Hi All,
So I recently acquired a nice French 15/16 rattler grind. The only issue is that the blade doesn’t center between the scales when you close it. You can see it’s off in the photo below.
At first glance I thought this was because of scale warpage. For sure one scale displays a noticeable (but not distorted) bow while the other is nearly flat. I initially thought that this might be due to shrinkage of one scale relative to the other. However after unpinning the scales I realized that the real issue is that the tang is asymmetric. Whether it was bent, ground poorly, etc, not sure but that is the situation. You should be able to tell in the below photo that the upper edge is sloping down much faster than the lower edge is sloping up.
Interestingly, among the rest of my relatively large collection, I have seen this only one other time, on a Torrey that is also a rattler grind (hmm, is there something in the process that encourages this?).
So looking for suggestions on how to address. I don’t really care about straightening out the blade, and I don’t have much in the way of equipment for bending metal. I just want to get scales put on it that such that the blade doesn’t hit the edge of a scale. I never did solve the issue on the Torrey by the way, I just have resigned myself to always being really careful when I close the scales.
So some thoughts:
1) Just make a new wedge that is much wider. In theory if I make the wedge wide enough, the blade will miss the scale even if it is still off-center. Might have to be really wide though - the blade contacts the scale about 2/3 down. It doesn’t seem like the overlap is much, but that likely is because the blade is exerting force on the scales once it is placed between them.
2) shim up the scale on one side at the pivot hole. Not sure that this would even work, as the asymmetry will change as a function of the angle between the blade and the scales.
3) drill the holes at slightly different distances on the scales. We know that shrinkage can cause the scales to be off-center. Maybe adjusting for the distance between the wedge hole and pivot hole can compensate?
4) bending the tang - again my thought based on past experiences is that this would be difficult to do and get right.
I do have the original horn scales. Some minor bug damage but otherwise in good shape. I can make new scales if necessary and I’ve half a thought to do that just as an experiment to try out option 3.
Looking forward to your feedback.
So I recently acquired a nice French 15/16 rattler grind. The only issue is that the blade doesn’t center between the scales when you close it. You can see it’s off in the photo below.
At first glance I thought this was because of scale warpage. For sure one scale displays a noticeable (but not distorted) bow while the other is nearly flat. I initially thought that this might be due to shrinkage of one scale relative to the other. However after unpinning the scales I realized that the real issue is that the tang is asymmetric. Whether it was bent, ground poorly, etc, not sure but that is the situation. You should be able to tell in the below photo that the upper edge is sloping down much faster than the lower edge is sloping up.
Interestingly, among the rest of my relatively large collection, I have seen this only one other time, on a Torrey that is also a rattler grind (hmm, is there something in the process that encourages this?).
So looking for suggestions on how to address. I don’t really care about straightening out the blade, and I don’t have much in the way of equipment for bending metal. I just want to get scales put on it that such that the blade doesn’t hit the edge of a scale. I never did solve the issue on the Torrey by the way, I just have resigned myself to always being really careful when I close the scales.
So some thoughts:
1) Just make a new wedge that is much wider. In theory if I make the wedge wide enough, the blade will miss the scale even if it is still off-center. Might have to be really wide though - the blade contacts the scale about 2/3 down. It doesn’t seem like the overlap is much, but that likely is because the blade is exerting force on the scales once it is placed between them.
2) shim up the scale on one side at the pivot hole. Not sure that this would even work, as the asymmetry will change as a function of the angle between the blade and the scales.
3) drill the holes at slightly different distances on the scales. We know that shrinkage can cause the scales to be off-center. Maybe adjusting for the distance between the wedge hole and pivot hole can compensate?
4) bending the tang - again my thought based on past experiences is that this would be difficult to do and get right.
I do have the original horn scales. Some minor bug damage but otherwise in good shape. I can make new scales if necessary and I’ve half a thought to do that just as an experiment to try out option 3.
Looking forward to your feedback.