Tightening a wobbly blade?

[Jason Fry]

Any tips on tightening a wobbly blade on an older slipjoint? Let's assume we want to keep it original, not replace the pins.

 

[mhawg]

This topic was recently discussed here

 

[Jason Fry]

Thanks for the link. Does a simple squeeze or pin tap work on a blade with a small pivot as well as it does on a soddy with the big pivot?

 

[black mamba]

I put my old boyscout knife (50+) in a padded vice and gave her a liiiitttle squeeze--went from wobbly to tighter than a tick.

 

[joesrx]

very little pressure and test. I know from experience

 

[zerogee]

I dunno, a two pound lump hammer will tighten one up in a jiffy! Just kidding! Well, no, actually it will, just not usefully. Seriously though, one thing to be sure of is to only tighten the knife with the blades *open* (and wrapped for safety). With the blades open, you have a number of options if you get the pivot too tight -- with them closed, you've got another problem. If you can tighten the pivot up, but it quickly loosens up again, you may need to spread the pivot pin a bit -- one controlled way to do this it to tap a center punch (gently) into the center of the pivot pin (assuming you don't mind the "hole" it will leave behind). A punch modified with a small, rounded tip would be less marring and should work as well.