Navy Knives Screw Sizes

C

cityofthesouth

Joined
Jan 29, 2014
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Hello bladeforums, first post. I like to tinker with knives but have run into a problem. I have a Navy K610 sitting here and it seems that with the Enlans, Bees, etc that I've torn apart, they are fond of the thread locker and torquing screws to death. And I admit it, I destroy some screws every now and then myself. Discovered fastener express and I keep some screws on hand now. BUT, this Navy is killing me. Thankfully they either forgot the thread locker on the day mine was made or something because it came apart fine until the pocket clip. Then I thought, this knife is pretty nice, I'll just replace all the screws and it'll be a nice knife. Well M2 is too small and M2.5 is too big. My thread pitch gauge only goes to 42 in standard and the threads are finer than that. Plus I am just assuming they are metric. Does anyone happen to know? If they are something like M2.3 .... do they exist in a place I can get them? It's not that I like Torx, it's just that the pivot is so I guess I just wanted to at least stick with the same kind of tool. I dunno, I could live with Phillips I think. Thanks folks.

ETA: rereading my post it sounded wrong. I mention standard because I thought just maybe there is a chance they are and I simply don't have the tools to find out. I believe that they are .4 metric thread pitch - but that is so fine it's kinda tough to tell with my equipment. At any rate I hope someone out there can help. I even tried to e-mail Navy which .... what was I thinking? Email bounced right back.
 
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I have one of these at the house, I will try and help you when I get home.

Which screws in particular are you questioning? And am I to assume you didn't get the clip screws out?
 
I got a question for you (and I don't know the answer to your Q either, just a guess but I always try 2-56 first on all knives)...

Anyway what brand of torx driver are you using? One of those cheap husky sets or even worse harbor freight crap? I ask cause you mention you occasionally destroy screws, it sounds like your tool may be partially to blame. For <$5 each you can get individual (non bit-changing) craftsman torx drivers. Since I upgraded from my husky interchangeable set to the individual craftsman ones I have not stripped a single screw. I bought a T6, T8, T9 & T10 for under $20 out the door and its one of the best value tool purchases I've ever made, they've saved me so much time and headache and even some money not having to buy replacement screws any more. There are even better sets than the craftsman ones but every knife-nut, even if its just cheap budget knives really owes it to themselves to atleast invest in a QUALITY T6 &T9 torx driver.

They're so good in fact they will usually get stripped screws out that the Husky set from Lowes/Home Depot can't even touch.
 
Cereal_killer said:
I got a question for you (and I don't know the answer to your Q either, just a guess but I always try 2-56 first on all knives)...

Anyway what brand of torx driver are you using? One of those cheap husky sets or even worse harbor freight crap? I ask cause you mention you occasionally destroy screws, it sounds like your tool may be partially to blame. For <$5 each you can get individual (non bit-changing) craftsman torx drivers. Since I upgraded from my husky interchangeable set to the individual craftsman ones I have not stripped a single screw. I bought a T6, T8, T9 & T10 for under $20 out the door and its one of the best value tool purchases I've ever made, they've saved me so much time and headache and even some money not having to buy replacement screws any more. There are even better sets than the craftsman ones but every knife-nut, even if its just cheap budget knives really owes it to themselves to atleast invest in a QUALITY T6 &T9 torx driver.

They're so good in fact they will usually get stripped screws out that the Husky set from Lowes/Home Depot can't even touch.
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A Justice said:
I have one of these at the house, I will try and help you when I get home.

Which screws in particular are you questioning? And am I to assume you didn't get the clip screws out?
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Ah, sorry guys. Thank you for replying. I ended up trying 2-56 but they are coarser thread than what is in it. I have a variety of drivers - Craftsman, my Leatherman bits, some that I can't remember the brand of. The screws in these Chinese knives are made from recycled aluminum foil and half the time are beat up out of the box, but it's true that a good driver helps. I've noticed some "fit" the sockets better than others.

I got all the screws out ok, but the pocket clip screws did have a bit of thread locker - no biggie. Both the pocket clip screws and the standoff screws are the same size. I even e-mailed the seller in China but he's never replied. I can't criticize of course, given the timeliness of my reply here.


