All About Pocket Knives

Hi all, Pulling a old Imperial Barlow apart to rehandle, it has steel pins all round.
Do I need to replace with steel or can I use brass or would this be too soft allowing to much wear.
Any suggestions or help would be great.
Have been taking pic's as I go along so will post before and after when it's done.
That's if there isn't a major flop-out.
Cheers Gary.

I can't speak for others, but I have worked with some older knives that have had steel pins, especially at the pivot. I ended up using standard nickel silver and so far have had no issues other than a slight color variation.

I've never used brass on the pivot, mainly because I haven't done one like that (like a Buck 110), but for other pins, I just use what looks best.

Glenn

If you are going to change the pins with a different type of steel your best bet would be to use stainless steel.
Much harder than nickel silver and less chance of corrosion. Brass would be way too soft for movement points like pivot and center pins.
But there will be a color difference.
Steel pins are fine to use as long as you maintain the knife with cleaning and oiling regularly.
If you don't want to see the pins then use the same material that the bolsters are made of.
You can use any metal on the other fixed pins.

Here are two examples both using stainless.
One knife with nickel silver bolsters and the other with brass.


J W

Brass will work fine for a pivot. It work hardens when you peen it and it's supposed to actually have lubricating properties (or so I've read anyway). For the most part brass will end up harder than nickel after peening (and nickel pins have been deemed hard enough to use for pivot pins ever since man decided to use nickel for bolsters!). If it wore too fast I don't think buck would be using it on their 110/112 for the last 50 some odd years with such great results.

As long as you don't anneal the brass before using it, it will be fine.

If the knife is for show and not going to be used that much then go a head and use brass or nickel. But if the knife will be a heavily used one, like for whittling, I'd go with the stainless.
I have found out through past experience, by using all the knives in my collection pretty heavily, that the ones with the stainless pivot pins hold up much better.


J W

Thanks fellas, you all got me wondering now.
Should use steel as liners are steel.
It wont get any hard work, should use brass. Will see what I can get in town the right size.
Might use one of each!!! haahaa...
Will post pic's when she's a goer.
cheers Gary..

Don't laugh, maybe you should mix the pins up and use two or three different kinds.
It will give a unique look to your knife.
Here is a picture of an old swayback jack where I used brass pins to secure the handle material to the liners. Used stainless for the center and end pins and a steel pin for the pivot.
the following picture I used heavy copper electrical wire as pins and mosaic with copper incorporated into it as the pivot and bolster pins.

J W