Wooden pins?

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Brian.Evans

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Has anyone ever used wooden pins? Would they hold ok?

It's a light use knife, by the way.
 
Aren't most traditional katana handles held on by a wooden peg? I can see it working well with a good srong grained wood. Why not hidden pins, though?


-Xander
 
I have used walnut pins for kitchen an craft knives. I see them as the last line of defense. As long as the epoxy holds together there is now wear and tear. And if a scale would come of the pins will hold it together until its fixed. The knifes are 1 and 2 years old and everything is looking good. The handle materials are boxwood and stabilized birch.
 
Xander, it's for my church knife. Everything has a story. The ivory scales, the wrought iron bolsters, the steel. I haven't been able to figure out a good idea for pins, but then I found the historic woods website. They had some horse chestnut that George Washington himself planted. I thought that would be pretty cool.

From what I understand, the peg on katanas is a fail safe device. I don't know how much stress it's actually under. Just like the knife I'm making. I doubt it will ever be used hard enough to stress the epoxy, let alone the pins themselves.
 
No offense meant at all, but trying to find significance every little detail seems a bit over the top. Will you use a personally significant epoxy? Buffing compound? I completely undersand your desire o have materials with value, but I see the pins as just a way to hold and display the materials. But have you thought about old bicycle spokes, or valve stems, or lifter rods, or heavy guage electrical wire, lots of things use rod of an acceptable diameter for pins.


-Xander
 
Xander, how do you know I don't have a personally significant buffing compound? :p :D Point taken though.

Maybe a nice mosaic pin then.
 
I like the wooden pin idea but also the thick electrical wire idea. The latter might well suit ivory.
But you can also have steel hidden pins plus the wooden/copper pins.

A few years back I got some Holy land olive wood scales and pen blanks. But in retrospect they were expensive compared to european olive wood.
But the did come with stickers "made in the holy land"
 
I remember Cristoph Deringer explaining that he used maple pins in a mortised maple handle
that he was going to wire wrap. Wood expands and contracts at a different rate than metal
so metal pins would cause bumps in the wire wrap over time. This was at an ABS hammer-in
in Auburn, ME.
 
Have these been field tested, so as to keep the scales on without it falling off?

I ask because I'm looking to get a knife made with wood pins.
 
I would NOT use a piece of copper wire as a pin on an ivory handled knife....unless you really want to cuss a lot. The copper will stain the ivory badly when sanding and polishing.


Good story;
A preacher had just moved into the manse at his new church. He was walking around the neighborhood and saw a boy sitting by a lawnmower with a "For Sale" sign on it. He asked the boy why he was selling the mower, and the boy said his dad gave it to him when he bought a new one, so he wanted to sell it an get a bicycle. The preacher said there was a bicycle in the garage at the manse, and he needed a mower, so why didn't they trade. The boy said yes and the preached went back for the bike. As the boy was riding the bike up and down the street, the preacher tried to start the mower with no success. He asked the boy how to start it, and the boy said , "Dad just pulls the rope hard and cusses at it real loud." The preacher laughed and said he didn't know any cuss words. The boy grinned and said, Yeah, my dad didn't either...until he got that mower.
 
I used wooden pins on a knife where, due to some reshaping, the pins ended up too close to the top of the knife and I cracked the scales when peening the pins, so after putting it down for a while and the cussing subsided, I shaped some wooden pins out of the same Koa that I used on the scales.

It is a bird knife and so is not under any heavy stress.


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I suppose if the pins are strong straight-grained wood, they would be fine for a light-duty knife.

If you just want the look but require more confidence, simply hide steel pins or bolts under wooden "caps". Similar to how woodworkers hide counter-sunk screws or nails.
 
I made this knife with polyester resin/burlap pins. I've only edc'd it for a short time, but I don't expect any failure.

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I wouldn't expect any less of good wood.

I've made a few things with wood pins. This knife box among them.

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Poplar pin hinge. I have opened and closed that box many times.

Maybe I'm a hopeless optimist, but I say go for it.
 
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