Modified Production Knives (traditional only)

Has anyone had luck straightening offcenter blades? I did it on a Case peanut to great effect, clamping the blade between two pieces and giving it a little tweak here and there and got it dead center, but I think I was able to manage that because the blade was so thin - I turned a 33OT middleman jack into a single spring linerless micarta knife, but the blade is badly off-centered (it was with the original handles too) and I'm trying to live with it but it is really bugging me

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I tried tweaking it with the blade clamped into a vice and it's a tiny bit better, not rubbing the side anymore, but the rest of the knife came out so clean and nice, I want it to be perfect. Looking at it, and the picture shows it pretty well, I think it may be ground that way (I'm guessing they use 34OT stockman blades, which are pushed over close to the liner for clearance. It's very parallel until the clip starts, then it veers to the right) so I may have to live with it... Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
HeathH said:
Has anyone had luck straightening offcenter blades? I did it on a Case peanut to great effect, clamping the blade between two pieces and giving it a little tweak here and there and got it dead center, but I think I was able to manage that because the blade was so thin - I turned a 33OT middleman jack into a single spring linerless micarta knife, but the blade is badly off-centered (it was with the original handles too) and I'm trying to live with it but it is really bugging me

20160626_081636.jpg


I tried tweaking it with the blade clamped into a vice and it's a tiny bit better, not rubbing the side anymore, but the rest of the knife came out so clean and nice, I want it to be perfect. Looking at it, and the picture shows it pretty well, I think it may be ground that way (I'm guessing they use 34OT stockman blades, which are pushed over close to the liner for clearance. It's very parallel until the clip starts, then it veers to the right) so I may have to live with it... Any thoughts or suggestions?
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That is really a slippery slope. It's very easy to snap a blade clean off if you hit it wrong. Typically there may be a little room at the tang to for some small adjustments, but it's very risky. I would only risk it if I had a blade to replace it with.
 
When my grandpa passed away I got several of his old knives, mostly 4" stockmen, but there was also an Imperial Barlow that was seized shut with the shell scales chipped and loose. The bolsters were crushed too - kind of a piece of junk, but it was also my grandpa's so I've held on to it in my treasure chest of un-carried old knives.

After the success of my little Old Timer mod (and the fact that I still have some brass rod and brown Micarta burning a hole in my workbench) I decided to restore it and see if I could make it usable again. I am going to make it a shadow pattern again, because I don't have the means to cut liners or bolsters right now. This presents a problem with the bolstered look that I want to preserve, but I have an idea on that - we'll see if it works in the next couple of days.

I used some pliers to open the blades up - here's a before shot

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Down the spine - crushed bolsters and chipped covers

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I used a screw driver to remove the shells - surprisingly solid knife underneath - I soaked it in WD40 for a while and flushed it out with soap and water and cleaned a mountain of gunk out. At this point, it's opening and closing without pliars and has some *very* surprising snap!

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However, this could present a problem - see the back springs swerving off to the left? I think I know why the bolsters were crushed - looks like grandpa used it as a pry bar or door stop. Thanks grandpa!


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I ground the heads off the rivets for disassembly as I'm not planning to re-use the outer liners. I spent a while working on the back springs trying to get them straightened out without much success. My plan is to clamp the knife as I pin it and see if the tension of the center liner and scales can provide enough pressure to keep the back springs straight.

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Here are the covers knocked out - the one on the left is as-chopped from my jigsaw, the one on the right has been rough-shaped on the disk sander

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Finally, here's where I left off last night, holes drilled and roughly assembled. Putting it together was a bear with those bent backsprings! It's kind of unfortunate, too, that I will have to take it apart and put it back together because it took me a good 20 minutes to get it pinned up with the blades in. I'm debating on whether or not to clean the blades up - I'm leaning toward "no" because I like the Grandpa patina. I am also going to polish the cam on the tangs and the spot on the backspring where the tang rubs as there is some galling on both surfaces that really make the "walk" rough.

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That's where she stands for right now, thanks for reading! I'll post some pictures up when I get it finished up.
 
That's coming along nicely! Can't wait to see the end product.
 
Thanks Glenn, I hope it comes out as well as the last one - any advice on cutting liners? I've tried a few different things with the equipment I have with no success.... I'm feeling like a bandsaw is going to be the way to do it, but I don't know if I want to drop $100 (used) for a tool for that I'm not likely to use for anything else
 
hand-held scroll saw with metal cutting blade. Just need to have a piece big enough where you can clamp it down. Also, a hand coping saw might work with the right blade in it, but that will be tedious. People also use angle grinders, but that's usually for thick stock.

