Slipjoint Critique ( New Scales Update)

Sorry to hear of the mishap with the handle covers, but it's all time and effort well spent if you're learning.

I'll second the others: blades can and do move off center when peening if not careful. Something that may help is getting a straight reamer for your pivot hole, just to make sure it's as round as can be. Flatness is obviously key as well, but again, there is some adjustability here or there.

As for re-assembly: I've heard of he spade bit trick before, but I've yet to set it up. Personally, I normally just put the pivot and rear/bottom pin in, and then squeeze the middle into place on a soft jawed vise. Sometimes I'll even leave a little tab (or some extra material, in other words) on the spring, by the middle pin hole to give the vise a little something extra to push on. Probably not the best method, but it works for me. After final assembly, I just grind everything flush.

BTW, other than the centering issue, you're lookin' good! Everything will come with time and experience. Keep at it!
 
Are you saying maybe the tapered reamer I'm using on the pivot could throw me off ?

So if I use s straight reamer, what side do I go with after drilling a 3/32 hole ?
Should I just use the 3/32" hole by itself and turn my pin until is almost loose?

Even thru the mishaps it's still addicting.
Thanks for all the help!
 
Even the tiniest bit out from tram on your drill or a slightly wandering drill bit causing you to have a slightly less than perfectly vertical hole can result in your tip laying off center, a 1/16". Your spring being a couple thou thicker than your blade tang can cause it, your pivot hole in the tang being off square can cause it. Your peening of the pivot being too much on one side can cause the liners/bolsters to shift ever so slightly out of square and cause it, and about 50 other things can cause it.


As far as using a tapered reamer on your pivot hole in your bolsters, make sure you don't taper all the way to the bottom of your pre-reamed straight walled hole. i.e. ream your hole out to your desired size with a straight reamer, then when you've got your bolsters ground to final thickness, basically done, and you're ready to peen the pivot, ream with the tapered reamer about half the depth of the hole.

This will help avoid shifting, and give you plenty of crown to grab, and room to grind away the pin head.


FWIW, your pin stock should be fitting through these holes before you use a tapered reamer. If it's oversized, you'll need to compensate somehow. You want a good fit, but snug, not so much that you have to force it. If it's loose, you'll have slop, or you'll have to upset/swell the pin and it'll likely cause other problems.


Ken showed you some good tools to help. I use a similar tool to clamp the pivot area and see if my blade is landing. I grind my blades and finish them before pinning, as a large majority of them are damascus. If regardless of all my care, my tip wants to lay over still, when I've got it heavily tapered without any room to grind it over, I'll gently lay the blade tang on a surface plate with 400 grit paper, and take a thou or 2 off the ass end of the tang, shifting it over that way. Often times, I caused this area to get slightly out of true parallel by hand lapping anyway.


There's about 50 ways to skin these cats, but you've got to figure out what methods work for you, based on your construction variables. You've got great results for your first couple, I'd highly recommend you resist the urge to try and make massively more complicated versions each try, until you get one style mastered. As mentioned, multiple blades opens a whole new can of worms, and I guarantee it'll take a couple of dozen before you really start understanding all the tiny caveats of construction.

Regardless, these problems will arise. Half the battle is avoidance, the other half is knowing how to overcome them as quickly and effectively as possible.
 
Well I was able to save the blade and spring...
New scales were made green canvas with black g10 liners.

But before I did anything I checked all the machines for square a true. My problems were not there.
I found my blade grind to be off about a 1/16" and fixed that.
My reamer I believe was going to deep thru the holes drilled so I removed about 1/4" from the tip.
I think it was creating the scales to shift when peening.
Also I changed up the reamer going thru the washer, to a little more aggressive angle.
That way I can mushroom the head and blend it seemlessly into the washer.
I also started my peening on the pivot. Before I did it last.

Anyways it came out dead balls center!
Thanks to everyone's advise here I was able to solve some of my problems.

 
But I will point out that I still did not get a seemless look between my washer and pivot pin.
The reamer worked great but I did not move the metal around perfect so that still needs to be addressed...
I'm not sure why it did not work.
Maybe it's just more time peening and knowing just how much pin to leave up before peening????


When I tried to re- peen on it just to move the metal it just got a little stiffer action so I stoped.
I can still pinch it open pretty easy and going to have to call it good.

Or is there a fix for this??
 
It looks good, most people don't learn to peen on their first couple of knives. Keep at it and you
will get it figured out. Some people really end up pulling their hair out over this.---- it will come.
Ken.
 
Pratice, pratice and pratice :) Seriously, do pratice peening toghether two slabs and check for movement vs. pin showing.
After the 2nd showing pivot i had to figure out what was wrong... The pinching threat is always there!
I find helpful focusing only on one end of the pin...starting with one head already domed on a pin vise or a drill chuck and dressed over a same taper hole on a steel slab.
Than having a thicker stock (blade parent stock, just unsanded) between the scales and the blade in half stop when peening. That and a thousand of very light hammer taps all around the perimeter of the pin since i start to believe the pin is already peened....always cheching against the first signs of pinching.
If you hit hard you get the blade struck before all the pin's perimeter is blended, while ideally the perimeter should be blended all around before the last taps necessary to take out the last blade play. Uneven pin shoulders could pinch a blade while there are still gaps aound the circumference.

Also check Bose's way to slacken a pinched blade on youtube, add it to your "toolbox" :)
 
Last edited:
Taximanny said:
Are you saying maybe the tapered reamer I'm using on the pivot could throw me off ?

So if I use s straight reamer, what side do I go with after drilling a 3/32 hole ?
Should I just use the 3/32" hole by itself and turn my pin until is almost loose?

Even thru the mishaps it's still addicting.
Thanks for all the help!
Click to expand...

I'm talking about a straight reamer just for the hole in the knife blade. The handle pivots should still be partially reamed to give the pins somewhere to go when you peen them.

Your updated knife looks great! glad to see you were able to fix most of your issues. As for the small gap where you peened into your washer, that's probably just a matter of more practice. Looks like you just needed to move a little more material to that side.
 
Yes I'm thinking my 12oz ball peen is just to big.
So I can controll exactly where the head is hitting.
Going to try and pick up a 8 or 4oz to get the head smaller for more controll.
Also thinking I need to get some knives done and out the door.
So I can continue with these slippys.
Thinking of a swayback😀
 
The swayback wharncliff/lambfoot is one of if not my favorite pattern!! A very useful knife to have in the pocket, and also easy to keep hyper sharp on the stones due to the straightness of the edge
 
That looks good. Don't feel bad I was working on one today and had to do the pivot pin twice before I got it to hide.They are addictive little PITA.
 
Looks like you are doing well for the second one. Don't get disappointed. Stan and Ken are two great people to help you.
Frank
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top