Making your own pivots and screws?

G

gudspelr

Joined
Jul 1, 2013
Messages
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I haven’t done this yet, but was hoping for input from anyone who has. I have a mini metal large and would like to make my own Ti screws and at least pivot collars, if not the pivot heads, as well. I’ve searched the internet, but my googling seems to be failing me with the key words I’m using, or there just aren’t that many sources out there.

I’ve seen a maker’s short video on how he threads his Ti screws and I think I’ll be fine on that part of things. What I’m more curious about are the ways anyone does their screw and pivot heads. I would think a simple slot would be the easiest and for some screws, not a bad way to go necessarily. For a pivot head, it seems to leave things lacking somewhat in the aesthetic. I don’t have a rotary table for my manual mill. Are there set ups/thoughts on how to make the heads a bit more decorative than a slot, but repeatable, etc? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Jeremy
 
I suppose you could get a rotary broach for a torx or a hex head. They're pretty expensive though.
 
Those rotary broaches are pretty interesting-but yes, pretty expensive.

Stacy, some of those you linked to are also a little like what I was thinking of as different examples. Was just trying to think of ways to make some of my own rather than purchase them.

Jeremy
 
I've made a few small screws for gun parts and they were always slotted because that's easy to do. I'm not at all sure how you would "cheap 'n easy" do torq, hex, etc type screw heads. Good luck
 
gudspelr said:
I haven’t done this yet, but was hoping for input from anyone who has. I have a mini metal large and would like to make my own Ti screws and at least pivot collars, if not the pivot heads, as well.
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why do you want to do this?
are you a machinist? are you high production? are you getting $2K for your folders?
The only guys I know who make their own hardware are guys like Tim Wright and MARCELLO GARAU (@garauknives), if you look at his IG he just made some screws. These guys get like $3K for their work. For them it's not about the availability of purchased hardware

Anyway, I think they use acorn dies and dividing heads to do such work.
They also tend to make their own screw head pattern and make a matching tool that ships with the knife
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
If you can make a precision sized pivot and do the head and a matching screw in an attractive pattern with a torx center .... in titanium .... for less than $10, I admire your skills.
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Well said . There is absolute truth in the cost side of things here. And I’m not guessing I’ll be able to do anything torx related without a meaningful output of money....

Jeremy
 
HSC /// said:
why do you want to do this?
are you a machinist? are you high production? are you getting $2K for your folders?
The only guys I know who make their own hardware are guys like Tim Wright and MARCELLO GARAU (@garauknives), if you look at his IG he just made some screws. These guys get like $3K for their work. For them it's not about the availability of purchased hardware

Anyway, I think they use acorn dies and dividing heads to do such work.
They also tend to make their own screw head pattern and make a matching tool that ships with the knife
Click to expand...

Nope-definitely not in the league of guys making big time folders that sell for high prices. As you can see by my membership level, I’m not much anything of a seller. I don’t do high production, either.

It’s definitely somewhere in the category of “would just like to be able to make my own”. I know there’s a line somewhere for everyone of what just isn’t worth it to try and make. For some, they’d never even start making knives-they’d just prefer to buy a good quality one from a maker and not invest in all the tools and such to make their own. Clearly, we can all buy lots of parts and each has to decide what is worth his/her time and effort. In a way, this reminds me a bit of reloading. Definitely don’t “need” to reload, but you can fiddle with a given load, different bullet, and on and on. I think for me, it’s a little bit of my personality to want to try making my own custom stuff.

Glen Waters has some really cool looking pivots. As do some other makers out there. The video I saw of a maker threading his own Ti screws used an acorn die, so I plan to look into that. I’m also thinking about saving for a rotary table for the mill that would also make stop pin tracks a lot less stressful :). Then maybe it could assist in some pivot heads, too.

Jeremy
 
Lol!!!! That made me laugh out loud-particularly the A going into the corresponding A hole.... On the plus side, if I can keep up with Arthur’s pace, it’ll about cover the number of knives I come up with :).

Jeremy

M
Drew Riley said:
For some reason, I was reminded of this:
Click to expand...
 
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