All About Pocket Knives

I got this Cattaraugus 22949 cigar pen back together after unsuccessfully looking for a replacement for the broken pen blade. After digging thru my box of parts knives, I found a broken blade that was larger than what I needed, so I just went with that and ground the blade to the size I needed. The tough part was the blade was much thicker than needed, so a great deal of time was spent reducing the broken blade from .116" thick down to .075" thick as it is a single spring knife with a catchbit on the smaller pen end. Flat grinding it on the side of the grinding wheel eventually got the job done. Real nice bone on this old girl, even though it has some cracks in it. Large 4 1/4" cigars are one of my favorite patterns.

Very cool, OC.

Just a greenhorn question- could you have removed the catchbit and not had to thin the blade?

WOW!
That was a lot of work but you got a new carry knife.

Nice work OC! I think I will start saving those broken blades from now on to use for making replacement pen blades. John, good question. I think the catchbit also spaces the pen blade over to one side of the knife so the blades don't hit each other when closing. But a lot of blades are made for single spring knives so that each blade is skewed over to one side so that they don't hit each other.

1967redrider wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:29 pm Very cool, OC.

Just a greenhorn question- could you have removed the catchbit and not had to thin the blade?

In a word, no. On a single spring knife as this where the master blade runs the full length, a catchbit and a thinner secondary blade are a necessity. Note on the photo below, the master blade is crinked towards the mark side, and the catchbit is at the lower left with the pen blade along side. If I would have put the pen blade in without thinning it and using the original catchbit, there would be nowhere for the master blade to go when folding it in. Hope this explains it adequately.

herbva wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:54 pm Nice work OC! I think I will start saving those broken blades from now on to use for making replacement pen blades. John, good question. I think the catchbit also spaces the pen blade over to one side of the knife so the blades don't hit each other when closing. But a lot of blades are made for single spring knives so that each blade is skewed over to one side so that they don't hit each other.

I was surprised that the tang matched up so well. That is why I ended up going that route.

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:04 pm

1967redrider wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:29 pm Very cool, OC.

Just a greenhorn question- could you have removed the catchbit and not had to thin the blade?

In a word, no. On a single spring knife as this where the master blade runs the full length, a catchbit and a thinner secondary blade are a necessity. Note on the photo below, the master blade is crinked towards the mark side, and the catchbit is at the lower left with the pen blade along side. If I would have put the pen blade in without thinning it and using the original catchbit, there would be nowhere for the master blade to go when folding it in. Hope this explains it adequately.

IMG_4517.JPG

herbva wrote: ↑Thu Nov 18, 2021 10:54 pm Nice work OC! I think I will start saving those broken blades from now on to use for making replacement pen blades. John, good question. I think the catchbit also spaces the pen blade over to one side of the knife so the blades don't hit each other when closing. But a lot of blades are made for single spring knives so that each blade is skewed over to one side so that they don't hit each other.

Great job, OC!
I have done something similar a time or two, but my beginning blade was a bit smaller before I started.
...and, my result was not quite as successful as yours.
I admire how you repair these broken beauties!

Nice job OC...

That was good thinking to use the old broken blade!
The finish on both blades look so similar that you would never suspect that the secondary blade is not original.

VERY good work!!! I know you are proud of how it turned out!!!

OC I enjoy your creative repairs. You do great work.