"Thinning" a 112 - Anyone?

Scott321 said:
As much as I love my 112's, the aluminum 110's are great and are about 30% lighter than the 112's. You might want to give them a try. I just don't carry my aluminum versions that often because I usually don't need that large of a blade.
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I have a 110LT, which I enjoy for it’s weight when I decide to carry a blade that large. I’m waiting on the 112LT, looks pretty good. Gotta say, a thin NS 112 still sounds mighty tasty :)

I do need to get an aluminum version 110 as well. The look and sound promising. :thumbsup:
 
You might consider a 532 also ..It was one of Chuck Buck favorite models.I'm on the lookout for a 110 sized 531 just to try.
 
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The 112 above on the right is a three dot that came to me in really poor shape. The poor thing had a terrible action, was almost impossible to open and had to be forced closed. I asked here on the forum how to replace the pivot pin and a custom modder who sells a stuff on the bay walked me through the process. I think the knife may have been a tackle box knife. The blade has some deep pits but cleaned up nicely. This was the first Buck folder that I took apart, it was a learning experience, and when all cleaned up and re-pinned the pivot, the knife sprang back to life, literally. After that I decided to sand away all the deep dings in the bolsters and the spine. which left the knife quite a bit thinner, and also needing to be re-pinned at the pivot.


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The 110 above came to me in a trade. It had a sloppy lockup and lazy action. It had been abused and flicked open by a previous owner, and had also been used as a hammer or some such, because the bolsters were heavily dinged, and the spine also, with chips missing from the scales. I sanded the bolsters past the dings while shaping them to be slimmer at the ends, leaving as much material as possible as I sanded the scales down past any chips and dings. this left a really pleasing contour to the knife, feeling very good in hand and also in the pocket. I removed the blade and replaced the spring, and re pinned the pivot and then re finished the bolsters. The lazy action was gone, and lockup is solid, and now this old 110 is as snappy as the day it was born. All done by hand, many hours were spent working on these knives to morph them into my own personal tools.

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You can still see a few scars on the spine of the 110, to me they are just beauty marks, from it's former life, it is in better hands now, and gets lovingly carried and used from time to time...

I lost all my photo's in a computer crash, and from the Photo Bucket ransom, I had some pics of others I did, but they are just memories to me now...
 
nutoknives said:
Sitflyer is the 1 That did this 1, I named it the Slimfit 112, here next to a Custom 1972 112 with full bolsters and Scales

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nice to see a pic of that old 112 nutoknives :) also nice to see you still around here on the forum :thumbsup:
 
sitflyer said:
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The 112 above on the right is a three dot that came to me in really poor shape. The poor thing had a terrible action, was almost impossible to open and had to be forced closed. I asked here on the forum how to replace the pivot pin and a custom modder who sells a stuff on the bay walked me through the process. I think the knife may have been a tackle box knife. The blade has some deep pits but cleaned up nicely. This was the first Buck folder that I took apart, it was a learning experience, and when all cleaned up and re-pinned the pivot, the knife sprang back to life, literally. After that I decided to sand away all the deep dings in the bolsters and the spine. which left the knife quite a bit thinner, and also needing to be re-pinned at the pivot.


View attachment 879726
The 110 above came to me in a trade. It had a sloppy lockup and lazy action. It had been abused and flicked open by a previous owner, and had also been used as a hammer or some such, because the bolsters were heavily dinged, and the spine also, with chips missing from the scales. I sanded the bolsters past the dings while shaping them to be slimmer at the ends, leaving as much material as possible as I sanded the scales down past any chips and dings. this left a really pleasing contour to the knife, feeling very good in hand and also in the pocket. I removed the blade and replaced the spring, and re pinned the pivot and then re finished the bolsters. The lazy action was gone, and lockup is solid, and now this old 110 is as snappy as the day it was born. All done by hand, many hours were spent working on these knives to morph them into my own personal tools.

View attachment 879727

You can still see a few scars on the spine of the 110, to me they are just beauty marks, from it's former life, it is in better hands now, and gets lovingly carried and used from time to time...

I lost all my photo's in a computer crash, and from the Photo Bucket ransom, I had some pics of others I did, but they are just memories to me now...
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Thanks for the inspiring post.

When thinning the bolsters, does that cause the pivot pin to loosen up? Would it be best to just remove it and completely disassemble from the start?
 
Excellent pics, everyone. Thank you so much. I think I'm going to look for a 500 instead of pursuing the thinning of a 112. I really appreciate you guys posting up the pics and info all the same.
 
Rupestris said:
Thanks for the inspiring post.

When thinning the bolsters, does that cause the pivot pin to loosen up? Would it be best to just remove it and completely disassemble from the start?
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I mentioned the fix in a previous post. It can be done either way, leaving the blade in you risk nicking it during sanding/shaping of the bolsters. It's actually better to remove the blade and use some washers as spacers with a temporary pin in there during the sanding operations. I started out tinkering with beat up Junkers that I fished from the bay, they were dirt cheap and pretty much shot as users so if things went wrong, there really wasn't much invested excepting for my time...
 
Pondoro2310 said:
This makes sense and the fact that the 500's are (I think) always nickel silver backs this up. I have a 112 and though I love it its one shortcoming is that it is thick and heavy for a knife that size.
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One of the great things about the 500's is that the frame and bolsters are Stainless Steel, not NS...
 
Those are beautiful now. What kind of sander did you use to start with and what grit would someone start out at? I am now inspired to search the Flea markets for a project knife and try this for my self.

Did you have any issues with the rocker pin when sanding? And one last question where would I look to find pivot pins and possibly rocker pins.

Thanks for the inspiration.
 
1Ronin said:
Those are beautiful now. What kind of sander did you use to start with and what grit would someone start out at? I am now inspired to search the Flea markets for a project knife and try this for my self.

Did you have any issues with the rocker pin when sanding? And one last question where would I look to find pivot pins and possibly rocker pins.

Thanks for the inspiration.
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My sander was a Dewalt drill with an arbor and a birch plywood disk I cut out, 100 grit to start, and work up to higher numbers as you go. the Dewalt drill was secured to a 2X4 with a dryer vent band clamp and clamped to the bench with an 8 inch C-clamp. two sided velcro wrapped around the drills trigger to activate the motor. crude, but got the heavy cutting of metal done faster than by hand with a sanding block. finish sanding all done by hand. when sanding the heads off the pins, I wick some thin CA around them and the rocker pin to secure them, also wicked thin CA around the edges of the covers, be careful not to over do this, or you will surely glue the knife open or shut if you do, a pipette makes easy work with applying tiny volumes of CA. if you screw it up, acetone will dissolve CA.

Pin stock can be found in hobby stores and craft stores if they carry metal displays of brass and steel rods, bars, tubes and angles, the rocker bar and pivot take 1/8 inch rod stock. you can use brass, nickle silver, or SS, a single edge razor blade can be used as a shim for clearance when you pein the pivot pin. There is also various knife building supply sites on the web.
 
Thanks. That helped a lot.

I have limited experience with the thin CA. I almost glued my fingers to the bone handles of an old case knife with that stuff. I never felt it on my finger until I tried to move it. That was a lesson learned the hard way.
 
Buck should make thinner versions of 110 in few sizes and put posket clip on it.I bet it would sell like crazy,classic design but lighter and slimmer and can be clipped with same but more narrow blade .Have seen these versions without clip made in China but they have crappy materials and blades are too soft and dont take edge.
 
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