How to cut pins

[Ellie]

Hi everyone,
I have the knife I am making to the point of where the holes are drilled and have fitted the pins in them. Fit fine.
questions are:

1. Silly, but what do you cut the pins with? Wire cutters?

2. I think I should wait to put them in until I sand it down to where it is supposed to be... like at the end of the process though instructions say to do it now.

Thanks,
Ellie

We are almost there!!!!

[Bob Sigmon]

Ellie,

It depends on how big the pins are. I use my metal cutting bandsaw. Cut close to the scale and then file to the scale. You have to be careful sanding around the pins because they are harder than most scale material.

Good Luck

Bob Sigmon

[Ellie]

I don't have a metal bandsaw.
Bob, if I waited until all of my sanding was done, and THEN put the pins in, wouldn't that cut down on the cutting and sanding of the pins.
I am making the texas skinner from TKS. The oak I am using for scales is very thick and will be until I sand and I don't think I want to have pins there unless there is some reason to do it now.
What do you think?

[Ray Rogers]

The purpose of the pins is to secure the scales. If you don't put them in with the epoxy at the beginning the handle will not be as strong as it could be.

No matter what the pins are made of or how big they are, they aren't that hard to file and sand down as you work the scales. As Bob said, exercise a little care so that the pins stay even with the top surface of the scales but that isn't hard to do.

If you finish the oak first and then put the pin in, you will almost certainly have to mess up the wood finish at least a little when you try to finish the pins. If the area of the handle where the pins are has any curve to it then the top of the pin will also have that curve. That means the pin must be perfectly positioned to fit properly if you insert it after the fact and it must stay that way while it's glue dries. It's just a whole lot easier to do both at the same time ....

[Bob Sigmon]

I have always finished my handles with the pins glued in a cut to the size of the scales. I try to use a grit and speed that will not build up heat on the pins. The heat will break down the gule bond.

As long as you are sure that the glue bond is really secure, you can shape the handles down somewhat and then insert the pins. Cut and file close and then finish sand the handle. Don't drop the knife because the handle may come loose without the pins in place.

Bob

[Ellie]

Ok, I will epoxy them in tonight so I can start sanding the scales tomorrow.

I assume I push them all to one side and cut off that side. I should cut after they are glued or before?

[Ray Rogers]

Cut them close but leave enough to allow you to push them through. It doen't matter if you leave 12 inches sticking out one side of the knife since you're going to cut it off anyway. Just be sure to leave enough so that you CAN cut it off. I make my pins about a quarter of an inch too long and the grind a point on them so that they go through the handle easier. Once the handle parts and your hands are covered with epoxy is not the time to find out that the blunt end of your pin is jamming somewhere!

Cut the pins after the glue dries. A hacksaw will work fine and allow you to get close to the wood and won't distort the pin like a pair of wire cutters might do...

[Jason Cutter]

Brass pins are actually not too hard. Nickel silver pins are costly but even a greater joy to work. In any case, You should place the pins in with as little length to spare. Obviously you wouldn't be shoving in a foot of pin an expecting to easily grind, file that back. To alloow for any error, I suggest leaving about 1/20th an inch on either side. These days with epoxy, you rarely need to pein the pins to hold the handles, although that would be good too. When rough shaping the handles I suggest using a sharp file if you don;t have a grinder. Any file will have no problems knocking off those pins.

When you transtion to hand sanding, use a very hard backing on the paper, eg.- a piece of Micarta or iff you need to sand a curved surface, use a very hard piece of scrap leather. Anything softer will alow the paper to "dip" in around the harder pin material and cause the raised pins as the others have mentioned. This applies to every grit you go through.

I use all sorts of pins from 1/16inch up to 1/4inch "bolts". The 1/16inch can be cut easily with a wire cutter. Everything else cuts easily with a 6inch hacksaw. I put the pin sock in a vice which has leather between the jaws to not mar the pin and just cut to length the amount you want. make sure you use a small file to trim the ends of the pins and taper them if you want. The shorter the pin you use / need, the easier it will be to drive them, tap them through without accidentally bending the pins.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

[C L Wilkins]

One other bit of advice...

When cutting off the excess pin stock make sure that you don't get the pin too hot. Not only will it break down the epoxy bond as mentioned but it will also burn the epoxy and possibly the handle material leaving a nice dark circle around the pin. If you get it too hot in a stag handle, it will turn the stag around the pin a little white. Even a hacksaw will over heat a pin. Not that I've ever done anything like that. I've just heard, yeah that's it. I've just heard!

One word of caution. A number of years ago a friend of mine clamped his knife in a vise and started cutting the pins with a hacksaw. On one backstroke the knife turned in the vise towards him, the next stroke he impaled his hand on the blade. The blood and stitches were secondary compared to him having to listen to his wife fuss at him all the way to the emergency room.

In other words, tape that blade with duct tape or something so you don't hurt yourself.

Craig