All About Pocket Knives

while replacing the pin in a robeson mastercraft whittler (original not a repro) I noted something on the tangs, they looked brass. After removing the blade entirely I noted that there were well fitted and contoured brass inserts on the tang. Now on the pen blade it was stamped pat. apld. for so I am not sure if these were factory inserts or some kind of replacement done by an individual. They look too good to be cobbled and the pins didn't look like they had been tampered with. I'm stumped, surely no company in thier right mind would make tangs out of brass? It's hard enough to keep a steel tang from wearing? Thoughts???

is it brass or bronze? would surely open and close smooth i bet. i went through my robeson books and found no clues. that would surely be too mush additional cost for a production knife. if done by a knife mechanic to repair a bad heel, you should not see any evidence on the pins.

I believe that you will find that feature on all the Mastercraft series. It is definately factory.

knfcollector wrote:I believe that you will find that feature on all the Mastercraft series. It is definately factory.

cool, what is your source?

hey kaleb, what about the other blades? are they the same?

Just experience with thousands of knives over the years as well my fondness for cutlery literature and the errant tinkering with these beasts. Additionally, I am certain I have seen note of this feature in old catalogs. I also believe the insert to be bearing bronze if I am not mistaken.

very interesting, thanks for the info. All blades have the inserts and it was a mastercraft knife. I never would have thought of someone using brass or bronze on a tang

I've never seen anything like that, but it does seem to make a bit of sense. Almost like a bushing against the spring. that's quite a bit of precision work for a factory knife. How little we've come to expect from our modern makers

trying to research this subject i went to a site called robesonsRme.com. this is about the fourth visit. each and every time i go there my computer locks up. to the point my task mgr has a hard time closing them out. any one else have this problem? i ain't goin back. maybe one of you can try and get the info from them.

went to that link Johnnie and found this pic along with these few words, "Detail of Bronze Bearing on the tang end of MasterCraft Knives" guess that is factory then, amazing!

Well, from a repair standpoint, a worn tang wouldn't necessarily require the replacement of a whole blade with that setup (Providing it was the good 'ol days and you worked for Robeson/Mastercraft you could just replace the bearing). But then, by the time you've worn down a tang, your blades would be half gone anyways

probably not a repair thought, makes it smooooth to open and close.

Great site Johnnie, thanks for the link!

Here is something I fond on that site about the bronze bearings;

"MasterCraft knives have a bronze bearing on the ends of the blade tangs that bear on the backsprings. They open and close easily. The master blades are usually etched, "Nev-R-Bind Oiless Bearings" in a waving banner."

Neat old stuff!
Dale

Yep, it's bronze. They also did a spring bearing, the spring had a notch ground out and a piece of bronze inserted at the contact point of the tang. I'll scan an ad for them that I have and post it this evening.

that's interesting, give me an idea for replacing worn tangs/springs. I have seen many full bladed old knives that wouldn't snap a lick becuase they were never oiled and the tang/spring was ground away from a gritty action. Dovetail the spring/tang and use a peice of tempered steel to build it up and grind to the correct angle/contour. It would have to be an awfully nice knife to do that much work though

would it be possible to drill and tap a hole in tang and put brass screw in it?maybe improve snap on a knife with worn tang or worn backspring?those brass screws come pretty small,
2-56,4-40,etc.of course i wouldnt attempt on a good collectible knife,just an every day user.

possbly if done very carefully. many worn tangs can be trued and worn springs can be krinked to improve snap, usually it takes both to achieve acceptable results.

I would expect that you would break off the tap in the hardened tang. Those taps are very small, and are very delicate. I once broke five in a row trying to tap a screw into the top of a blade for a thumb disc. Needless to say, extracting a broken tap of that size was an exercise in patience.....

J

Often, when working with hardened steel you can go up one size drill bit in diameter for tapping if you have the full sets. Numbered, lettered, and fractional bits - you can find one size up and use that bit rather than the recommended size, metric optional. In fact you MUST do that with titanium as it hardens after cooling from the drill. With hardened steel the same would be likely, it's easy to break bits when metal has been harden either by work hardening or heat treating.

Measure first so that you aren't drilling oversize.

I myself have never done any spring krinking.Is it just basically bending the backspring?
How is it done?I assume no or minimal heat would be used. Could you open all blades and
slide knife on the thin edge of your steady and use a punch to krink the backspring?Sorry,i
guess im just full of questions.But grandpa said thats how you learn.

this is from adrian a. harris' "knife repair & restoration"

johnnie pretty much summed it up. no heat is used, and the knife must be disassembled for the procedure. a cross pein hammer is the best hammer to use so it puts a sharp bend in the spring, however I find it much easier and more effective to strike the spring just in front of the rocker hole. striking it between the rocker and butt pins shortens the sprinng too much sometimes and the pins will no longer line up. Striking it just ahead of the rocker hole will bend the spring and put more tension on the blade whilst not altering the distance between the two holes.Be especially careful with german made knives as thier springs are sometimes harder than american or english made knives and are more likely to snap, thin and/or narrow springs require special care also so you don't snap the spring by accident.