Since I created this thread I've completed the mod and here is the final product. It would look better though with new fasteners.


navy_k610_axe3 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
It might be smart to start a new thread for this but I am also looking for 2-56 plain-jane standoffs. Seems like usaknifemaker and those have fancy ones or at least they want $2.00 a piece for them or so. My goal here is not to replace standoffs necessarily, but to hold backspacers in place. Like with this Navy I just used the existing standoffs and drilled holes in the backspacer. I am curious how it is typically done. I have looked into brass threaded inserts but I'm not having terrific luck in that quest either.
 
You could do it benchmade style and use a captive nut on one side scale and have a long screw go all the way threw from one scale to the other instead of 2 screws meeting in the middle in a stand off.

For reference look up the benchmade 710 and see how people put stand off's on them to see what I mean by "captive nut" with a single screw all the way threw.

Also look up a thread by nccole on "cru wear military converted to tip up" using "push in threaded inserts for plastic's"
 
I'm not a real forum ninja - for some reason reading on a monitor makes my eyes tire quickly but remarkably the search couldn't find that thread using your key words even though they were exact. I found it where someone had linked to it from a different thread : http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1123113-Tapping-into-G10-and-only-G10-for-screws and I was actually looking at those exact inserts.

Now if I could screw into those inserts from both sides they would be magic. Still looking for the captive nut thing but it really sounds like a mini Chicago screw or something similar would do the same. Looks like McMaster Carr also has stand offs - I will have to dig through and report back.
 
Those press fit inserts look like a nice option though. They are small (short) enough and come in 4-40 and 2-56. Brass and stainless and under a buck a pop. I guess my concern is, if you are altering an existing knife which has pillar holes in the liners (liner lock for instance) which are larger diameter than the screws you are installing (2-56 for instance), won't the scales be able to shift around? The pillars/standoffs/spacers whatever you want to call them are typically shouldered - and in the case of this Navy, not only shouldered, but D cut for D holes like a pivot would be. Are the Benchmade knives you worked on similar in design? From the factory it would make sense to have the threaded insert hole 1 size, then the liner holes and opposite scale holes the same diameter as the screw threads. Perhaps they passed the screw through a non-threaded spacer? Hope this makes sense. I'm probably just missing something obvious here.
 
cityofthesouth said:
Those press fit inserts look like a nice option though. They are small (short) enough and come in 4-40 and 2-56. Brass and stainless and under a buck a pop. I guess my concern is, if you are altering an existing knife which has pillar holes in the liners (liner lock for instance) which are larger diameter than the screws you are installing (2-56 for instance), won't the scales be able to shift around? The pillars/standoffs/spacers whatever you want to call them are typically shouldered - and in the case of this Navy, not only shouldered, but D cut for D holes like a pivot would be. Are the Benchmade knives you worked on similar in design? From the factory it would make sense to have the threaded insert hole 1 size, then the liner holes and opposite scale holes the same diameter as the screw threads. Perhaps they passed the screw through a non-threaded spacer? Hope this makes sense. I'm probably just missing something obvious here.
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That's how they do it yea.

You are correct in your thinking that using smaller diameter screws may cause the scales/liners to be able to shift around. I'm not sure what the easiest solution is (the best would be either sleeves for the smaller screws or turning your own stepped / D shaped stand off's on a lathe). You might also be able to red lock-tite everything together. I'm not sure the best solution for you here.
 
I guess the inserts would give me the option to drill my own holes anywhere I like them. Then I would be able to make the holes the diameter of the threads and avoid the shifting problem. I enjoy modding knives but I feel that it's addictive. It's hard for me to justify an expensive knife but not hard for me to justify putting a bunch of hours and another $20 in materials into a cheap knife to make it unique and fit my taste. I dunno if that is backwards or not (probably) but I struggle with the idea that behind all the work it is still a cheap knife. That is where the addiction starts to come into play. It needs to be a little nicer and a little nicer and a little nicer each time I do one. Now I look at knives not for one that I like, but for one that I would like to mod. If I want to get rid of these knives I end up needing to charge a bunch for a knife that underneath it all, is cheap. On the other hand I can't do any milling so anything beyond a pretty basic liner lock is tough for me. Options get limited blah blah blah. I'm just rambling, but you keep replying so you get to suffer through. :)
 
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