All About Pocket Knives

I have a stiddy I use made of RR track. I made and sold a number of them, but decided they are too much work with hand tools for the price. Some stiddys take two days of sweat and hard work to made and $150 it hardly make it worth the effort.

The RR track stiddy works very well. Mine is not hardened, nor is my commercially made stiddy hardened.
I am not sure why anyone would want their stiddy hardened, I think that a hardened stiddy would be more likely to damage the bolsters when preening pivot pins.

An unhardened stiddy will get beat up over time, a non hardened horn will bend while trying to peen scale pins. That is why I sold a stiddy I bought a few years back from another maker. the horn was untempered and it would bend if you hit a scale pin too hard. I cut it down to try stiffening it up but it was still lacking. A stiddy should be tempered, just like any vintage quality anvil will be tempered.

Crinking blades and springs that are harder than the stiddy will put dents and dings in the surface of the stiddy and over time it will not do the job it is supposed to do due to wear. I really don't see how a well polished work surface is going to damage bolsters while peening pins, afterall you're peening the pins not the bolsters. Any steel will be harder than the nickel silver or brass that most bolsters are made of and the stiddy and hammer must be harder than the work material or it will not properly upset the pin. So to make it a shade harder so it does not become damaged when working steel components on it shouldn't make a difference.

My machinist looked at my stiddy model and said it was a go. D-2 steel I found will be the next move to purchase. I was lucky to find it. Tool steels here in Miami are hard to find as well as machinists.

Gary

Awesome thread Gary , Miami ? I'm in Broward West Davie . I would love to have a stiddy as well , think your machinest would make an extra one ?
Mike

ScoutKnives wrote:Awesome thread Gary , Miami ? I'm in Broward West Davie . I would love to have a stiddy as well , think your machinest would make an extra one ?
Mike

I will let you know how this thing moves along, so many ifs and maybes I can't even promise myself something will get done. This is proving to be more difficult then building a slip from scratch.
Yes I am in S Miami down in the Redlands.

Gary

Ok thanks , we have a knife club up this way with a great group of guys called the Gold Coast knife club . Lmk if your interested in joining .

Back from the steel yard, amazing to see the metals we or somebody has developed over the years.
So step II has been achieved. Little big but big is good.

Well, here is the prototype. Getting heat treat info ready final step.

Looks good! You should make a few extra to sell.

Bill DeShivs wrote:Looks good! You should make a few extra to sell.

Well I did as a matter of fact. The problem is the builds were an expensive process.

Very nice ! I'm still in if you would like to sell one ?

Nice looking stiddy

Randy

Cool build. You certainly have been chasing a good stiddy, you are to be commended for gettin' after it! Just curious why you did not have a "step" in the top surface to assist with crinking?

SteelMyHeart85420 wrote:Cool build. You certainly have been chasing a good stiddy, you are to be commended for gettin' after it! Just curious why you did not have a "step" in the top surface to assist with crinking?

Good question SMH...details that were left out at this time.
Step for crinking.
Slot in thin tongue portion.
small holes of various sizes drilled through main anvil platform.
Please instruct me if there is a need to adjust for these details.
I will do a cost sheet as I get to the final process.
I am thinking about 58-60 Rockwell hardness for the D-2 anvil portion.
The base is 4140 and will be left as is.
Gary

Options worth mentioning and possible to do at some point. Need some feed back please.
1. slot in tongue
2. holes of various size in anvil
3. base mount holes
4. (not circled) step in anvil platform

Gary

1- Slot in tongue. IMHO, probably what I use least of all on my stiddy as I prefer spin a pin, fit the pin in the hole and peen the pin from the liner side. About the only time I use the tongue is if I am just tightening a loose pin. I don’t use it when rebuilding a knife. The thickness of the tongue is important; my stiddy from the Camillus factory is only .060” thick at the edge. My other two are about .070” at the edge. The .010” makes a lot of difference when repairing a small pen knife.

