How to replace pins and where to get them?

[Monkeyleg]

I'd really like to be able to take the scales and blade off knives to do some minor work myself, but I'm afraid of damaging the knives.

I've searched this forum for posts on how to remove and re-install scale pins, bolster pins, and pivot pins, but haven't really found a good answer.

Could someone give a quick explanation of how the pins are removed, re-installed, fastened, and the tips finished so they look like factory? Are there special tools needed?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

[Bill DeShivs]

http://forums.delphiforums.com/Knife101/?

[Monkeyleg]

Thanks again, Bill. You certainly are prolific when it comes to writing helpful posts.

[wild zebra]

Monkeyleg short and long of it. Dremel the heads off carefully, tap them out with a punch. Buy brass pin stock, if it's too big chuck it in a drill and use a file to get it to size. Clip a piece off put it in a vice, use a light 2 ounce hammer and tap, tap tap, till you get a nice little head. Put it through the hole clip it off so just a 16th or so pokes out, and tap, tap tap. Practice makes perfect. Search other forums for "peening" "peening pins" and so forth. Use some tape to protect the scales blade whatever in case you slip and you will slip, lol.

hope this helps.

[jimbeam]

Monkeyleg short and long of it. Dremel the heads off carefully, tap them out with a punch. Buy brass pin stock, if it's too big chuck it in a drill and use a file to get it to size. Clip a piece off put it in a vice, use a light 2 ounce hammer and tap, tap tap, till you get a nice little head. Put it through the hole clip it off so just a 16th or so pokes out, and tap, tap tap. Practice makes perfect. Search other forums for "peening" "peening pins" and so forth. Use some tape to protect the scales blade whatever in case you slip and you will slip, lol.

hope this helps.

WZ thanks for taking the time to post your very helpful reply to Monkeyleg. I have been wondering the same thing and your very clear directions have helped me take the 'leap' into rescaling. Again, thank you very much. It was very neighborly of you.

[Monkeyleg]

Thanks, Wild Zebra. I'll give that a try with an inexpensive knife just for practice. I'm sure I'll screw up something in the learning process.

[Bill DeShivs]

There is no need to put the pin in a vise. Just put it in the knife, and peen one side, then the other.

[wild zebra]

Thanks Bill, true indeed just how I've gotten used to doing it. Think I'll break the habit for awhile and try it your way.

Good luck guys glad I could help.

[Monkeyleg]

Pardon my ignorance, but doesn't the knife need to be taken apart so that the pins can be peened and filed from the inside faces of the liners? In looking in the channels on my knives, where the springs aren't blocking the view, I can see the pin heads flush with the liners.

[Bill DeShivs]

Of course it does.
Some pieces are pinned to the liners, but the knife is pinned together.
You put the scales on first, then reassemble the knife.

[Monkeyleg]

That's what I thought, Bill. One of the posts on the Delphi forum made it sound as though the pins were somehow peened into the liner from the outside. That didn't make any sense.

[Bill DeShivs]

Some of the larger Schrade knives were made that way, actually. But, they were done on jigs specifically designed to peen from one side.

[HumanEvolution]

http://forums.delphiforums.com/Knife101/?

I just spent 3 hours taking notes on this link. Not sure how to take pins out. I think I missed that thread. e-mail me at aarongabriel147@gmail.com if you care to teach me. I want to customize my 9" Frank B. Also, is epoxy good enough to use for custom scales? I think that would be clean.

[Bill DeShivs]

The scales have to be pinned (or screwed) to the liners. Epoxy won't hold them for long.
Remove the pin heads, and use a pin punch to remove them. Start with the backspring and rear bolster pins. Then swivel the liners apart.