Loose Schrade 80T

[Cooter Brown]

I got an 80T on the bay--got it cheap along with a Kamp King which went to my nephew. The King is sweet and almost new.

The 80T is not in such great shape--the master (clip) blade is pretty loose/wobbly. I think the knife is made with the Swinden key--don't know how to tell for sure, but I see no evidence of pins in the bolster. The other blades are much tighter.

Is there any way to tighten the blade? I thought about putting it in my wood jawed vise, but didn't know if this was proper or would work with a knife with a Swinden key.

At some point I'd like to try to figure out how to convert the knife to a single blade like Orvet does. The clip blade is essentially 100%, but the sheepsfoot has a broken tip. Until I learn how to do that, I'd like to tighten up the clip blade.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[orvet]

The last non-Swinden 8OT that were made would have been about 1962 or 1963. That is a guesstimate but it was some time in the early to mid 1960s, during the Schrade-Walden days.

There is no way I have been able to figure how to tighten the inner Swinden rivet accurately so that the knife will go back together. I am sure if you had the original tech specs with the settings for the machine that assembled the inner assembly and you had access to a decent modern machine shop (neither of which I have), a good engineer could figure out a method to tighten the Swinden rivet.

Lacking all that the only thing to do is take the knife apart, drill the bolsters out to take a Swinden rivet, and pin the blades through the bolsters. Since you want to get rid of the two other blades it makes the task easier by half.

Hope this helps.

[Cooter Brown]

Thanks Dale.

I'm sure it's got the S rivets. Guess I'll look through the tutorials and see if I can't make me a one blader.