Keyhole style knife assembly

[SlipjointPolitiburo]

Hi All,
Before I get too far on this rehandle I was curious if anyone here is familiar with reassembling a Schrade 175/keyhole style knife? I see it’s mentioned in Ben Kelly’s book as being difficult and he suggests soldering it in and drilling a new pivot.

I can only imagine there’s an order of assembly that makes this easy/efficient…but I haven’t been able to figure it out. Any guidance or links to other threads would be greatly appreciated. So far Google has been a let down…

Cheers!

Alex in Rochester, NY

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

If you search Google on 'Schrade Swinden Key', you'll find lots of links to forum discussions and some video tutorials as well. I linked one old BF thread below, with BF member & moderator 'Codger64' sharing his knowledge. He's basically the Schrade guru & historian on the forum. At any rate, the Google search as mentioned is a good jumping-off point for learning more about the issues with Schrade's older Swinden Key-constructed knives.

I don't think I've seen or read anything yet that indicates there's an easy way to repair them without simply drilling out the bolsters and installing thru-pins in place of the Swinden Key construction. Those pivots have had other issues as well, like loosening over time and not being very strong in lateral stresses, and obviously being very difficult to repair once they're taken apart. So, the better fix and more durable one is likely just installing thru-pins instead.

Any hope for loose Swindon key knives?

So, I have this new-old stock Old Timer 33OT that, in it's current state, is a major turn-off to me, since both blades exhibit an inordinate amount of side-to-side play. Is there anything that can be done about this?

www.bladeforums.com

And an oft-cited video example for repair is this one from 'Muskrat Man' on YouTube. This one is also linked maybe twice within the old BF thread linked above.

 

[SlipjointPolitiburo]

What an excellent video!! So helpful…thank you.

I got some tips from a couple other people. I’m going to attempt to reassemble the OEM pivot…if that fails I’ll drill it. The action was nice to start with.

Thx again!

Have a great weekend everyone

Alex

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

What an excellent video!! So helpful…thank you.

I got some tips from a couple other people. I’m going to attempt to reassemble the OEM pivot…if that fails I’ll drill it. The action was nice to start with.

Thx again!

Have a great weekend everyone

Alex

You have a great weekend as well.

Good luck with the fix and feel free to post results here too, if you want to. I'm sure many here would be glad to see it.

 

[SlipjointPolitiburo]

 

[SlipjointPolitiburo]

Proof of concept. Assemblywas a little funky to manage but it’s back together and operational with good action/no gaps using the original swinden key pivot.

Now to disassemble and tackle the scales and do it all over again

 

[SlipjointPolitiburo]

Well here she is…some process shots and the end product. Picked katalox for the handle material. Didn’t go too far with the finishing as it was and will be a user. Also maintains that vintage look a bit

Got some blow out trying to ream out the top of the pin holes in the covers. I’ll have to look up how to do that properly.

Gave it a mineral oil flush and the action is excellent/as original.

 

[SlipjointPolitiburo]

Here’s the before…and a special thanks to everyone for help along the way. Including Gary Claxon and David Valdivieso, who I’d both recommend if you are seeking professional quality rehandle work