First knife mod - call for help

quattromori

quattromori

Joined
May 7, 2011
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3,426
Hi folks,
some recent threads, and some sort of crazy/experimental/challenging spirit, is pushing me towards doing something I've never done before, but I need your help, and I'd love to turn this into a sort of "shared WIP thread". Hopefully, those among us who have more skill and experience, will be helping me.
So, here are the facts.
First, I would like to thank Keith (coyote711) for sending me this knife some time ago. It seems that we're both after the same knife (although it doesn't seem to exist in production): a two bladed jack with a clip and a sheepsfoot and both nicks on the same side. So, some time ago, I started a thread when I found out about the Schrade 93OT Wrangler, which comes really close to our idea. Keith found one for sale, started a thread about it, and then after a while he was so generous to send me this very knife...and I've had it for quite a while now.
I share Keith's second thoughts on this style of clip blade, and this very knife has quite an amount of blade wobble on the clip blade as well. With time this has become my gardening knife (since my father took my sodbuster), but to be honest I've only been only using the sheepsfoot blade...
So, here comes the challenge. I've been thinking about turning this knife into a gardening knife (a single bladed sheepsfoot), by taking the main blade away. I've never done any mod to any knife, so I need help. My uncle (who's training to become a blacksmith - one of those "retirement" passions that I really really appreciate) has enough tools to do the job, so I just need a bit of education on these things. Since it's my first trial, I prefer to have a clear plan of what to do, before jumping in blindfolded and finding myself with the pieces of a knife and no idea of what to do with them. :D
So, this is the knife (borrowed image from Keith):

930tz.jpg


First thing I need to know...how should I disassemble the knife without causing lethal damage? :rolleyes:
Thank you in advance for your help, suggestions, support. :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Hi Fausto,
This thread is on the outer edge of "Traditional". If you don't get much in the way of answers, we may move it to the Maintenance and Tinkering Forum. We'll leave it here for a while and see who answers.
 
Frank,
I was actually wondering where to post it. The reason why I opted for this subforum is that, to my knowledge, this sort of knives is built very differently from modern folders (pins, bolsters, backspring, and so on) so I thought that only the people here could be of some help. Anyway, feel free to move it where you think it's more appropriate.

Fausto
:cool:
 
good luck, and if im not mistaken i believe schrades had a swinden key bolster system, a lot different than the standard pin through peen the top, polish
the swinden is a locking system, ive not had luck even tightening an old one up with the tried and true phone book and mallet treatment, got ticked and just swung on the bolster, no luck still lots of sise to side play
personally i wouldnt do it but the best of luck if ya do
gene
 
Gene,
thanks for your answers. It seems I might be stepping into muddy waters...still I'm thinking about it :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Fausto, those Old Timers were made using Swinden construction; there are keyhole slots in the underside of the bolsters that a pre-headed pin slides into. Not exactly an easy first job but it is doable. The good part is it's easy to disassemble, just remove the center pin (dremel off the head, then push it through with a punch), then twist both covers in opposite directions and it should slide right apart. You'll have to then grind the heads off the pivot pins to get the parts seperated.
You can drill new holes in the bolsters for conventional pins, just drill from the inside using the pin slot as your guide, you'll want the hole at the edge of the narrow end. Not sure what size pins you'll need, likely somewhere sround .085, you want the pin a bit smaller than the tang hole, nickel silver would be best. The liner is what's slotted, with a void cut out of the back of the bolster for pin head clearance, so you won't have far to drill.

Eric
 
Eric,
thanks for your feedback. I will keep on gathering information and advice before I dive in.
Just one question: how easy is it to remove the bolsters, after I've drilled the center pin? for some reasons, the bolster removal is one of my main issues :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Like Eric mentioned, once you drill and tapout that center pin, the knife will more or less come apart easily. The center pin is the key that holds everything together in that design.

One of the things I like to do with those after is I fill the hollow well of the bolsters with solder. It's not really necessary to do that, but I like to add a little beef to the bolsters before I drill them out.

Be sure to share some WIP pics!
 
I will surely post pictures of the WIP. It's definitely something that I want to share with all of you (no matter how it goes).
Thanks for the inputs folks!

Fausto
:cool:
 
i've hope to try a mod myself some day, hope you don't mind if i watch for advice :)

good luck!
 
Lots of info about this in the BF "Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment" forum and in the BF Schrade Collectors forum.
 
Fausto, here's a scan of some Old Timer guts. I believe the haft is from a 34OT, and the blade/scale combo is from a barlow. Note the slots in the scale at the bolster area of the OT, if you take the center pin out the pins in those slots will be free to slide to the wide area and the knife will basically fall apart with no effort. You can see how the pins in the barlow blades are headed to allow them to slide into the slots in the liner, you'd have to grind those heads off in order to remove the blades.

29l1tts.jpg
[/IMG]

Eric
 
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Thanks for leaving this here, Frank. I would never have seen this over in another sub forum.

Just a thought... if this knife has some value to you Fausto and you won't really want to take a chance on ruining it, why not re-do a Rough Rider or something like that? Then you could get the model you want with the blade size you want on it (like say folding hunter) and grind it to your specs.

I don't know what one would cost, but I can't imagine a RR large single blade hunter being that much. You wouldn't have to take the knife apart and you could grind the blade to your specs and add a nail nick anywhere you wanted it.

Now I am sitting here wondering why I don't do it.... seems I could make the traditional I always wanted from a donor knife.

Robert
 
Thanks to everyone for your advice and feedback; to Eric for the picture, to David for the link, and to Ed for his suggestion (the Schrade collector subforum had passed completely under my radar).
Robert,
this knife does have some value to me, not on the money side, but because it's a gift. And, for this very reason, I don't want to leave it unused and swap it for another one.
I'm still gathering information, then I will decide whether to give it a try or not. Either way, I will go on using this knife (it does take a pretty good edge as well, considering my poor - yet improving - sharpening skills). Obviously, if I ever decide to take the risky (yet potentially rewarding) path, I will post pictures here and keep you updated. As I wrote in the first post, I'm happy and willing to share the whole process with you.

Fausto
:cool:
 
Hi Fausto! FWIW, I totally support tinkering & modifications to make the knife more your knife. I've done it to a few myself and have generally been satisfied with the results. I've never done the type of mod you're considering though, so I can't offer any advice or hints.

This is probably pretty far out in left field, but I had an old Case penknife that had really bad blade rub when opening & closing the blades. Really irritated me, and I never used the pen blade, so I just took it to my bench grinder and ground down the pen blade to nothing. (Finishing it up with a hand file when I got close to the bolster).

Grinding off the clip blade on your knife would leave the knife at the original thickness, whereas "doing it right" by disassembling the knife and removing the clip blade would leave you with a thinner knife. Just something to consider.

Have fun and let us know what you decide! ;)

Keith
 
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