waynorth
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2005
- Messages
- 32,797
The post is dedicated to the 5% or so of people who have a punch that doesn't open easily in the BF knife! Don't break your nail - use a knife pic until you are done with this post!!
So I spent a couple of hours with Bill in two phone calls!
Of course he had heard from some of us by now. We both had 4-6 #35s in front of us and we discussed them at length.
The knife presented some engineering obstacles, because of our choice of blades, punch, and single-spring configuration. If you have one in front of you, you can follow along with this.
I will post and edit, post and edit, so waiting is not so tedious!
Here is a pic of pile sides of each variation. Note the wide swedge on the back of the Spear main blade.
Because the Spear is so wide (cutting edge - to - spine) it needs the swedge to thin the bulk, to allow the punch to pass. This is standard cutlery procedure. If you look down on the spine of the Spear you will see that the grind is off center; again, that is to allow the punch to pass. (No pic of that).
Here are the Mark sides.
If you look at the tang on the punch you will note a little easement bevel running into the shallow plunge cut. This, again, it to aid the punch to pass that wide spear blade.
Finally the nicely-ground punch has a near full length long flat triangle formed by the two bevel cuts on the back, same side as the easement bevel. The side bevel cut is critical to pushing the punch around , in order to make a circular cut, to cut a hole!!
Motoring right along, here's more editing!
These are all general conditions. Each knife is slightly different.
So far as I can figure we have 5% of the knives with a very tight punch, and then a few variations there-of! Most work very well!
The main drag on the punch is the sharp bevel next to that long back triangle, trying to get past the Spear blade!! It took us a while and several knives to figure that out.
We cut the phone call so Bill could go down to the shop, and alter the punch to prove our analysis true. He rounded the back of a punch, on a knife that was extremely tight, and that eased the opening movement considerably.
Interestingly, I got the same result from opening and closing the punch many, many times!!
Now my thumb nail is tough, inordinately so. My children wanted me to register it as a dangerous weapon!! I have no trouble opening a mint Remingtom 1123, for those of you familiar (kind of like GEC's first #23s back in 2006-2007). I could NOT open that punch at first, without my trusty blade pick!! Cocking it open at night, and running it open and closed, first with the pick, and now with my thumb, I know any of you can open it easily!!:thumbup:
I am sure it polished the striking surfaces, so they now slip by each other. I used very little oil, if any, until I was done!! (Scary!!
) That actually might have speeded things along!! Oil prevents wear, and in this case, you want a little!
More editing . . . . . .
Here's what I concluded (remembering my experimental sample is small);
The knife will break in with some patient attention. If you can't or don't want to do that, you can send it back to GEC, and Bill said he will round the punch. You will then have an altered knife of course, and the punch may not be as aggressive in cutting a hole. But the punch will open more easily.
Personally, because the knife responded to my persistence, I have bonded with it, and it is riding around with me!
I will edit more tomorrow maybe, and answer questions IN THIS POST!!
A) GEC has several more BF knives to be finished. After some further consultation, we've decided to apply Bill's alteration to the back of the punch, to give it a little more clearance. It is not dramatic, but will make it easier to open the punch.
B) Very important! If you decide you want the knife to go back, here are the steps:
It must be in the original tube, and the knife must be un-altered, and un-damaged.
Include a return address along with instructions about what you want, INSIDE the shipping box.
So I spent a couple of hours with Bill in two phone calls!
Of course he had heard from some of us by now. We both had 4-6 #35s in front of us and we discussed them at length.
The knife presented some engineering obstacles, because of our choice of blades, punch, and single-spring configuration. If you have one in front of you, you can follow along with this.
I will post and edit, post and edit, so waiting is not so tedious!
Here is a pic of pile sides of each variation. Note the wide swedge on the back of the Spear main blade.
Because the Spear is so wide (cutting edge - to - spine) it needs the swedge to thin the bulk, to allow the punch to pass. This is standard cutlery procedure. If you look down on the spine of the Spear you will see that the grind is off center; again, that is to allow the punch to pass. (No pic of that).
Here are the Mark sides.
If you look at the tang on the punch you will note a little easement bevel running into the shallow plunge cut. This, again, it to aid the punch to pass that wide spear blade.
Finally the nicely-ground punch has a near full length long flat triangle formed by the two bevel cuts on the back, same side as the easement bevel. The side bevel cut is critical to pushing the punch around , in order to make a circular cut, to cut a hole!!
Motoring right along, here's more editing!
These are all general conditions. Each knife is slightly different.
So far as I can figure we have 5% of the knives with a very tight punch, and then a few variations there-of! Most work very well!
The main drag on the punch is the sharp bevel next to that long back triangle, trying to get past the Spear blade!! It took us a while and several knives to figure that out.
We cut the phone call so Bill could go down to the shop, and alter the punch to prove our analysis true. He rounded the back of a punch, on a knife that was extremely tight, and that eased the opening movement considerably.
Interestingly, I got the same result from opening and closing the punch many, many times!!
Now my thumb nail is tough, inordinately so. My children wanted me to register it as a dangerous weapon!! I have no trouble opening a mint Remingtom 1123, for those of you familiar (kind of like GEC's first #23s back in 2006-2007). I could NOT open that punch at first, without my trusty blade pick!! Cocking it open at night, and running it open and closed, first with the pick, and now with my thumb, I know any of you can open it easily!!:thumbup:
I am sure it polished the striking surfaces, so they now slip by each other. I used very little oil, if any, until I was done!! (Scary!!
) That actually might have speeded things along!! Oil prevents wear, and in this case, you want a little!More editing . . . . . .
Here's what I concluded (remembering my experimental sample is small);
The knife will break in with some patient attention. If you can't or don't want to do that, you can send it back to GEC, and Bill said he will round the punch. You will then have an altered knife of course, and the punch may not be as aggressive in cutting a hole. But the punch will open more easily.
Personally, because the knife responded to my persistence, I have bonded with it, and it is riding around with me!
I will edit more tomorrow maybe, and answer questions IN THIS POST!!
A) GEC has several more BF knives to be finished. After some further consultation, we've decided to apply Bill's alteration to the back of the punch, to give it a little more clearance. It is not dramatic, but will make it easier to open the punch.
B) Very important! If you decide you want the knife to go back, here are the steps:
It must be in the original tube, and the knife must be un-altered, and un-damaged.
Include a return address along with instructions about what you want, INSIDE the shipping box.
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