All About Pocket Knives

My first project. Old Slimline from eBay last year with a wobbly blade. This slimline has no handle pins, I think it was made by Camillus.... I will put 2 handle pins in per side since they are loose on the bolster end. Would 3/32" be ok, or should I go with 1/16"?

Thanks if anyone comments, it would help. I will post the finished pics when the pins come in.

3/16" pins is about the size of the rocker pin, so it would look strange.
I always use 1/16" brass or nickel silver pins for handles. When I can hind them I use even smaller pins on smaller knives. A size that works well for me on small knives are .054" brass pins.

Welcome to AAPK. Glad to have you aboard. I know hardly anything about Case knives but I am curious what it is about that knife that makes you think it was made by Camillus. Always looking to get educated.

I would guess that it is because that Case has no pins in the handles.

Here is a Case slim trapper on my bench waiting for a makeover. Note that it has a rocker pin, tail pin and two handle pins. I bought this knife about 4 or 5 years ago, NIB.

Jerry - back in the 70's they made some of the 31048's for Case, and the blade is slightly different than my others, coupled with the fact that the handles are not pinned like all my others and pictures I've seen of the same yr model as well....so it's an educated guess, I guess...

Todd

Dale I hope when I'm done it looks as good as yours waiting there for the makeover!

Works for me. Thanks for the info, Dale and Todd.

In Steve's new book on page 171 - 72 he speculates that there is a different look and feel to some of the 1970's Case 48 patterns as compared to the earlier versions. He says many collectors feel these knives were probably made by another contract company, most likely Camillus. I wish I had saved it but 2-3 years ago there was an ebay auction for a Case 32048 made in the 1970's. With the knife came an original factory work order from Camillus where they had made a certain number of these knives for Case. I think that number was 2500 but can't be sure. Dale or some of the others would know better than me but there isn't a lot of difference between some of the Camillus Yellow - Jacket knives and a lot of the Case pattern knives. I wonder if they didn't make other patterns as well?

Here is something I'll post that was shown to me by the knife repairman in KY. Carrying a lot of different sizes of pin stock is expensive and it is impossible to have exactly what you need at certain times. Also turning down a pin is not an exact science and many times the pin ends up tapered and that isn't good. The most important tool in your shop is a 5/0 straight flute pin reamer. This is about .072 at the bottom and .096 at the top. I basically only use 3 sizes of pin stock the 2 mm .080 and the .092. Then the 1/16 - .062 to put the handles on the liners with. When you are doing a restoration project put the pin reamer in the hole you're working with then use the micrometers to check the diameter. Use the pin reamer in the drill press to enlarge the hole to either .080 or .092 going slightly larger than the pin stock. So for .080 pin stock ream the hole to abt. .084. This works every time. Eliminates the need for mass inventory of pin stock. You won't be able to tell the difference with the naked eye when you're done. I think the bolster hole in the Case 6318 is abt. 091 if you ream that to .094 your .092 pin stock will slide right in and work great. Here is a link I found with the pin reamers. Important to remember you get what you pay for. Many of these on ebay made in China don't last a week. The one I have now came from Granger and I've been using it 6 months. Also I only use ATF for cutting fluid. I know they make a lot of expensive stuff to do the job but this seems to work great and is cheap (like me)

http://www.victornet.com/subdepartments ... /2548.html