Fight'N Rooster

[OLDE CUTLER]

A local fellow I know that has a large collection of folding hunters by any and all manufacturers asked me to take a look at fixing one of his collection. It is a Fight'N Rooster folding hunter of the usual configuration of two blades, bone handled, 5 1/4" overall closed length. This one is only marked with the Fight'N Rooster tang stamp and Frank Buster Cutlery on the back of the master blade. No country of origin is marked on it. It is a new knife, never carried or sharpened, but had a broken spring on the master blade. For whatever reason they used steel pins on both ends and a brass rocker pin. After making a replacement spring from 1095 steel and installing it, I hammered and hammered on the replacement steel pins trying to get them to at least not be so visible against the nickle silver bolsters. I was wondering if any other of you knife mechanics have any experience with this type of situation? I have repaired knives that used steel pins thru steel bolsters, which makes sense. But why use steel pins thru nickle silver bolsters in the first place?

[orvet]

That is a great question, and I have no answer for you!
It just don't make sense to me!

[just bob]

Aren't there a lot of German made knives like this even going way back? Maybe better endurance or save money over an extended period of time in material cost?

[glennbad]

What Bob said. I also think the thought process was that the steel pins would wear tougher, but perhaps there is another reason.

Steel pins won't blend with NS, they will pretty much be visible.

Nice work either way!

[olderdogs1]

For some reason a lot of the early Bulldog knives had steel pins and nickel bolsters. They were made at the olbertz factory in Solingen, same as the fight’n Roosters. I got an early Fight’n Rooster the other day that had the same. I think it was only on the early ones that this happened.
Who knows why

Tom

[Tony_Wood]

Good work on the repair job.
I'm guessing that the owner is happy with the way it turned out!

[just bob]

I got thinking something yesterday evening. Some of these German knives with steel pins go way back. During WWI all metal was in short supply, but steel was much more plentiful than the alloys needed to make nickel silver or German silver. Knife production was a major German industry so the steel pins were used to keep the factories going. After the war the practice continued because it was accepted and they likely felt it produced a superior knife. Only when all metals were in abundance did the practice change. No way to prove this only a thought on my part.