Need help with folder pins

[dens51]

Gents:

I just starting working on knives and need a little novice help. I first got interested after reading Ben Kelley's "The Complete Book of Pocketknife Repair," but he doesn't go into much detail on reattaching pins.
I removed some old plastic scales from a pocket knife and made new jigged-bone ones for it. I've squared away the fit and my next big step is applying the pins to hold the whole thing together.
I've experimented a little with another knife, but am having trouble. What techniques can you share for applying the pins? After cutting to length, what's a good way to flatten/attach ends and give the ends a finished look? Sadly, I have limited equipment. Eventually, I would like to move to screws, but for now want to get good at pins.
All your tips will be greatly appreciated.

Out Here, Dens

 

[Matt Shade]

You really don't need that many tools to do pins. Its best if you have a good ball peen hammer to peen them with, but you can get by with a regular hammer, just make sure the head is nice and smooth so the pin can expand easier. One thing to remember is to take your time. If you try hitting the pins really hard to smash them down faster they will slide back and forth on you which makes the pin expand by different amounts on each end or they will bend.Just make sure you hit the pin squarely and firmly enough that your actually smashing the ends down instead of just tapping on the pin all day long.
With handle material that will split easily ( help me out here guys I've never worked with jig bone ? ) it helps to slightly countersink the top of the hole to give the pin room to expand. There are a couple different ways to do that. I like to use my dremel at low speed with a cone shaped burr in it, you don't want to countersink the hole to much or you can end up with gaps around the heads of the pins when your done. I've also seen it done by hand a with a large spade bit designed for woodworking. The pilot on the tip of the bit is about the right angle, and is sharpened the right way so that you can just put it against the hole and twist it a few times with you hand not a drill.you need something pretty hard to put the backside of the pin against so that it doesn't move on you. A vise or anvil will work. If you don't have one of those then just get a peice of scrap steel. Try and put one end of the pin against the vise or whatever and peen the other end a little, then flip it over. Switch back and forth until you have the fit however tight you want it to be.

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It'll feel better when it stops hurting.

 

[tbark]

you also want to put into the pivot area a pc. of .005 thou brass spacer mat. to peen tightly against then remove the spacer to lightly peen untill the desired blade play is aquired ,Jigged bone fractures easily ,when peening any pin especeialy nickle silver only hit with the lightest taps
or you can swell the center of the pin's and have to start over ,you can also buy a Head Spinner if you have a drill press they are self explanitory ,Tank Folder Maker

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TbarK Custom Knives
http://vip.hpnc.com/~tbark Therefore I erge you brother's in view of God's Mercy to offer your body's as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship Romans 12-1