- Joined
- Jun 27, 2002
- Messages
- 1
Considering the level of expertise around here, this is the contribution of a "talented amateur."
Mine is the basic black plastic model and I've used it steadily since I first bought it. I didn't have to worry about it falling out and getting lost as apparently so many did. Since I'm left handed, I had just run the belt around my waist the other way to make it easier for me to flip out the blade. Therefore, as it wore and got sloppy it just tended to fall further into it's holder.
In the first few years, I snapped off the hook on the back of the buckle that engaged the holes in the belt. I went to my supply of brass hobby tubing, the type that's in 12" lengths and a couple of dozen telescoping sizes. Selecting a size that when squeezed to an elliptical cross section would fit tightly over the stub that was left, I cut off a short piece. I put some epoxy inside the tubing and pressed it down over the stub. When the epoxy was set, I cut to shape and polished it with my Dremel. I feel it works better than the original hook.
A few months ago I decided it was so sloppy in so many ways I was going to have to overhaul it. First I noted the blade stop pin was missing. Looking through my 1/8" drill bits I found one whose shank was a press fit and cut off a piece to press into the hole. I trimmed to fit and polished with with your basic "Dremel" type tool. (After years of happy use of Dremels, I have to say the Black & Decker ones are better. Wolfcraft (available at HomeDepot) makes a nice drill press/stand that holds both electric drills and Dremels. With minor ingenuity you can adapt Dremel accessories to the B&D RTX-1. If there's interest, I can make a post about the adaptions. The RTX-1 has twice the power and is less than $30 at Target when on sale. (Regular price $50.) I also have become very fond of B&D's cordless.) A couple of great places for Dremel type accessories are micromark.com and sciplus.com. Diamond bits in sets of 10 to 30 for prices of $.50 to $1 a piece! N.B., there's still some stuff Dremel does best and their parts service is fast and PPD.
Next problem was the blade flopping around loose. I sprayed the pivot with degreaser. (It's useful to pick up two or three cans of brake cleaner when it's on sale at your local auto parts store. When it's time to clean a firearm or folder, step outside, put on eye protection, stick the plastic straw that comes with the can in the nozzle and put the end of the straw in the bottom of any crevices and spray away. Any packed in deposits in a firearm will be dried to powder and just fall away when poked with a sharpened popsickle stick. Pocket lint and dried oil just disappear.)
Then I wrapped the pivot screw with _unwaxed_ dental floss. (If you don't have a container or two of unwaxed floss saved for reinforcing and patch jobs, I think _unwaxed_ silk or perhaps even polyester thread should work about the same.) When enough nylon fiber was built up to make movement firm but not too stiff, I soaked it with a couple of drops of _blue_ Loctite. Just cut off the ends of the wrapping flush once the Loctite drys. This worked great and has given consistent resistance for several months now. Whenever it gets looser again, I'll try adding more Loctite.
Last was to restore the effectiveness of the detent holding it in place on the buckle. If you look at the back, you'll see a point on the head of the retaining screw that is diametrically opposite the ground off flat side. The space between the underside of the screw head and the knife blade needs to be slightly reduced. I used a small vise with the jaws padded with cardboard to avoid scratches. A small hammer and tapping carefully would probably also work. Go slow until you feel the blade clicking into place in the buckle with the firmness you want.
I love the Touche because you just poke your navel with your finger and you have an adequately sharp blade in your hand. Works just fine for cutting out a coupon at the checkstand or cutting the tape to open a box. Its fatal flaw, IMHO, was making it so right-handers pivoted it DOWN to release. A friend of mine lost his that way. (Kelly Freas, the artist who created Alfred E. Neuman, the icon of MAD magazine. If anyone knows a good price on a Touche, I'd like to get him a replacement.) It's also useful that as the most frequently used of any of the sharp objects that I carry, that it's very nonthreatening. People's response is a uniform, "Wow, neat!"
Mine is the basic black plastic model and I've used it steadily since I first bought it. I didn't have to worry about it falling out and getting lost as apparently so many did. Since I'm left handed, I had just run the belt around my waist the other way to make it easier for me to flip out the blade. Therefore, as it wore and got sloppy it just tended to fall further into it's holder.
In the first few years, I snapped off the hook on the back of the buckle that engaged the holes in the belt. I went to my supply of brass hobby tubing, the type that's in 12" lengths and a couple of dozen telescoping sizes. Selecting a size that when squeezed to an elliptical cross section would fit tightly over the stub that was left, I cut off a short piece. I put some epoxy inside the tubing and pressed it down over the stub. When the epoxy was set, I cut to shape and polished it with my Dremel. I feel it works better than the original hook.
A few months ago I decided it was so sloppy in so many ways I was going to have to overhaul it. First I noted the blade stop pin was missing. Looking through my 1/8" drill bits I found one whose shank was a press fit and cut off a piece to press into the hole. I trimmed to fit and polished with with your basic "Dremel" type tool. (After years of happy use of Dremels, I have to say the Black & Decker ones are better. Wolfcraft (available at HomeDepot) makes a nice drill press/stand that holds both electric drills and Dremels. With minor ingenuity you can adapt Dremel accessories to the B&D RTX-1. If there's interest, I can make a post about the adaptions. The RTX-1 has twice the power and is less than $30 at Target when on sale. (Regular price $50.) I also have become very fond of B&D's cordless.) A couple of great places for Dremel type accessories are micromark.com and sciplus.com. Diamond bits in sets of 10 to 30 for prices of $.50 to $1 a piece! N.B., there's still some stuff Dremel does best and their parts service is fast and PPD.
Next problem was the blade flopping around loose. I sprayed the pivot with degreaser. (It's useful to pick up two or three cans of brake cleaner when it's on sale at your local auto parts store. When it's time to clean a firearm or folder, step outside, put on eye protection, stick the plastic straw that comes with the can in the nozzle and put the end of the straw in the bottom of any crevices and spray away. Any packed in deposits in a firearm will be dried to powder and just fall away when poked with a sharpened popsickle stick. Pocket lint and dried oil just disappear.)
Then I wrapped the pivot screw with _unwaxed_ dental floss. (If you don't have a container or two of unwaxed floss saved for reinforcing and patch jobs, I think _unwaxed_ silk or perhaps even polyester thread should work about the same.) When enough nylon fiber was built up to make movement firm but not too stiff, I soaked it with a couple of drops of _blue_ Loctite. Just cut off the ends of the wrapping flush once the Loctite drys. This worked great and has given consistent resistance for several months now. Whenever it gets looser again, I'll try adding more Loctite.
Last was to restore the effectiveness of the detent holding it in place on the buckle. If you look at the back, you'll see a point on the head of the retaining screw that is diametrically opposite the ground off flat side. The space between the underside of the screw head and the knife blade needs to be slightly reduced. I used a small vise with the jaws padded with cardboard to avoid scratches. A small hammer and tapping carefully would probably also work. Go slow until you feel the blade clicking into place in the buckle with the firmness you want.
I love the Touche because you just poke your navel with your finger and you have an adequately sharp blade in your hand. Works just fine for cutting out a coupon at the checkstand or cutting the tape to open a box. Its fatal flaw, IMHO, was making it so right-handers pivoted it DOWN to release. A friend of mine lost his that way. (Kelly Freas, the artist who created Alfred E. Neuman, the icon of MAD magazine. If anyone knows a good price on a Touche, I'd like to get him a replacement.) It's also useful that as the most frequently used of any of the sharp objects that I carry, that it's very nonthreatening. People's response is a uniform, "Wow, neat!"
