Porous Bolsters

[popcornpicker]

I bought a 110 from a guy that was pretty beat up, the knife, not the guy. The tip of the blade was broken and he engraved his name in the rear bolster. I talked to the factory a while back about replacing blades and found it to be very reasonable, so I went to work on the brass. It took a lot of sanding but eventually I put it on the wheel. One of the front bolsters had pits in it. I sanded it again and it still had little, almost microscopic, pits in it. Is this due to impurities or is this just the way it is?

 

[Richard Matheny]

I think it is just the way it is particularly for the early cast frames, although I think you might find impurities or inclusions in the powder metal frames as well.

 

[Joe Houser]

What I was told was that usually there is a thin "skin" of dense brass on the surface of the bolsters. Once you get past that, pitts can occure. Not always but the possibility is there. Often times, the more you chase after a pitt, the bigger it gets. Sometimes they go away but only after much material is removed. And there is no guarantee that in the process of removing one pitt, you wont uncover more.
This is especially true, as Richard mentioned, on the early 110 frames.