Yorkshire Imperial Scout Knife Surgery ("free to a good home" continued)

screened porch

screened porch

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Feb 19, 2012
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Jack Black's sprung scout knife arrived today (11 days from Y'shire to MI). I'll be in and out fetching pictures for a bit.
I can explain this:
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Just kidding. That's a project I'm less proud of.
You'll remember this knife had worked its way off of one end of the pivot pin. It was still strung together, but the spring was beside the awl instead of in front of it.
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The trick to this is to hold the spring far enough back for long enough to get the blade in front of the spring, then pinch the end together before the spring slips again. This is one way not to do it, as I remembered from my Grandpa's knife.
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There are some other ways not to do it, using a vise.
Here is my brilliant idea for this one: a scrap of wood with a divot to receive the spring as I push down with the screwdriver.
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I slipped a bit, and the driver plunged between the parts, but it did jam the spring where I was able to move the blade over. The end then pinched together very easily.
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Peening time. I have a hard time being sure where my hammer is landing with such a small target, and last time I tried anything like this I found my rivet hammer was actually being deformed by the music wire pin. (see Imperial Barlow Re-bolstered) This little cold chisel worked great, and had some help from its friends.
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Here's my end of the pin:
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I used one of those single-edged razor scraper blades as a slackner to keep from pounding too tight.

I need to take some pictures of the whole knife, but walk and talk are great. There is gapping at the back; I think the pins are bent; the sides are tilted toward the blade side, if you know what I mean. I'll show you when I take some more pix.
There are issues with the handle materials, but nothing worth tearing the knife up again. I think I'll carry it for a while and see what it has to say to me. If the bail lets go, I'll have to replace the pin, and that would be the time to fool with cosmetics.

Jack, thank you again for sending this old soldier, and for the nice work you did cleaning it up.

Questions and comments welcome; I've probably left some stuff out. Right now I need a beer.

Jer
 
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Glad it arrived OK Jer, I've not had anything actually go missing yet, but in terms of time the international postal service seems to be a bit of a lottery. Thanks for the great pics showing your work :thumbup:

scrteened porch said:
Jack, thank you again for sending this old soldier, and for the nice work you did cleaning it up.
Click to expand...

All I did was spray it with some WD40, oil it, and clean out the frame with some pipe cleaners and cotton buds as far as I can recall. Then it all went wrong! :eek:

Great work Jer, hope it'll find a place in your pocket from time to time :)

Jack
 
Great work Jer, I messaged you when I received yours-but haven't heard back? did you get it? have a looksee in your message box my friend.

I bet that beer tasted good after doing such a fine job! well done!! :thumbup:
 
To depress a spring I have taken a penny or nickel and slipped it in the slot, put the knife in a vise with leather pads and clamped it down to get things lined up again. Using a coin prevents scarring of the steel or liners like a screw driver would.

Great work, and I really need to finish the Puma "one trick pony" I started so long ago. I basically am just needing to fit the scales and pin it together.

I have a small box full of knives needing fixin, maybe I'll do that. Thanx for the inspiration!


-Xander
 
Jack Black said:
Glad it arrived OK Jer, I've not had anything actually go missing yet, but in terms of time the international postal service seems to be a bit of a lottery. Thanks for the great pics showing your work :thumbup:



All I did was spray it with some WD40, oil it, and clean out the frame with some pipe cleaners and cotton buds as far as I can recall. Then it all went wrong! :eek:

Great work Jer, hope it'll find a place in your pocket from time to time :)

Jack
Click to expand...

It'll definitely get some pocket time, and some serious use to test my work.
I have a tendency to animism, but the knife seems to be aglow from all the intercontinental attention it's been getting.
 
scrteened porch said:
It'll definitely get some pocket time, and some serious use to test my work.
I have a tendency to animism, but the knife seems to be aglow from all the intercontinental attention it's been getting.
Click to expand...

Great stuff! :D
 
Campbellclanman said:
Great work Jer, I messaged you when I received yours-but haven't heard back? did you get it? have a looksee in your message box my friend.

I bet that beer tasted good after doing such a fine job! well done!! :thumbup:
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Thanks, Duncan. I'm sorry I messed up my reply to you. I posted it to my own messages instead of going to your page.
 
Xander and Mike, thanks for your kind words.
That penny in the padded vise is a great idea.
The beer did taste good. Posting is almost more work than tinkering to a transistor-age dinosaur.
 
I was thinking this was gonna be way more tricky than it looks.....okay it looks kinda tricky.

Top job though. I hope you nailed it and it can be returned back to service.
 
scruffuk said:
I was thinking this was gonna be way more tricky than it looks.....okay it looks kinda tricky.

Top job though. I hope you nailed it and it can be returned back to service.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty confident.
As for tricky, I had done this before with my Grandpa's knife and the experience probably helped. I probably also had some luck, catching the knife in a good mood when I was having a good day.
Pushing with the screwdriver was harder than I'd expected, and maybe I should have had a longer divot under the spring. Certainly it was luck that the screwdriver slipped to the side it did and held the spring where I wanted it. Xander's penny in a padded vise might work better, or the knife might slip and rotate`out of the jaws. I'm sure it will work well sometimes.
With Grandpa's knife, I seem to remember going several inconclusive rounds before getting it right. I like to think that this one worked better at least in part because I was smarter.
Maybe half the battle is getting over what Churchill in an oil-painting context called "the fear of the empty canvas". Once you wade in, at the worst you'll learn something, and until you wade in you'll never know.
And maybe someday when somebody needs a laugh I'll post some results of some of my learning experiences.

Jer
 
Good reading Jer, yep got your mesg, and thank you my friend, well that was a good success wasn't it! well done, and boy-when it comes to botch-up jobs when trying to fix a knife? I would be the first to join the queue and in saying that if it was an honest queue,,,it should be a mighty long one for us all here lol
 
Nice save there! It's a great feeling to bring something back like that.
 
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