play, centering, and a cheap feel

[ThirdTooth]

hey, I have made a few custom scales for myself now and I have been seeing a reoccurring problem.

I almost always have both blade play and centering issues, even at fully tightened there is often still some wiggle and the blade just wants to sit away from the lock bar side, sometimes even scraping the liner. any ideas at what I am doing wrong? it feels like the depths and dimensions are all correct, but I could be wrong.

in addition, a lot of the scales I have made just feel cheap. there's nothing really wrong with them, everything feels well crafted when disassembled and snug when I fit it together, but the finished knife just feels fragile for some reason.

I am pretty new to knife customization and really enjoy it, but these botched blade make-overs are starting to become disillusioning and expensive. does anyone have any tips for getting my knives to similar tolerances as the production blades was?

 

[incaorchid]

I have noticed similar issues when I put a "custom" scale on my folders.

If after reassembly the blade is not centered I loosen the pivot screw and push the blade all the way opposite the side it scrapes and then tighten the pivot screw.

99% of the time this works but if it still is way off center I loosen all of the hardware and push the blade opposite the side it scrapes and hold it there while I tighten all of the screws.

If this still doesn't work the new scale could be the issue and you may want to make sure that the surface where it contacts the knife is flat and flush.

Blade play for me has usually meant that I did not get the scale completely tight to the knife so I thoroughly recheck the fit and tighten where necessary.

This has been my experience and has worked for me.
Hopefully it helped some.
If not, somebody else has the answer you are looking for!

Don't get disillusioned!!! Keep it up, it gets better with practice

 

[ThirdTooth]

I have noticed similar issues when I put a "custom" scale on my folders.

If after reassembly the blade is not centered I loosen the pivot screw and push the blade all the way opposite the side it scrapes and then tighten the pivot screw.

99% of the time this works but if it still is way off center I loosen all of the hardware and push the blade opposite the side it scrapes and hold it there while I tighten all of the screws.

If this still doesn't work the new scale could be the issue and you may want to make sure that the surface where it contacts the knife is flat and flush.

Blade play for me has usually meant that I did not get the scale completely tight to the knife so I thoroughly recheck the fit and tighten where necessary.

This has been my experience and has worked for me.
Hopefully it helped some.
If not, somebody else has the answer you are looking for!

Don't get disillusioned!!! Keep it up, it gets better with practice

thanks for the pointers man, I'll try that next time I'm in the shop. do you use any special bits when sinking and counter sinking the pivot by chance?

 

[Phydeaux]

When I recscaled my Tenacious, I had that problem. For me, it was just a matter of tightening the pivot up.

You can also check the liners and make sure they are flat as well.

For counter sinking, I use the wood working spur bits to make the larger/partial hole. The center hole I just use a normal drill bit. I drill the large hole first. Then I can use the little hole that the spur bit leaves in the center to line up my small bit. If you drill the small hole first, the large bit doesn't necessarily always follow the same center as the small bit.

What knife did you make the sales for?

Ric

 

[ThirdTooth]

When I recscaled my Tenacious, I had that problem. For me, it was just a matter of tightening the pivot up.

You can also check the liners and make sure they are flat as well.

For counter sinking, I use the wood working spur bits to make the larger/partial hole. The center hole I just use a normal drill bit. I drill the large hole first. Then I can use the little hole that the spur bit leaves in the center to line up my small bit. If you drill the small hole first, the large bit doesn't necessarily always follow the same center as the small bit.

What knife did you make the sales for?

Ric

I've had this problem on a few custom scales, most recently its a kershaw nerve, previously a buck vantage and a spyderco chokwe

 

[Phydeaux]

With the knives that I have made scales for, I did not use the pivot and back spacer screws to hold the scales on. I assembled the knife with out the factory scales, so that I had a functional knife that was just the blade, back spacer, and liners.

I drilled and tapped 2 or 3 holes for 2-56 screws in the liners to hold the scales on. I hid the pivot screws under the scales. The pivot was shortened a little so it could be properly tightened, carved a relief divot in the scale for the screw heads with a dremel.

This arrangement eliminates the worry of having the wood scales compress or being too thin when counter sunk for the pivot. The down side is that to adjust the pivot, the scales need to be removed. It really hasn't been a issue because I use LocTite on the pivot.

The factory back spacer screws were replaced with flat head machine screws, counter sunk into the liners so that the screw heads would set flush.

With this configuration, the 2-56 screws can be placed more towards the center line of the scales and do not have to be close to the edge to hold in the back spacers. The holes just have to be places so they don't coincide with a spot where the liner is skeletonized or the lock bar. This permits the removal of the scales without having to totally disassemble the knife.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or want more details.

Ric

 

[ThirdTooth]

With the knives that I have made scales for, I did not use the pivot and back spacer screws to hold the scales on. I assembled the knife with out the factory scales, so that I had a functional knife that was just the blade, back spacer, and liners.

I drilled and tapped 2 or 3 holes for 2-56 screws in the liners to hold the scales on. I hid the pivot screws under the scales. The pivot was shortened a little so it could be properly tightened, carved a relief divot in the scale for the screw heads with a dremel.

This arrangement eliminates the worry of having the wood scales compress or being too thin when counter sunk for the pivot. The down side is that to adjust the pivot, the scales need to be removed. It really hasn't been a issue because I use LocTite on the pivot.

The factory back spacer screws were replaced with flat head machine screws, counter sunk into the liners so that the screw heads would set flush.

With this configuration, the 2-56 screws can be placed more towards the center line of the scales and do not have to be close to the edge to hold in the back spacers. The holes just have to be places so they don't coincide with a spot where the liner is skeletonized or the lock bar. This permits the removal of the scales without having to totally disassemble the knife.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or want more details.

Ric

do you use digital calipers to measure your pivot tapping depths? maybe my measurements are off or something....