Made some progress today.
Picking up from pinning the scales, I spent a little more time smoothing and shaping the stag. Prepping the scales for pinning and final fitment. I rounded the scales a bit away from the liners, just making things comfortable.
After that, remember me saying the scales were pinned only about 95%, I finished forming the pins down to contour of the stag. Once I final buff and polish the pins they will be nice and flush and look better.
After that the fun and most nerve wracking part, pinning the knife! Do one last dry run, and clean everything up. Try to fix any issues there may be now, because trying to later will be much more difficult. Now, this knife being what it is, the liners are still warped and funky having been stretched and hammered back flat, so a perfect flawless fit is not currently possible.
To pin the knife, clip th pins down to just about 1/8" tall, file the ends down smooth to about one diameter length above the bolster. Using a jewelers hammer and a bench block anvil I hammer the end of the pin with the flat face. Using the flat face expands the pin diameter filling the tapered holes. Flip it over and do the other side.
After pinning the tail end, move on to the midde pin. This one requires a little more care, if we just wail away and pin it down tight we run a couple of risks. First thing that could happen is we pinch the spring too tight and make working the knife very difficult. The second thing is you can crack the scales. When pinning the middle pin I start with the flat side of the handle and switch to the ball end to round it over and get it to lay in the stag better.
Once satisfied with that, next is to pin the pivot. This one is similar to pinning the middle pin, but also like the tail end. You want ultra secure but just enough room to allow it to move freely. The method I use is to put shims in there an just wail away! That way it is very secure and I have the gap I need built in. For shims I take one of my DE razor blades and snap it in half, I slip it inbetween the tang and liners.
After peining the pins, grab the shims with pliers and pull thm out. Cycle the knife to make sure no further peining is needed. If all is good, the pins are ground down on the bolsters. Keeping fingers crossed I peined them enough to fill the pin hole or else be stuck with a gap. A quick buzz with a worn 120 belt and the pins disappear! All 4 pins look good, no gaps.
This old horse is starting to shape up into a fine looking little Pony!
This is as far as I got today before the wife came home from work. So tomorrow before I go to work I will start on finishing this thing out.
Thanx for watching!
-Xander
)
