Flush pins?

[manskirtbrew]

I'm going to be re-scaling a couple of antique shop blades. I was curious - does anyone do their pins flush to the handle instead of proud with a washer? The closest example I've found so far is this beautiful beast by Undream, but even though he used flush rivets, the actual pins are still peened onto washers.

I re-scaled this Henckels kitchen knife for my wife a few years ago, and the rivets are good and solid. I was just wondering if maybe it's not a good idea in such thin wood as razor scales.



Thanks,

-Joe

[mwengerd]

I have no answer, but think it's a great question!

[Malacoda]

I've too have debated whether or not it would be worth giving flush pins a try...

I've seen a few restorations here and there that used flush pins on the wedge end (but not at the pivot). However, I think I recall the posters saying they used a CA or epoxy to bond the scales to the wedge allowing the flush pins to be purely decorative - mostly like because of the extremely high probability of a crack/break a chamfer would introduce to the thin wood scales.

A flat spacer would result in less stress on the chamfers versus a wedge shaped spacer (since the scales will not be bowed and under load). And fully peening one end of the pin before assembly would avoid the affect/risk of hammer impact on one side (haven't figured out how to reduce/eliminate it on the other side.

Another possibility would be to use a counter bore rather than a counter sink - especially if you can find a way to a flat headed 'cap' that would screw or bond to the pin with the cap sitting flush with the scale. This would completely eliminate hammering/peening impact stress.

Just brainstorming a bit out loud. Hope it helps.

If you do give load-bearing flush pins a try, please let us know how it goes.

[manskirtbrew]

I'm thinking the blade end will definitely need some reinforcement. Maybe I can inset a brass washer, taper the inside edges and peen the pin into that. Then I can file the whole thing flush. I'll do some test runs with cheapo wood first and post up some pictures.

-Joe

[global_dev]

dovo's bergischer lowe has a flush pin on teh wedge, but a regular on the pivot..

[Kentos]

How would you regulate pressure on the pivot? Does it just peen down to a snug fit? I would be interested to learn more on how they work.

[manskirtbrew]

How would you regulate pressure on the pivot? Does it just peen down to a snug fit?

\
The hole would need a chamfer in it. Then the pin gets peened down into the chamfer. That was one of the things I was thinking: it would be hard to adjust tension later without marking up the pin area. But as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

-Joe

[manskirtbrew]

My wife just found two sellers on Etsy with razors. Interestingly, they both use flush peened rivets for pivot pins. This guy has some neat damascus steel blades:



And this guy...well, he makes razors from files.



-Joe

[mycarver]

I did a razor about 2 yrs ago with flush pins set into brass discs that look just like your knife. It worked just fine and the razor is still in service and works just fine. It was fairly easy to do.

[mwengerd]

Just saw the damascus guy - can those be any good at that price point?

[Hammertime1]

Not referring to that guy cause I don't know his work. A lot of PAK junk Damascus low grade steel floating around last few years. A few knife makers been busted using it and claiming it was high grade. Also one of the razor makers who has a blog talks about damsacus and why true damsacus is a bear because of edge needed for a straight and layers meeting at edge. He say Rowanda?? Sorry if I misspelled name, was one that perfected proper method to undo that issue so it's Rows method that has to be used or you have to have a piece of steel welded on for edge so you don't have layers intersecting at edge.
Sure someone with actual experience can tell more or if what was on blog was wrong . I though the article was an interesting read.

[mycarver]

Here it is. I picked it up a couple of years ago and though I wasn't into straights at the time I tried to restore it as best I could. This was my second attempt at restoring a razor so don't laugh.

I just honed it as I'm about to get cleaned up for the day. This thing is popping hairs like nobody's business. Lets see how it shaves. It's a Keystone ( my home state and it's from Germania Cutlery Works. I only bought it at the time simply because it was a Keystone. Go figure. Rosewood scales with a CA finish.