Random Thought Thread

Nathan the Machinist said:
The vast majority of knives are made using a low precision process such as water jet or laser. The holes have to be oversized for the pins to fit or they might be sized correctly because they get reamed, but then the hole location is not precise. Almost everybody has slop and they utilize this slop to position these scales on the tang before they tighten the screws. In this scenario, some epoxy would prevent shifting in rough use.

Some better makers will use a rivet of some kind and then grind the scale and tang flush, although this creates a problem if you have a tumbled finish.

Almost everybody has play in their handles and tang and epoxy would help.

Our holes are located using circular interpolation on a tight low hour Mori Seiki that repeats to 40 millionths of an inch, and then reamed to size using a stubby carbide reamer. They are the correct size and location. Their location does move due to heat treat but less than half a thou. I compensate for this on pieces with larger handles, but smaller knives it is moot. It is a fraction of a thousandths of an inch.

The tolerances on the handle scales are a little bigger, due to the nature of the material being cut but they're still very close tolerance. The holes are reamed in the micarta a couple thou over and there actually is a couple thou play when the knife is new due to this however those holes tighten up a little bit over time, due to the nature of the material. We have continued to improve our process over the years. There used to be a tolerance stack up between our holes and pins where some would be a loose fit and some would need to be hammered in. We have refined this, nobody is hammering in, they are snug slip fit, although they will need to be tapped out on an older knife as the scale holes close a little bit. Particularly with TeroTuf. Our fixed blades are made to a higher level of precision than most folders.

Our handle scale tang and pin tolerance stack ups are the tightest in the industry. There's not a lot of room for play and there's no amount of rough use that's going to make your scales shift a meaningful amount on one of my knives. And we are no longer epoxying scales on tangs for this reason.
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Sounds pretty dialed in. You might be ready to graduate to tapered tangs...
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
The vast majority of knives are made using a low precision process such as water jet or laser. The holes have to be oversized for the pins to fit or they might be sized correctly because they get reamed, but then the hole location is not precise. Almost everybody has slop and they utilize this slop to position these scales on the tang before they tighten the screws. In this scenario, some epoxy would prevent shifting in rough use.

Some better makers will use a rivet of some kind and then grind the scale and tang flush, although this creates a problem if you have a tumbled finish.

Almost everybody has play in their handles and tang and epoxy would help.

Our holes are located using circular interpolation on a tight low hour Mori Seiki that repeats to 40 millionths of an inch, and then reamed to size using a stubby carbide reamer. They are the correct size and location. Their location does move due to heat treat but less than half a thou. I compensate for this on pieces with larger handles, but smaller knives it is moot. It is a fraction of a thousandths of an inch.

The tolerances on the handle scales are a little bigger, due to the nature of the material being cut but they're still very close tolerance. The holes are reamed in the micarta a couple thou over and there actually is a couple thou play when the knife is new due to this however those holes tighten up a little bit over time, due to the nature of the material. We have continued to improve our process over the years. There used to be a tolerance stack up between our holes and pins where some would be a loose fit and some would need to be hammered in. We have refined this, nobody is hammering in, they are snug slip fit, although they will need to be tapped out on an older knife as the scale holes close a little bit. Particularly with TeroTuf. Our fixed blades are made to a higher level of precision than most folders.

Our handle scale tang and pin tolerance stack ups are the tightest in the industry. There's not a lot of room for play and there's no amount of rough use that's going to make your scales shift a meaningful amount on one of my knives. And we are no longer epoxying scales on tangs for this reason.
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This kind of attention to detail, technical expertise, and direct customer engagement is just more of the reason why I haven’t reached for any other fixed blade knife besides a CPK in a very long time.

Thanks for the info Nathan!
 
Well, that was fun. I thought we'd be in and out of the Urgent Care in quick time...but no.

Turns out that one tooth went all the way through the pinna, so the cut I thought was on the back of her ear, was only one side of the hole.

So, tetanus shot, two stitches, (because some cartilage had to be pushed back into place and held down), a visit from Animal Control while at the Urgent Care, (nice guy, by the way), and some augmentin for ten days.

Plus a variety of stuff I have to figure out how to wrap her ear in to protect the stitches and keep bandage from sticking.

I've had more fun days...but...it could have been worse. I could have been waiting up to watch the Tyson fight last night...so there's that.

I need a drink.
 
Snow report from Murphjd25 Murphjd25 sucks. Now I’m depressed. 🤣😔 This is the high parking lot to(3800’). At least it’s snowing like up there today I guess. You can see the flakes against my truck. Probably won’t be riding in November now. 😔

Never know though, they are calling for 2-3 feet up here over the weekend into Monday.
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Blues said:
Well, that was fun. I thought we'd be in and out of the Urgent Care in quick time...but no.

Turns out that one tooth went all the way through the pinna, so the cut I thought was on the back of her ear, was only one side of the hole.

So, tetanus shot, two stitches, (because some cartilage had to be pushed back into place and held down), a visit from Animal Control while at the Urgent Care, (nice guy, by the way), and some amoxicillin for ten days.

Plus a variety of stuff I have to figure out how to wrap her ear in to protect the stitches and keep bandage from sticking.

I've had more fun days...but...it could have been worse. I could have been waiting up to watch the Tyson fight last night...so there's that.

I need a drink.
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I am glad it wasn’t worse and hope she heals up quickly. I am sure the pup feels bad about lashing out.
 
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