Deepen nail nick?

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tallguy606
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Deepen nail nick?

Post by tallguy606 »

I bought a nice WWII-era Pal Cutlery 2-bladed pocketknife. I wanted to EDC it. But the nail nick on the main blade is very small and shallow. Is there a way to make this deeper so I can open the blade without fighting it so much? Maybe a Dremel? What attachment?
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muskrat man
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Re: Deepen nail nick?

Post by muskrat man »

I would recommend a carbide dovetail cutter in a mill. A rotarry tool and a cutoff wheel if you're just looking for functional on a knife that's not valuable. The correct way would be to heat the blade, re stamp the nick and re heat treat the blade but that is very labor intensive and more expensive for what I think you're trying to accomplish.
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rea1eye
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Re: Deepen nail nick?

Post by rea1eye »

I have a Case 5332 that had 2 nail nicks which were very shallow. I practiced on
a few metal items using Dremel tools but it did not turn out good.

A gentleman on this forum made them more deep. I don't know how he did it
but I was very grateful. He has not posted since 2019 so I don't know how he is
doing today.

Hopefully someone here can give you good advice!

( I contacted Case and they said they could do nothing for me)

Bob
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herbva
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Re: Deepen nail nick?

Post by herbva »

This might help. But as others have suggested you should practice on some junk blades first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORZkd-3Na5c
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Herb
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Mumbleypeg
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Re: Deepen nail nick?

Post by Mumbleypeg »

Kaleb hit on the problem/challenge. Nail nicks are cut into the relatively soft steel BEFORE the blade is tempered/hardened. It’s very difficult to cut one into a hardened blade, without generating heat that would possibly remove the temper. Thus the reason for his prescription.

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tallguy606
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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:20 pm

Re: Deepen nail nick?

Post by tallguy606 »

Maybe I can return it under warranty ( ha ha). Thanks, everyone.
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