Arbor press

[jdale]

I have seen on a few threads that there is a detailed conversation about arbor presses, but for the life of me i cant find it. I know arbor presses are good for setting pins and straightening blades. Are there any other important tasks during the construction of a knife where one would want to employ its use?

[KNAdmin]

You can modify one to accept eyelet flaring dies and leather stamping tools. They work great for those jobs as well.

[Ed Tipton]

Idale...Arbor presses, especially larger ones, are one of those shop tools that have a multitude of uses, but you can never think of one until you need it. Basically, they can be useful in any application where a great deal of pressure needs to be applied in a sensitive manner. I use mine mostly in setting the pins in the scales, and occasionally for straightening, although I do seem to have better luck using the hammer for that, but there have been other situations where I could have used an arbor press but either just didn't think of using it or grabbed another tool first.
I have also used it for assuring that a stub tang is fully seated inside the handle. This can work well if you can prevent the blade from flexing or from damaging the point which I have done by burying the point into a block of wood, and then very carefully and slowly applying pressure until the tang is fully inserted into the handle.
I will admit that I don't use my arbor press all that often, but I wouldn't want to give it up either, since it does some things quite well that nothing else in my shop does.