I fixed a Swindon key, maybe

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

Ok here goes, this has probably been done before but I don't know. Feel free to chime in with opinions, all are welcome.

This particular repair is most likely dependant on type of knife repaired. I don't know as of right now this is the only Swindon key one I have.

I know, get to the knife already! Lol. The knife is the 127UH I recently picked up. It did have some side to side play, but not bad. My cell service is giving me fits so pics will have to wait, I've tried 6 times keeps failing. I'll be as descriptive as I can.

The 127UH is a linerlock, and that's where this may be type dependant. Being a linerlock means it has 2 liners on one side. While looking at the play it had by flexing the blade, I noticed a gap would open slightly between those liners along the spine. The proverbial lightbulb flickered and I had an idea. So I took a cheap small sak knockoff with a thin blade, and stuck it into the gap between the liners. Once open the blade had zero play. Knowing that toothpaste tubes are aluminum clad in plastic coating I cut some small strips from the end of an old tube where it is bonded. I stuffed these into the small gap, and removed the other knife. Open and closed, no play. Trimmed the excess, then being careful filled the gap with super glue. Taking pains not to let it get in between the inner liner(locking) and spring. Been using it some, nothing strenuous, its still tight no wobble. Only downside so far, got it just a bit to snug. It doesn't "snap" closed, have to push it the last 1/8-1/4 inch. But as I carried linerlock moderns for years that doesn't bother me. The visible"gap" is very small, and actually is filled in. Only a picky knife knut would see it on close inspection. Casual inspection you'd miss it. Have no idea if this is a lasting repair, so far so good. Again as of right now zero side play.
The double liners allows for a thin shim to be inserted between them, thus tightening the Swindon key. A very thin brass shim would be good as it would blend in. On this knife about the thickness of 2 sheets of typing paper.
Pics as soon as I get better service, I do everything from my cell, and we getting rains already from the newest storm.

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

note the slight gap, there's shims in there from the top
I played with my photo editor to get it to show more, to the naked eye its not that apparent

 

[r8shell]

That's interesting. I thought the only way to fix a Swindon key knife involved disassembling it. The shim only works because you've got a second liner; otherwise it would be in a place where the blade needs to move against the liner, right?
Please let us know how it holds up to use.

 

[screened porch]

Neat trick.

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

screened porch r8shell , thanks
The double liner is what I think makes this possible. The only way I could see this type repair working on a regular model, would be shim between the liner and bolster. I don't know if that's possible.

 

[ea42]

Nice repair David! A shim between the liner and bolster probably would just wind up prying the bolster away from the liner. What you can do is peen the end of the liner with a small hammer. a Cutler's hammer with the narrow end works great for this. Just lightly tap around the liner many times to flare it out a bit. You want to concentrate on the edge of the liner closest to the blade. Sometimes you have to do the opposite liner as well. If you have a scotch brite wheel you can then smooth the hammer marks out a bit, just don't remove so much that you take those flared ends off as well.

Eric