All About Pocket Knives

A life long friend of mine recently passed away from cancer , i knew he had a Uncle Henry stockman , his wife let me have it , blades are still in good shape , but has seen some neglect over the years , i brought the snap back with some good oiling , the problems are the back spring for the clip blade is sunk in some , and i guess thats causeing the blade to close so deep i cant get my thumb nail on the nail nick , but i have been able to open it , who would be good at this ? I guess they have the Swinden key thing i have read about , but seen a video where someone drilled them out and pinned like other knifes if need be , i am, guessing it would need a new spring , so anyway , just looking for some good suggestions on some one here that would do it , Thanks ( ill try to post some pics )

Woops got some double pics posted

That’s usually caused by a badly worn blade tang along with some wear on the back spring contact area.
Jeff

Yeah i was afraid it could be the tang was wore , i think it was never oiled . Years ago i had a guy weld up the tang some on a old XX case .

cbnutt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 16, 2023 11:36 pm Yeah i was afraid it could be the tang was wore , i think it was never oiled . Years ago i had a guy weld up the tang some on a old XX case .

That is the fix. I don’t know anyone who’s currently doing that though. Maybe someone else will chime in with some suggestions.
Jeff

You can try the old trick of putting a piece of leather shoelace down in the well and see if that raises it enough

Sorry to hear of your loss.

That’s a nice old piece. I’d carry it awhile and use the two other blades, while thinking of your friend.

Might do his widow good as well to know you’re putting it back to work sometimes.

Parker

I agree with the recommendations to insert something into the blade well to space the blade up. It will not restore the snap to the blades, but it will make it useful again.
True repairs would not only be costly, but taking a knife apart always risks damaging it. Then the knife would be less "your friend's knife", as things about it would be permanently changed.
Treasure it, and carry it occasionally, remember and honor him.

I agree. Right now it is the knife he carried exactly. If you try to restore, fix, or repair it then it turns into something else that had nothing to do with him.

Kind of an unusual problem. Normally if a blade tang or back spring is worn the blade will not sit low like this but rather will sit high and there will be no blade snap. I've teen this problem of sitting low fixed by putting a piece of wooden matchstick in the well. The wood can be placed between liners tight enough so that it will stay put. It might take some trial and error to get it right but the wood can always be pried out with a nail or similar object if your attempts don't work at first.

A friend at work put in a piece of brass shim stock , sitting a hair high but it doesn't poke my finger , I might go in with a small file and rub the brass a little and take it down , thanks for this suggestion , I appreciate it