2- Holes in top. At some point you will need to knock a pin back out of a knife. The holes are great for that. I have 2 or 3 blocks of micarta I use for this purpose because the hardened surface of the stiddy can ding the bolsters, liners and even potentially the blades. I prefer the micarta blocks, but you will need holes somewhere to knock out various size pins.

3- Base mount holes. My large stiddy is about 10 lbs and mounting it is not critical because of the weight. The smaller one I made is too tipsy and top heavy to use without being mounted. My Camillus stiddy is a pedestal type and mounts in a socket hole cut in the workbench. You will almost need to use your stiddy to see if you need to mount it or not; it depends on the weight and balance of your design.

4- Step in anvil platform. IMHO, I would not build a stiddy without this. It is a feature I thought I would not use much and now I would be lost without it. Not only can you crink a blade, but also you can use it to add a little more tension to a worn spring.

This is my reasoning on these four parts of a stiddy. Others may agree or not or may have different reasons.
This is what came to my mind before breakfast.

Thanks Dale for your input here. I am going to proceed step by step here until you guys get tired of answering questions.
Subject: #1 tongue
I can see placing a pin in a knife with finished spun head to the exterior (show side). Placing the assembly liner up on anvil with spun head resting on anvil. Peening the liner side to complete securing assembly together (sandwich).
What keeps the spun side of pin from being damaged?
One would have to have some backing to perform this process correct?

Tongue thickness is .0060"? a business card is .0100"...I am off here with something.

Gary

garyflorida wrote: Tongue thickness is .0060"? a business card is .0100"...I am off here with something.

You are absolutely correct on the measurements, I was not fully awake when I typed that this morning.
I corrected it in my post, it should read the tongue thickness of .060" to .070"

garyflorida wrote: Subject: #1 tongue
I can see placing a pin in a knife with finished spun head to the exterior (show side). Placing the assembly liner up on anvil with spun head resting on anvil. Peening the liner side to complete securing assembly together (sandwich).
What keeps the spun side of pin from being damaged?
One would have to have some backing to perform this process correct?

Again you are correct, I do use a backing which is attached to my large stiddy.
It originally came with a 1/4" hole at the rear of the platform. Since I use micarta blocks with various size holes for pin removal I didn't need the hole in the stiddy. I used it to install a large aluminum disc with a 1/4" bolt through the hole to secure the disc to the stiddy.
I use the disc to place the head of the pin when I am peening the pin to the inside of the liner. The aluminum is much softer than the brass and the aluminum is left with a dent in it instead of misshaping the pin head. If you pound too hard it can mess up the pin too, but you learn to use lighter taps. It will actually takes quite a bit of ponding to mess up the pin head when using the aluminum disc.

As you might imagine the aluminum disc does get all dinged up after a while. I take it off the stiddy and put the in the sander to smooth it out again, then reattach it to the stiddy.

Here is a pic of my large stiddy with the aluminum disc attached.

garyflorida wrote:Options worth mentioning and possible to do at some point. Need some feed back please.
1. slot in tongue
2. holes of various size in anvil
3. base mount holes
4. (not circled) step in anvil platform

Gary

incorporate all of the above. They all have their uses are are better to have and not need than need and not have. That may be the most complete looking stiddy i've seen. All bases are covered

Heat cycling over. Took some thought and careful planning but we are at 59-60 Rockwell now and the anvil section passed the ball pien hammer test with flying colors. Glazed the top surface and left the rest as it cooled out of the oven.

Gary

Very nice stiddy, sir. Have you put her to use yet?

Thanks, I am still in the lessons, collecting materials and collecting proper tools mode which is turning out to be a real challenge but most enjoyable. Everything is available in one shape or another just takes time which is a good thing.
To answer your question, the stiddy has seen no action beyond completion.

Gary

Thats a great looking anvil, i have been trying to find one for a long time now. caddyman used to build them but not any more after e mailing him I found out he,s not doing them now. I would definitely be interested in purchasing one from you if you have one for sale please let me know, and thanks
[email protected]

I noticed the steel on anvil base was starting to rust so I had them powder coated. If anyone is interested, I can bring one set-up to Gator Club Show coming up.

Gary