All About Pocket Knives

Building a steady anvil. I kinda understand what the design is for of traditional steady but not sure what the tongue is for or how it works. It kinda is throwing a wrench in the fan. Could someone take a picture of a demo of this unique projection so I can understand its' significance please.

Gary

For me, it's most common use is for peening handle pins without disassembling the knife. Slide the blade well over that end to backup the pin. The slot comes in handy for driving out pins and for driving new pins in just beyond the inside of the liner before peening. I almost always fully disassemble a knife, so it maybe has less use for me then other folks. But it's a handy feature at times.

WB

Nice work.

whitebuffalo58 wrote:For me, it's most common use is for peening handle pins without disassembling the knife. Slide the blade well over that end to backup the pin. The slot comes in handy for driving out pins and for driving new pins in just beyond the inside of the liner before peening. I almost always fully disassemble a knife, so it maybe has less use for me then other folks. But it's a handy feature at times.

WB

Thanks WB, if you were just building new slip joints from scratch lets say...would there be any use for this tongue please?

Gary

For me, no. A stiddy's best suited for repair work.
But, others opinions and/or methods may vary.

WB

whitebuffalo58 wrote:For me, no. A stiddy's best suited for repair work.
But, others opinions and/or methods may vary.

WB

I need something to ball peen pins on, drive pins through liners, springs and blades. And an elevated work platform say 4" up makes a big difference. I want a hard service so I will heat treat some 4140 to 60 Rockwell or so.
I want the metal hard so a peen hammer doesn't dent it. Why I got this in my head I am not sure.
The tools for this knife making are really unique and require some thought.
But I want to build new slip joints like the old days in England with stag handles but I will spin my pins.
Please don't let this get back to the Sheffield people.

Gary

Gary,

That stiddy will do about 98% of things you will need to do in knife making. I use the heck out of mine.

glennbad wrote:Gary,

That stiddy will do about 98% of things you will need to do in knife making. I use the heck out of mine.

Wow, thanks Glenn. So here is what I will do I guess. I will make the basic anvil portion of the stiddy. Then I will make an attachment place for the tongue projection so when I learn how to use it I will have an option to attach it. Sure would love to see a picture of how it works.

Gary

garyflorida wrote:

glennbad wrote:Gary,

That stiddy will do about 98% of things you will need to do in knife making. I use the heck out of mine.

Sure would love to see a picture of how it works.

muskrat man wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s43vAbvSSGQ

Thanks muskrat. Very interesting how those pins get riveted blind on the backside when slid over the tongue.
I can see this projection will need to be secure if I keep it as an attachment.
Also peening the heads with a cross hammer was interesting to see.
Good job and will be thinking more for the final design.

Gary

You WILL end up with a loose scale pin, or you will forget to peen one. The tongue comes in very handy.
BTW- you will not get 4140 steel to RC 60. There isn't enough carbon in it.
Why would you spin pins unless it is required, such as repairing a knife with spun pins?

Bill DeShivs wrote:You WILL end up with a loose scale pin, or you will forget to peen one. The tongue comes in very handy.
BTW- you will not get 4140 steel to RC 60. There isn't enough carbon in it.
Why would you spin pins unless it is required, such as repairing a knife with spun pins?

I talked to a Peters heat treat and they suggested using S-7 steel for this project. What do you think and will this have a better chance for RC 60?
As far as spinning pins...I can live without perfectly domed pins. Carefully riveted pins works for me as well I suppose. The handles will be stag so hammer work will probably do the job left as it is.
I see S-7 is Carbon content 0.45-0.55 while 4140 is 0.08 range...sound right?
4140 is considered an Alloy Steel while S-7 is a Carbon or Tool Steel and it can be air cooled for hardness...sounds good for reasons to change steels Bill...
By the way your knives are amazing Bill looking at your website..... very well thought out.
How did you 'finish' these pin heads if I may ask please Sir?
thanks,
Gary

Here we go...I knew this would turn into a mega build.
There is no S-7 to speak of in Miami.
So off to Dalas Texas to a specialty metals company who in turn imports it from China.
Waiting for a quote and heat treat instructions.
Now need to call water jet cutters to see if 1 1/2" tool steel can be cut.
It is a wonderful thing.

Gary

much easier and probably cheaper in the long run to just drop $150 for a nice caddyman1973 stiddy. I have two, they are near indestructible. The one I have been beating on for 3 years and basically looks as good as it did the day I got it apart from a little paint wear.

The other gets used less because I keep it out among my drill press accessories for spinning new pins on an assembled knife, but does a dandy job.

muskrat man wrote:much easier and probably cheaper in the long run to just drop $150 for a nice caddyman1973 stiddy. I have two, they are near indestructible. The one I have been beating on for 3 years and basically looks as good as it did the day I got it apart from a little paint wear.

The other gets used less because I keep it out among my drill press accessories for spinning new pins on an assembled knife, but does a dandy job.

Oh how I wish muskrat. I contacted Bill and stiddy builds have come to a screeching halt. None available now or in the future so it was getting frustrating fast so I decided I better do something.
The S-7 steel is expensive
The water jet cutting is expensive

do you happen to know what steel Bill was using by any chance?

Gary

Stiddy wooden prototype ..trying to get it right before working with steel. Looks like D-2 will be the choice. Shout out to all of you that gave me info. Tongue will be an attachment at this time.
Gary

Those particular pins were probably brass nails that I pre-finished the heads on before I peened the rear.
Most are just simply peened and the polished with the buffer.

Something you might look into is machining a stiddy from a piece of old narrow gauge railroad track. I believe the rails are 1095 or similar.

Bill DeShivs wrote:Those particular pins were probably brass nails that I pre-finished the heads on before I peened the rear.
Most are just simply peened and the polished with the buffer.

I see, very good. Nice method.
Gary

Bill DeShivs wrote:Something you might look into is machining a stiddy from a piece of old narrow gauge railroad track. I believe the rails are 1095 or similar.

I explored this metal but my machinist mentioned some rail steel is used and "work" hardened to the point it can't be cut of ground or it would mess up his expensive cutters so I gave up.
I did talk to a man that makes a stiddy from small rail steel. But for the money I was better off building my own I suppose. He did not know what the Rockwell was either.

Gary

I have an idea to modify a prybar nail puller -needs to be thinned and slot widened a bit and holes drilled so it could be attached to milled-flat and tapped, or just welded, onto a piece of railroad tie....have not gotten to it, yet. That'd be a big project with the handtools I have. I'm holding out to buy a stiddy from one of the mechanics when it becomes available

A friend made this from a RR rail.

On used rail a simple annealing would alleviate any hardness problem. It would need to be heat treated after it's finished. I have one that I made from rail.

Bill DeShivs wrote:On used rail a simple annealing would alleviate any hardness problem. It would need to be heat treated after it's finished. I have one that I made from rail.

Yes Bill, this one was heat treated. But not rockwell tested. I think he used torch and oil quench. Not really sure.