers.........

When the knife is as you see it now, about 80% done, i decide the blade isn't centered and I can fix that right up.
I know a bit about crinking but haven't had much luck with it so I decided to put a little bend near the tang (I've had success with this in the past).
As I was applying pressure I knew it was a bad idea. It was.

I've searched the forum and the net and have found a few example and references to crinking, but was wondering if someone out there has experience with it or still does it to a degree that they can actually show or explain their process.

Propping up blade, supporting points, how hard to hit.

Please share your wisdom on this seemingly lost art.
Reaching out.

Thanks all.
Rob.
 
Okay so...I didn't even know what you were talking about, then I googled, then I found pictures. Now I have even more questions. Why would you deliberately bend a blade? I mean...I just...I'm not sure if I am more confused, baffled or my curiosity for odd things is peaked.
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b00n said:
Okay so...I didn't even know what you were talking about, then I googled, then I found pictures. Now I have even more questions. Why would you deliberately bend a blade? I mean...I just...I'm not sure if I am more confused, baffled or my curiosity for odd things is peaked.
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Crinking is a little different than bending the blade. Traditional bladesmiths have been crinking for as long as there have been multi-bladed folders, just to get them to fit right. It involves bending the tang/blade junction slightly to get the angle right for fit. However, as I am not a master bladesmith, I have no insight to offer the OP about how to do it.
Sorry your knife broke. Looks like you were doing beautiful work up to then.
 
This would probably be better placed in a different area of the Forum, so hopefully a mod will come along and get you squared away.

That being said, I have done some minor crinking. Crinking is much more nuanced than "bending" which is almost impossible with hardened steels. In my experience, you can bend a blade (sometimes!) pretty far one way, but getting it back to straight can be a real problem as you have seen.

I like the stockman pattern and a couple of other multi-bladed traditionals. Sometimes there just isn't much realistic room inside the little case for 2 or 3 blades and they rub. So light crinking is in order. Here's how I do it, and no doubt one of the service providers will tell you how to do it correctly.

First, I NEVER hit any blade to straighten it. I don't take the knife apart, either. The thing I try first to straighten a blade is to put the blade in a heavy duty vise and see if I can close the vise as much as possible and straighten it up I center the are as much as I can in the vise jaw before applying pressure to spread the pressure out over as large an area as possible. I never try to get them perfect, so if I can the blade to straight enough to close without rubbing, I stop there even though it isn't perfect. If the blade is bent towards the tip, I will try and that is all that is rubbing, I try putting in what I think is the right amount of blade (practice... done by eye) and will gently try to pull the blade in the direction needed to keep it from rubbing. Sometimes that works and sometimes not.

If the blade is bent from damage, and is bent say halfway down the blade, or I am trying to get clearance inside the knife case, then I try a combination of both methods. Sometimes on a multi-blade knife that may be needed on more than one blade to keep the actual "crinking" amount to be as small as possible on an individual blade. Remember, the smaller the blade the harder this will be to get done right, and in the end you might have to settle for a bent blade, which if I can still sharpen it correctly I personally think of as character. Again, a blade will move a surprising amount when it damaged, but getting it back to the original fit and straightness can be met a dicey challenge. I would rather have a slightly bent blade than a broken one!

Robert
 
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Dangerously said:
To make room for a blade opposite, is the only reason I know. Like a sak.
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Kbrasmodeler said:
Crinking is a little different than bending the blade. Traditional bladesmiths have been crinking for as long as there have been multi-bladed folders, just to get them to fit right. It involves bending the tang/blade junction slightly to get the angle right for fit. However, as I am not a master bladesmith, I have no insight to offer the OP about how to do it.
Sorry your knife broke. Looks like you were doing beautiful work up to then.
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I guess that makes sense, trying to put the maximum amount of blades into as little space as possible. Still odd to me but then again I like my blades centered or I go nuts :D
 
b00n said:
I guess that makes sense, trying to put the maximum amount of blades into as little space as possible. Still odd to me but then again I like my blades centered or I go nuts :D
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Totally get that, but I can't worry about centering on something like this:
 
b00n said:
I guess that makes sense, trying to put the maximum amount of blades into as little space as possible. Still odd to me but then again I like my blades centered or I go nuts :D
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Yes, because without crinking, most multi-bladed knives would become much thicker.

Buck doesn't crink the blades on their current 301 pocketknife, and it is thicker.

*edited for spelling*

Jim
 
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b00n said:
Okay so...I didn't even know what you were talking about, then I googled, then I found pictures. Now I have even more questions. Why would you deliberately bend a blade? I mean...I just...I'm not sure if I am more confused, baffled or my curiosity for odd things is peaked.
giphy.gif
Click to expand...

CRAP.... what did he do to deserve a Steve Harvey? For any reason?

If you are a long time carrier of multi-blade knives (or many times even single bladed folders) you know that they don't come centered. 50+ years ago we didn't worry about it, and blade rub was the only reason to self "crink". For me, that's still the case and since I have broken blades twice trying to get rid of nasty blade rub I proceed very carefully with that exercise. I little rub (if the knife closes all the way) to me isn't that big of a deal on my knives as they are all work knives.

Robert
 
Thanks OP and all ! I learned a knife thing , I never even suspected to exist ! :cool::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
Kbrasmodeler said:
Totally get that, but I can't worry about centering on something like this:
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And you shouldn't. Those knives were made for a purpose, to perform cutting duties as needed. Knives like that (I have about 70 surviving traditionals from way back to my childhood) were purchased as useful tools, not to be studied and examined for their tolerances. On work knife, good walk and talk with good fit and assembly are always my major concern, and a tiny bit of blade rub is one of my last considerations when purchasing.

Now most folks buy knives for their pinache, as "objects d' art", expecting a product with tolerances along the lines of a fine watch.

Robert
 
Crinking the blades seems to be a bit of a lost art. None of my newer Case knives are crinked, but my vintage 1980's Schrade 80OT is beautifully crinked.
 
Here's a severely crinked Schatt & Morgan. They should have made this a two spring knife instead of crinking the blade that much. It's actually even worse than it looks in the picture.
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About a year ago someone posted a multi-part video of the GEC plant producing knives. In that video he explains how he crinks the knife and demonstrates. The machine looked ancient and was a press that was operated with foot pressure. I watched that part of the video 100 times to try and understand how he did it. It was very interesting. I will keep looking for it and post it here if I find it.

If you Google ‘Great Eastern Cutlery Factory Tour’ you will find the multi-part video. The footage is in Part 2 at the 14:00 minute mark.

 
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