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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Slimfit tutorial
- Thread starter Badhammer
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2011
- Messages
- 7,893
Basically I always flat sanded the knife on a sheet of 100 grit paper by hand, vigorously moving the knife back and forth. Takes some time... then I round the edges with a file and back to the paper. Work up through the grits till I get to 600. When the knife has been thinned down to where I like it, I weep some thin CA glue into the pins ( with the heads sanded off there is nothing to hold them in place now), and the edges of the scales, making sure to keep a paper towel handy to sop up any excess, mind those fingers!, that thin CA can set up real quick and glue the paper to your fingertips or even burn you as it sets. I use a combination of sanding blocks and dowels wrapped with the different grades of paper to finish the metal up to each level, being mindful to keep the radiuses even and pleasing to the hand, it's a labor of love.
When the knife has been thinned down, the tricky part is next. Knocking out the pivot pin and re-pinning the blade to make the knife stable and secure. By sanding, you have removed the swell of the pins where they meet the surface of the bolsters, so any lateral force applied will let the bolsters splay outwards and give you side to side blade play and a depression where the pin is.
Use a 1/8" pin punch and drive out the pivot pin. Cut a piece of brass 1/8" pin stock a little longer than needed, like, 1/8" or so excess each side of the bolsters. You can just sand a bevel on the 1/8" brass rod and insert it through the bolsters/blade/bushing assembly and scratch your cut mark on it, then chop it off with a cutting wheel and a dremel. Now you need a flat hard piece of steel to lay the pin on( while it is assembled) and a hammer to peen the pin to swell it a bit making a tight mechanical bond to the bolsters. A light hammer is all that is required, I prefer a 4 ounce hammer for this. Lots of taps going around the pin. A single edge razor blade can be used as a shim to prevent over tightening the joint, but I have always just free handed this step. Once the pin has been peened you are on the home stretch, file the pin flush to the bolsters and re-sand the bolsters and the rest of the knife. Final buffing can be done with a felt wheel on a bench grinder with metal compound.
A belt sander or bench disc sander will save hours of time and labor, Labor for me is cheap
Feeling of having a one off custom self modified Buck knife...Priceless :thumbup: Good luck Bad.
I still have my very first effort, it was a really rough 112 fished from the Bay, blade would barely open and was very tight from rust and crud, here's what it looked like before I decided to "play" with it and give it the pocket melt treatment:
It's good to start with a rough beater knife for the first go...
When the knife has been thinned down, the tricky part is next. Knocking out the pivot pin and re-pinning the blade to make the knife stable and secure. By sanding, you have removed the swell of the pins where they meet the surface of the bolsters, so any lateral force applied will let the bolsters splay outwards and give you side to side blade play and a depression where the pin is.
Use a 1/8" pin punch and drive out the pivot pin. Cut a piece of brass 1/8" pin stock a little longer than needed, like, 1/8" or so excess each side of the bolsters. You can just sand a bevel on the 1/8" brass rod and insert it through the bolsters/blade/bushing assembly and scratch your cut mark on it, then chop it off with a cutting wheel and a dremel. Now you need a flat hard piece of steel to lay the pin on( while it is assembled) and a hammer to peen the pin to swell it a bit making a tight mechanical bond to the bolsters. A light hammer is all that is required, I prefer a 4 ounce hammer for this. Lots of taps going around the pin. A single edge razor blade can be used as a shim to prevent over tightening the joint, but I have always just free handed this step. Once the pin has been peened you are on the home stretch, file the pin flush to the bolsters and re-sand the bolsters and the rest of the knife. Final buffing can be done with a felt wheel on a bench grinder with metal compound.
A belt sander or bench disc sander will save hours of time and labor, Labor for me is cheap
Feeling of having a one off custom self modified Buck knife...Priceless :thumbup: Good luck Bad.I still have my very first effort, it was a really rough 112 fished from the Bay, blade would barely open and was very tight from rust and crud, here's what it looked like before I decided to "play" with it and give it the pocket melt treatment:
It's good to start with a rough beater knife for the first go...
I took the pins out of a 560 Titan, ground 1/32" off the inside of each handle, and reassembled with screw sets. The screw sets are 1/8" diameter barrels with #2X56TPI internal threading plus a #2X56TPI screw for each side of the barrel. The knife was originally 7/16" thick. Now it is 3/8" thick. The older 560's (with the stepped handle edge) were 1/2" thick. The newer 560's (with the chamfered handle edge) were 7/16" thick.
Mr Sitflyer, those knives do something special for me every time I see them. I've got a 110 I'm planning to mod just like that. I can't remember the year but it was an anniversary addition with nickel silver bolsters. I just need to find a donor blade for it then it's on.
Badhammer, please post pictures as you go if you can. I've toying (again) with the idea.
Sitflyer, thanks so much for posting your approach (again). A question of clarification, which I know I've asked before but have forgotten.... When you peen the main pivot, do you counter-sink the bolster first so that the pivot can mushroom out a bit? Or does the peening just expand the pin deep enough inside of the pivot hole to make a good (enough) bond?
Tiguy7, could you post a picture of the screws you used? Did you have to drill out the bolster to receive them and do I understand that therea are 3 parts: 2 female screws on each side and a double ended male screw on the inside? If this is right, is the inner male screw the same size as the original pivot so you don't have to drill out the blade's hole? Or, is it just 2 parts with a long male for one side (acting as the pivot pin through the blade) with a larger female screw on the other side (presumably with that bolster drilled out to take it)?
375Dave, that 110 looks about just right. My target is 13mm or thereabouts.
Sitflyer, thanks so much for posting your approach (again). A question of clarification, which I know I've asked before but have forgotten.... When you peen the main pivot, do you counter-sink the bolster first so that the pivot can mushroom out a bit? Or does the peening just expand the pin deep enough inside of the pivot hole to make a good (enough) bond?
Tiguy7, could you post a picture of the screws you used? Did you have to drill out the bolster to receive them and do I understand that therea are 3 parts: 2 female screws on each side and a double ended male screw on the inside? If this is right, is the inner male screw the same size as the original pivot so you don't have to drill out the blade's hole? Or, is it just 2 parts with a long male for one side (acting as the pivot pin through the blade) with a larger female screw on the other side (presumably with that bolster drilled out to take it)?
375Dave, that 110 looks about just right. My target is 13mm or thereabouts.
Badhammer
This is a two dot 110 with a factory slimming done for a Buck employee. Thought you might like to see it. The slim weight is 6.5oz. I have no talent to do a modification like this, hope yours turns out good. I really like the feel of this knife.
This is a two dot 110 with a factory slimming done for a Buck employee. Thought you might like to see it. The slim weight is 6.5oz. I have no talent to do a modification like this, hope yours turns out good. I really like the feel of this knife.
I can't post pictures because they get erased for being invalidly linked. I would be happy to send you photos by email. The barrels that hold the sides together are 1/8" diameter (same as the rivets) and get male screws in each end. The blade pivot bushing and the rocker pivot bushing sit in the middle of two of the 4 barrels that hold everything together.