All About Pocket Knives

Hey everybody,

As this is my first post thanks for letting me part of the site! Last year I started working on a few knives that were given to me by my father that were my grandpas. Just random pocket knives probably nothing fancy but as I didn't get to spend much time with grandpa they meant a lot to me.

I searched the site to clean up a few knives and found lots of help so thank you all for that. Ive attached a picture of a Barlow that was given to my Dad by my grandpa and then handed down to me. I used the site quite a bit to get it in the shape it is.

I started working on another knife though and using a previous post got it completely disassembled however I'm quite confused on what pins I need to buy? I also need to make new springs as during the rust removing phase they were so bad they broke. Attached are pictures of where I am right now.

I put the old pins in my calipers and get a size anywhere from .065-.078 so I'm not sure what round stock to buy. Also I haven't found any spring stock online is there somewhere I can buy this? Is the best way to fix the springs to lay them out trace them and then cut new ones? I'm unsure of the spring compressing process also when putting the pins back in.

Thanks for all the help. I have a box of these so I'm sure I will be posting frequently.

You can find some brass pin stock at Ace Hardware. Brass would be OK on the knife you show as it is a "shell handle" knife. The shell handles will cover the sides to conceal the replacement pins. Otherwise knife supplies such as Jantz or others online will have brass and nickel silver pin stock. The spring job will be much more complicated. I have made a few springs and I use Ajax spring material which is sold as an assortment of widths and thickness. Brownells or Midway USA have the Ajax spring material. However the Ajax kit will not have anything wide enough for the "butt end" spring you show. I have made the double end springs like the narrower one in your photo. After you have cut, drilled, and shaped the spring it needs to be heat treated. This consists of heating the spring until the whole thing is red hot at once and dunking it into oil. A propane torch will NOT get hot enough to do this, so you will need a MAPP torch or something even hotter such as ox y-acetalene. Just take your time and learn something new on each project. A simple starter book "Knife Repair & Restoration" by Adrian Harris is also available at online bookstores or possibly from SMKW. I use a wooden hand screw clamp to compress the springs to get the center pin back in.

You can order various thicknesses of 1095 spring steel from Jantz supply (www.knifemaking.com)
Trace your springs onto the proper thickness material and saw them out. Drill pin holes.

Heat treating is a lot more complicated than heating the spring and dunking it in oil!

If you use a heat-reflecting surface like soft firebrick or a jeweler's soldering pad, a simple propane torch will work just fine.
Heat the springs to red and hold at temperature for 20-30 seconds. Quickly plunge into room temperature canola oil from the grocery store.
The spring then should be so hard that a file skates off of it. If it doesn't, reheat and try again until it does.
Once the spring is hardened, it needs to be tempered. You can do this in a toaster oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes, or with your torch. If using a torch, clean the springs down to bare steel, start your torch and turn it WAY DOWN- just until it's barely burning. Start playing the reduced flame up/down the spring, distributing the heat as evenly as possible. Larger areas will need more time than thinner parts. Heat the metal until it turns blue EVENLY and immediately remove heat. Let the spring cool to room temperature.

Leave the center backspring pin out of the knife until all the other pins are installed. With the blades all open, compress the springs into place in a bench vise and tap the backspring pin into place.

Right you are Bill. I unfortunately didn't mention the step after dunking in oil. I repolish the part, then lay the part on the kitchen gas stove and heat slowly until I get navy blue uniformly on the part, then let air cool.

Thanks for the replies!! Really helpful, I will update on the progress once I get the supplies. Are there any particular tools you use to drive the pins in? Which holes do you use to measure what pin size to go with? The holes in the springs are bigger than the holes in the middle piece of metal. Sorry not sure what that part is called.

Alex

your pins should be no bigger than the holes in the liner(middle piece). You should not need to enlarge them.