Need help with adjusting the blade drop on a slipjoint

G

gentleman_edc

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You should be able to drop the blade lower by filing down the kick. But, be mindful as you don't want the blade hitting the back spring when you close.

Can't really tell from the picture but it is possible only the length of the blade was shortened to fix a broken tip (may be). Which means the blade still is wide enough that lowering the blade further will rap the backspring.
 
I really love Buck 303's. If I had that knife, I'd send it back to Buck for their spa service. Tell them you want to keep the blade, but it needs to be re-profiled. They'll clean it up and send it back looking spiffy. I think it'll cost you $10. My experiences with Buck's spa service have been great.

Take that with a grain of salt, though. I don't have a grinder, so I can't really tell you where to grind if you want to keep this a DIY project.
 
euroken euroken Thanks for that warning. I didn't have the picture of the tang that I was expecting. I have since updated the original post.
There has been some sharpening loss of the width, but I do suspect the tip was broken. It just seems that way to me.

Is there a way to figure out how much to file down the kick without the "file, is it hitting yet? file, is it hitting yet?" sequence? I'm not the patient type
 
F FranklinG I am trying to build up my skills. I enjoy old knives and anyway, shipping and $10 would add 50% to what I have in the knife and I don't have any sentimental attachment. But I will keep it in mind.
 
gentleman_edc said:
euroken euroken Thanks for that warning. I didn't have the picture of the tang that I was expecting. I have since updated the original post.
There has been some sharpening loss of the width, but I do suspect the tip was broken. It just seems that way to me.

Is there a way to figure out how much to file down the kick without the "file, is it hitting yet? file, is it hitting yet?" sequence? I'm not the patient type
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Go S L O W!!!! And pay attention.. ;)
John :)
 
I have tried a small piece of eraser (or a cork) method. You put a small piece in the well, let the blade sit, press it down until you can't anymore (or start seeing the back spring lift, but this might be too much already). Difficulty with this is that you don't know what length of eraser or where in the well to put the eraser in...usually, there is a hump on the back spring at the bottom of the well that you can clearly locate.

Then, you take out the eraser to see how much the blade cut into it. If it cut all the way through, well, then...no more dropping the blade lol.

Works best with a nice sharp blade 😄 Not a sure proof way, but you will get an idea.

As jmh33 jmh33 says, go real slow. It won't take much.
 
Yes, that is where you would start, if you have diamond files I would use that first before any powered equipment. And even with files, I would suggest wrapping the blade up with painters tape, several layers thick so that an errant slip of the grind you don't ding your edge.

But, I would say you might also grind down the clip a little, that will lessen how much you remove from the kick, a two prong attack kind of, and your blade is getting thicker, so it could use some side of the blade thinning to help make it cut better.

If you cover the return shipping I'd be happy to give this a go for you, but as you have said, it's good to work on your own skills too.
G2

jmh33 jmh33 and I were typing similar things at the same time ;)
 
Gary W. Graley said:
Yes, that is where you would start, if you have diamond files I would use that first before any powered equipment. And even with files, I would suggest wrapping the blade up with painters tape, several layers thick so that an errant slip of the grind you don't ding your edge.

But, I would say you might also grind down the clip a little, that will lessen how much you remove from the kick, a two prong attack kind of, and your blade is getting thicker, so it could use some side of the blade thinning to help make it cut better.

If you cover the return shipping I'd be happy to give this a go for you, but as you have said, it's good to work on your own skills too.
G2

jmh33 jmh33 and I were typing similar things at the same time ;)
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Like minds think alike Gary!!! 😄 And thats scary.. 😄
John :)
 
Tear off a small strip of cardboard, about the thickness of a paperback book cover, and lay it across the center hump on the blade spring. Now close the blade and press down on it until it hits the cardboard (you might have to use a good bit of force for this depending on the spring tension, a vice would work too) and check to see how far down the blade tip sinks. You want to stay a bit higher than this in the final position so that the blade doesn't smack the spring. If the tip looks like it'll be covered give that kick a grind. If it still sticks up in that position you'll have to reprofile the tip to drop it a bit. That's definitely quite high there.

Eric
 
You'll find since you filed the kick, that the backspring that blade is on, probably sits slightly lower between the liners ... if you look for that sort of thing
 
gentleman_edc said:
Thanks so much guys. Mission accomplished. And the tape is something I'm just going to have to remember for any work.
https://imgur.com/M6MRbEj
https://imgur.com/XaWVHPa

It is much more pocket friendly now. The tip no longer catches on things.

The whole thing took less than 20 minutes from the time I started looking for my files until it was done.
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Congrats! Glad that worked out so well for you.
Very cool thread, with useful help from posters - so characteristic of interactions on The Porch! :thumbsup::cool::thumbsup:🤓

- GT
 
Did you end up thinning the primary bevel at all, or did you just grind the kick?
 
I just ground the kick. There was plenty of room by the backspring, so I didn't need to reduce the blade width at all. My previous sharpening had thinned the blade some, so I wasn't worried about the sharpness or bevel.

I did run the file over the clip point, swedge (if that's what you call it) to try and drop the tip some some, but that was a lot harder to work on. I would probably want ta belt sander or grinder for that. I presume the blade has been heat treated more than the tang. In hind sight, the knife might not look so odd when it's closed if I dropped the tip a bit more, but I didn't want to shorten the blade, and the knife was already sharp all the way to the tip, so this seems fine for what I needed. It allows me to put the knife into daily rotation. I usually carry a vintage knife (barlow, stockman, congress or whittler) along with another knife. The vintage knife gets the bulk of the daily work around the house. And the buck 303 stockman seems very nice for that.
 
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