It's not how big it is, but how us use it.

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
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I have allways been a sucker for tight fitting hidden pins. I am working on my christmass exchange knife and am doing hidden pins and had a thought. What size do the pins really need to be to support the handle. In the knife i'm doing now the pins are 1/4" di and half an inch long. The blade was 1/4" thick but I surface ground it which brought it under that a bit. I get quite anal abou pin fit. The holes through the tang must be reamed to just a few tenths under the size of the pin. and the same for the holes in the back side of the handle. Everything must line up perfectley and fit tight. And when put togather ther must not be any movement in the handle scales befor glueing. Now being this crazy about perfection does make finle fit and finish of the handle very easy as everything lines up perfectley when reasembled. Now having said this I have allways thought that it's not the size of the pin that counts but how much surface area of handle is touching the pin. With a bigger pin you have tons more contact area then with a small pin. Meaning the handle will spread out the Impact force across a larger area resulting In less chance of causing the hole to fail. But when does the pin get to big to notice a diffrence or actualy cause a weakness. I just have allways like 1/4" as it's easer to handle. I guess some one could also argue weather or not a hidden pin is stronger then a through pin. As with a hidden pin you are not drilling compleatley through the handle which gives the handle material more strength above the pin from cracking. And also I'd you take two pins and one is say half an inch and the other is one inch long. The half inch pin will be 8 times
ore ridged the the one inch pin. Meaning less flex which is less handle movement. Maybe I'm just going way over board and over doing it but I can't help it :D. Thanks for listening to my rant
 
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I use 1/16" - 1/8" diameter for hidden pins. I dont mind using that small becuase there is more pins involved.

Jason
 
I guess that's true. Lot of small ones will be nice and strong to. I guess my post was about the knives where I see like 2 1/16 pins and just wondering how strong thy really are.
 
Good thread. I have been thinking about trying hidden pins. What are you guy's thoughts on hidden epoxy pins in addition to steel/brass pins?
 
I normally use two 1/8" or 3/16" brass or copper pins for the most of my slab handles. they get peened and epoxied. Short of a freak sheering, The slab will fail before the pin does. Gaurenteed. I dont think I'd trust a epoxy pin to hold becuase, of the epoxies I've used, the force it takes to sheer or break isnt much. No where near steel, brass or copper anyway, which would normally bend in an annealled state. epoxy is in a hardened state and therefore easier to break. It might be ok for an art knife. But not a user and abuser blade, A thought just hit me though. on an Art knife, one doesnt see anyone using glass pins. That might look very cool!

Jason
 
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JasonSCarter said:
I normally use two 1/8" or 3/16" brass or copper pins for the most of my slab handles. they get peened and epoxied. Short of a freak sheering, The slab will fail before the pin does. Gaurenteed. I dont think I'd trust a epoxy pin to hold becuase, of the epoxies I've used, the force it takes to sheer or break isnt much. No where near steel, brass or copper anyway, which would normally bend in an annealled state. epoxy is in a hardened state and therefore easier to break. It might be ok for an art knife. But not a user and abuser blade, A thought just hit me though. on an Art knife, one doesnt see anyone using glass pins. That might look very cool!

Jason
Click to expand...

you could take it one step further and use fiber optic pins ;). but ya i would not trust just epoxy pins as by using metal pins we a trying to stop the shear force from getting to the epoxy. i think of the epoxy as just what holds the scales from falling off but all the strength is in the pins. the way i do it there is no movement at all in the handle with just pins and no epoxy so i know its solid. and the epoxy just holds the scales from falling off the pins.
 
Most of my knives have hidden pins, usually about 1/8" or so pins. Usually, I use brass threaded machine screws that I can nip off to length.
I Dremel a cavity in the handle slabs at the end of where the pins fit into the handle slabs.

I use only AcraGlas Gel, and it isn't going to let loose, ever.

I have used about everything for hidden pins, including the very hard pleshett (sp?) darts with the fins cut off.
 
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