That disappointing missing kick: FIXED!

Macchina

Macchina

Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
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I was on the search for a CV Case 6347 for a while and finally found one: brand new and made on my birth year in 1985! Of course I had to have it...

It came a couple days ago and was near perfect: except the main blade kick was ground so low that the first 1/4" of the tip was what stopped the blade, the knife faced a future of a permanently dull tip. I got that sinking feeling... then remembered I had a warm house, working car, and a 4 day weekend... All is well! I hemmed and hawed this weekend and decided to try soldering direct to the steel. My expectations were that I'd burn myself and have the solder roll off the tang and burn a hole in the carpet...

I heated the tang for a few seconds and added some rosin-core standard electrical solder: to my surprise it stuck, and stuck hard! I didn't want the soft metal to deform to quickly so I built up a 3/16" long bead to form the new kick:


I then slammed the blade closed a few times to see where the contract point was and filled the solder to contact across the whole face:


A bit of buffing to blend the new material in (not perfect, but neither am I):


And the end result: a tip at the perfect height!
 
Very nice! I never would have thought that solder would adhere that well to blade steel. Congrats!
 
Wow..now I found that very interesting - and I am actually VERY surprised the Solder stuck so well!!! Well done.

I might add that not having a kick is extremely poor for a new knife -it doesnt give you a 'lifetime of use" does it, as usually when the blades are ground down over the years sometmes it's necessary to take a wee tad off the kick to sit the point down.
 
Great job, Looks fantastic!

I'm surprised that you guys are surprised that it stuck... Solder is what holds the guards, and bolsters onto a Lot of high end custom knives, specifically fixed blades... Learning to properly solder guards onto blades is a highly sought after talent for most makers. Anyway it was when I was learning the trade a decade ago. The big trick is the right alloy of solder, and the right flux.
 
I'm really impressed with this fix. I never would have thought to even try that. Great job, Macchina. :thumbup:
 
bleh said:
Care to share your secrets?
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's his formula as well but I used Rosin core silver solder. This solder is made for electronics so it has a bit of flux (rosin) included in the solder and this seems to be enough to create a permanent bond to carbon steel. You can also add additional flux if you really want to go crazy but the stuff has a tendency to spatter and get everywhere...

Note: it helps a bit if the surface you are soldering to is roughed up a bit and very clean. You can easily score a tang with a small file or diamond hone and clean it off with an alcohol pad before soldering.
 
Also note: a lot of fluxes are made for plumbing and are acidic. No matter what you use, be sure to clean off any flux residue when you're done but especially be mindful if you are adding additional flux. I wouldn't want to know what would happen if acid flux flowed into the pivot and was allowed to party with the pivot pin, tang, and spring...
 
I had wondered about doing that once but didn't think the solder would hold. Nice job. I'm going to have to try this now.
 
Well, over the past few days I've been intentionally snapping the blade shut repeatedly and it would appear the solder will be plenty strong. I'll keep at it but it would appear the solder has not budged a bit after more than a hundred snaps...

I thought I'd try the trick somewhere else as well. Flush springs are a pet peeve of mine and this GEC Farm Boy is perfect except for a slightly low spring on the clip blade (I'm sure most people wouldn't let it bother them, but I have... tendencies).

I carefully flowed sooner solder onto the blade stop surface to allow the tang to engage slightly sooner and therefore prevent the spring from sinking just a bit. I then used another knife to slowly scrape away solder until the spring was just right. I'm more than happy with the results. The built up stop is on the right:


Again, I'll report back if this one holds as well but so far it would appear that though solder is a fairly weak material, it seems to bond very well to carbon steel and also be quite strong enough in compression.
 
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