tool for swapping thumb stud direction -- or replacing entirely?

K

Kaylee

Joined
May 12, 2001
Messages
54
Some wonderful friends (you know who you are ;) ) gave me some time ago a little stiletto-point benchmade folder. As wonderful as it is, I was hoping I could unscrew the thumbstud somehow and reverse it so the knife could be opened with the left hand. Or, better yet, put an ambidextrous stud on it instead.

Is there an aftermarket parts or toolkit I can use to do this? It looks a LITTLE like an allen wrench hole, but not quite...


Thanks!

-K
 
Try doing a search for 'one-arm bandit'. It's an aftermarket thumbstud that can be added to most folders. They come in 2 different sizes I believe. I have the larger one on my Tomcat.

I know they're available I just don't know any of the sites where they're available.
 
Originally posted by Kaylee
Is there an aftermarket parts or toolkit I can use to do this? It looks a LITTLE like an allen wrench hole, but not quite...
Click to expand...
It's probably a torx screw. You'll need a torx wrench (probably something like a T-6). You can either get Benchmade's Blue Box (which isn't that great), or you can check out Sears or a hardware store for the wrench.
 
Go down to Sears and bring the knife with you. Go to the torx driver section next to the regular screwdrivers and find the one that fits. Loosen the screw and see if you can just reverse it. You may not be able to if the non thumb studded side is countersunk which it very well may be.

If that is the case and you can't reverse it you would need to have someone drill out the hole with a carbide bit and fit an ambi thumbstud to it. Koval Knives has some really slick ones that need a 3/16 hole.
 
As long as theres a hole clear through the blade, you can make an ambi thumb stud pretty easily too. Go to a hobby store or hardware store and get some brass rod that fits snugly in the hole,and a peice of copper tubing that fits snugly over the brass rod.
Cut a peice of the rod long enough to fit through the blade so that it sticks out on each side a little farther than you would like the thumb stud to. Cut a peice of tubing to fit over each side so that just a tiny but of the rod protudes on each side. Now take a hammer, and peen the end of the rod down so that the tubing pulls up tight against the blade and the rod can't slide out. Sand the ends down a little and you've got a thumbstud.

I usually use 1/8" brass rod and I think the tubing that fits over it is 5/32". If the hole in the blade is too small, you might hve to hollow it out so that the thumbstud doesn't end up to small and pointy. In that case the ones at Koval would probably be just as easy. But doing it this way lets you make them as long or as short as you want.
 
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