However, a dremel tool with metal cutting disc might be right up your alley.
 
Awesome post, Heath. Between your excellent photos and some of Jeff's (jprime84) mods-in-progress posts, I might just stand a chance of giving some of those clamshell Barlows in my junk box a second lease on life. :thumbup:
 
glennbad said:
hand-held scroll saw with metal cutting blade. Just need to have a piece big enough where you can clamp it down. Also, a hand coping saw might work with the right blade in it, but that will be tedious. People also use angle grinders, but that's usually for thick stock.

However, a dremel tool with metal cutting disc might be right up your alley.
Click to expand...

I love the dremel idea! I hadn't thought about that. mine is currently non-operational but I think the brushes are just shot. I will swing by Home Depot and see if I can pick some up, thanks for the advice! I've tried my bench grinder, disk sander and a hacksaw by hand, all three bent the liner (a finer blade on the hacksaw probably would have been better) to varying degrees. I've been thinking about table mounting my jigsaw but I, uh, like my fingers.




TsarBomba said:
Awesome post, Heath. Between your excellent photos and some of Jeff's (jprime84) mods-in-progress posts, I might just stand a chance of giving some of those clamshell Barlows in my junk box a second lease on life. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Go for it sir, doing it this way (linerless shadow pattern) is really really easy. Just use your center liner as a template for handle shape and hole location... When I did the Schrade, I just used a coping saw to chop out the chunks of micarta, and this setup for shaping the handles, lining up the backspring and just about everything besides peening the pins:

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(disregard the messy workspace)
 
derrman79 said:
Looking good, Heath!
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Thanks! Got a little bit more time to work on it tonight... got it stripped, cleaned, buffed where I wanted it buffed, and put back together. The backspring issue seems better:

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Overall, it looks MUCH more like a knife peened and with the handles in their final shape

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With the knife back together, I spent some time on my ultra high-tech hafting machine

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Not the most dignified condition for the knife, I'm trying not to panic, but rounding all the edges on the drum sander saved a lot of time over hand-sanding all the edges

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15 minutes of hand sanding with some 220 grit paper and a little shot of wd40 has me feeling much better :D
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Really happy with how the backspring came out.... all the straight lines on this barlow make it easy to get a good finish:
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Here it is in it's current condition.
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I'm trying to decide about my bolster idea... I'm really pleased with the knife as-is, but you know the old saying... if it ain't broke, fix it til it is! I have a scrap piece of micarta that I'm going to use to experiment. If it comes out OK I will give it a shot tomorrow...
 
I wouldn't change a thing. Looks great!
 
Thanks gentlemen... the micarta experiment didn't work out as I'd hoped, so I decided to leave the knife as-is. I thought about it for a while and as I was over borrowing a router bit for a woodworking project from my dad, I handed it over to him... it just felt right giving it to him since it was his dad's. he seemed impressed, and yes, it did just disappear into his pocket!

While I was over there he handed me an old Camillus TL29 and told me to see what I could do with it :)

Thanks for following along
 
IMG]http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160704/dd8c96cff5a8a1f932b5209bbb14f2ed.jpg[/IMG]
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Taylor Eye Witness.New spring and scales.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
Another winner, Heath! You're just going to keep posting these projects until I start my own projects, huh? :cool: ;)
 
Just got this one in today, the big swell center double-end jack from S&M, model #376 in smooth autumn bone (seller's pic).

7df706f1-3816-4672-9468-fb0e57552b82_zps44p7ckcm.jpg~original


Based on my enjoyment of the latest traditional forum knife from CS, I bought it expressly to do the modification of turning the spear secondary into a sheepfoot. I liked the size of the knife (3.85" closed), and wanted something a little beefier than the forum version. Took me about an hour with the belt sander and 150 and 400 grit paper. This is a good effort from Queen/S&M, with tight construction, good snap, medium pulls and decent bevels. Hope you like the mod.

2cf09db1-0e1d-4f07-aae5-ed98ace91db2_zpswdeqt17r.jpg~original


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Here it is compared to the forum knife from Canal Street.

d4f2582a-36f9-4bec-a0e0-a774b5b9d83e_zpslik2eehh.jpg~original
 
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