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Pin Size
- Thread starter Trauma
- Start date
Alex Topfer
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2019
- Messages
- 767
In my inexperience opinion; not really, in the sizes they seem to be used (around 2-8mm)
Forces acting in the plane of the blade are going to damage handle scales before they shear pins (barring some weird outliers like aluminium pins and bronze scales).
With forces acting perpendicular to the plane of the blade the glue surface area between the pin and the handle scale will be the weak point. Snapping the pin through tension will be hard.
For peened pins there may be some sweet spot in terms of clamping force provided by area under the peened part. This is a circumference to area relationship, so i'm guessing the sweet spot would be smaller than you would expect.
In general people seem to use more small pins vs fewer large pins, so it would kind of balance out. Maybe for something like a machete if you used a couple of small (2mm?) pins you could run into problems, but that would look weird. If you are using small pins use more, but you are probably using small pins because you want more for aesthetic reasons.
(bear in mind I mostly kitchen knives or the occasional display pieces, so my reaction to most hypothetical handle destroying scenarios is "why the @#%@ would you do that with my knife?")
Forces acting in the plane of the blade are going to damage handle scales before they shear pins (barring some weird outliers like aluminium pins and bronze scales).
With forces acting perpendicular to the plane of the blade the glue surface area between the pin and the handle scale will be the weak point. Snapping the pin through tension will be hard.
For peened pins there may be some sweet spot in terms of clamping force provided by area under the peened part. This is a circumference to area relationship, so i'm guessing the sweet spot would be smaller than you would expect.
In general people seem to use more small pins vs fewer large pins, so it would kind of balance out. Maybe for something like a machete if you used a couple of small (2mm?) pins you could run into problems, but that would look weird. If you are using small pins use more, but you are probably using small pins because you want more for aesthetic reasons.
(bear in mind I mostly kitchen knives or the occasional display pieces, so my reaction to most hypothetical handle destroying scenarios is "why the @#%@ would you do that with my knife?")
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
Moderator
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2004
- Messages
- 38,332
Standard size is between 1/8" and 1/4". I would say 3/16" is pretty universal. As Alex said, there are no real rules. It is more an optical choice.
I use 3/16" head and 1/4" head Corby bolts for most all handle construction.
I use 3/16" head and 1/4" head Corby bolts for most all handle construction.
And about weight ....3 x 8 mm metal pins can weight as half blade
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2006
- Messages
- 5,191
no rules that i know of, i go by how it looks. i usually use 1/16", 3/32", 1/8" or 3/16".
I agree, I use what fits the aesthetic of the knife. I most commonly use 3/32, but if I use mosaic pins they're 1/8, and I also use 3/16 maybe 25% of the time. I'm kind of with Alex, the pins are just there to protect the shearing forces on the glue.