New (to me) TL-29, Thanks to BRL

Rsmith_77

Rsmith_77

Joined
Jun 4, 2010
Messages
4,250
Well, this has been a great week,
won two giveaways and in a conversation with BRL he mentioned that he had found a TL-29 for a friend of his, and I mentioned how i had actually been looking at TL-29's all day that particular day. And in a surprise twist, he told me to pm him my mailing address and he'd send it out. So imagine how happy I was to notice I had a package waiting in the mail today. The knife had arrived!!

It constantly amazes me how generous folks are on these forums, and I dont just mean the traditional forums, i have had people send knives to me just because they thought I needed a particular knife or "every man should have one of these". So while this particular thread it to thank BRL specifically, I want to thank everyone else for such a great community.

All that mushy stuff aside, here she is

The tang markings say MKlein&Son and then Chicago underneath.
The springs are still really tight, but i am in the process of working in some mineral oil as we speak.
The blades have some staining, but looks like very little to no metal loss from sharpening. I SUSPECT it is stainless, but I am not certain, I am sure I will figure that out when i get her cleaned up good and try cutting up some fruit ;)
The scales are brown plastic and still in really good condition
In fact, the only thing i can say that prevents it from being perfect is one of the ends of the bail is broken
Otherwise she is in wonderful condition.

Here are some pics

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And here are a few comparison shots with my Wenger SI

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I will say, not knowing what to expect that the TL-29 is wider and heavier than i expected
this is not a complaint however, she feels like she is solid and could definately handle hard use

Thanks again BRL!

Ryan
 
There aren't many nicer things you can do for someone than giving them a TL-29. :thumbup:
 
yeah i thought so

so, even after putting some dawn into the joints and running it under hot water, i still getting some black gunk coming out. Also after oiling the joints the screwdriver is still being a real nail buster...so i set the entire knife into a bowl of mineral oil. Giving her a mineral oil bath, a knife spa treatment so to speak.

I'll see about picking up some 0000 steel wool and and clean her out real well, we will see how well the screwdriver opens after the spa treatment.
 
yeah unfortunately even after the mineral oil bath, the screwdriver is still a nailbuster
it actually flipped my thumbnail over and i am feeling it ;)

i am still thankful, but i gonna have to figure something out
 
My grandfather left me two TL-29s. One is an older wooden handled knife, and the second is the normal black delrin-like handle. That black handle TL-29 is also a nailbuster! And the weird thing is that it's just the screwdriver blade that's hard to open. I don't have it with me right now because I'm up at school, but I'm interested to see if you find a way to loosen the screwdriver blade up a bit. I haven't even really cleaned it up yet because I've been using the wood-handled one, but that one has a broken-tip knife blade. Maybe I'll try just cleaning it up some and the oil bath like you did. Did a bunch of black gunk come out of the joints when you were soaking it??
 
no, no more black gunk came out ...but i saw a bunch of what looked like free floating rust in the mineral oil.
I will say the mineral bath made the screwdriver a touch easier to open...but not much went from a 10 to a 9.5 or something like that

I am kinda stumped to be honest. Not sure if its the knife, or my nail that is the problem :)
 
Rsmith_77 said:
no, no more black gunk came out ...but i saw a bunch of what looked like free floating rust in the mineral oil.
I will say the mineral bath made the screwdriver a touch easier to open...but not much went from a 10 to a 9.5 or something like that

I am kinda stumped to be honest. Not sure if its the knife, or my nail that is the problem :)
Click to expand...

I have the same problem on a couple of knives, ...absolute nail breakers..and what really hacks me off is that I have weak nails... I find doing what you have done a big help..mineral oil bath the knife, then wd40 into the problem joint, sit down and work that opening back and forth ...this does after some time work to take off a bit of tension.
Leaving it wont do anything...keep working it, and it does pay off, for some reason its always the punch or the screwdriver blade that is the problem child..possibly because that blade didn't have half the use as the main blade as well?
 
Smitty sorry you're having these problems, I had totally forgotten about the tight screwdriver blade on that one. Once I got my KA-BAR TL29 this one was forgotten on the bench.

Have you done any research through old threads to see if there are any clever ways to solve tight blades? I would guess it's a spring issue, right? Probably no easy way to fix that :(
 
no not yet
I have a buddy that i've introduced to collecting. I was telling him about it
gonna let him see if he can open it without as much trouble as i am having

if so, i may pass on the blade forum generosity ;)
 
You could carry a small steel thumbnail on the days you have the TL29 for opening the screwdriver. An extra step taking a little extra time but if it saves your thumb and lets you use the knife like you want to then perhaps it's worth it.
 
jujigatame said:
You could carry a small steel thumbnail on the days you have the TL29 for opening the screwdriver. An extra step taking a little extra time but if it saves your thumb and lets you use the knife like you want to then perhaps it's worth it.
Click to expand...

well, i talked to my buddy. I'll let him try it out and see how it works for him
if not, i may consider this. But folks here have been so generous, i would love to share the tradition locally if possible
 
heh, something funny i've noticed
after taking the TL-29 out of the mineral oil bath it didnt loosen up at all
so i put it in the box and left it a for a few days. I took it out today, and noticed that it has started opening up tremendously easier

must have needed a little time to let the mineral oil to set in or something...weird ;)
of course, i already spoke to my buddy, i dont want to back out of my offer. But i think i got it working right :thumbup:
 
Glad it seems to be working out okay. With my experience regarding TL-29's, the screwdriver blades are always nailbreakers. For some reason, the knife blade seems easier to open as well. Maybe the liner lock against the blade contributes to that also.

And good on you BRL for your generosity!

Glenn
 
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