Loose saw blade

orca8589

orca8589

Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
6,518
I have a Camillus two-blade Hunter pattern, about 5" long closed, dark red jigged delrin scales, with a clip and saw blade. It's an 'Official Scout Knife', bought before Camillus closed.

The saw blade has a lot of side/side play when open; it works well, but it has more play that any other knife I own. Is this common for this knife? Was it by chance made this way?

If I squeeze the knife in a vice, it will tighten up, but then the sawblade is very difficult to move. (Apparently the sawblade backspring is thicker than the sawblade itself.) The main blade is fine.

thx - cpr
 
It is very difficult to troubleshoot such a problem without having the knife in my hand,
but it sounds like the pivot pin has loosened a bit.
The quick and dirty field expedient repair is to take a center punch and peen out the pivot pin on both ends. If you decide to do that, use a 0.008” to 0.010” slackner to insure you have enough clearance for the blade to open and close without binding.
While your knife will work better, it will look like some idjit has been pounding on the pivot pin with a center punch. :eek:

The correct way to repair that problem is to replace the pivot pin and correctly set the clearance to it will operate smoothly. It may be necessary to make it a bit tighter if you use the saw frequently.

I think that your initial loosening was probably caused by using the saw in the first place. I have not worked on that pattern, but I think if the peening was off just a bit when it was made, and if you had any sideways torque when using the saw, that could have caused it to loosen. If you used the saw frequently, that could well be the problem.

Again, I have not used nor worked on that knife, but my impression of most knives with saws is that the saw is a convenience item. If you use it once or twice a year it is probably fine. But if you carry it and use it often as a saw, you are probably better off carrying a good saw rather than making a small saw on a knife do the work of a much bigger saw.

Just my 2¢,
Dale
 
Dale - thanks for the info.

Actually, I should have mentioned that the sawblade was loose when I got the knife. Ironically, this model was on sale for 50% off, while the single blade model was full price. Apparently the sawblade model didn't sell too well. I bought it at the time because Camillus was having a tough time.

For my outdoor/bug out pack knife, I'm going to buy a SOG Revolver here soon. It gets fairly good reviews, so I'll give it a try.

I'll try the fix you mentioned above, and see what happens. I'd like to use this one for camping, I'm just reluctant too if the saw blade is going to work it's way 'looser'.

thx - cpr
 
Probably made it through QC when it shouldn't have. :o

The double lock back is easy to reinspect (make walk & talk) after you have done a few thousand of them. :D
I'll do it for you for free if you wish.
PM me for address.
 
PM inbound; Phil, that's a very nice offer. I'll take you up on it, as this is one of my favorite knives. We'll square up someday, I'm sure! :thumbup:

thx - cpr
 
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