Case Sodbuster: Maple Burl and brass

I picked up a Case CV (Carbon steel) Sodbuster at the local Flea Market for not so much money,. I like the simplicity of the Sodbuster and have been playing around with it. First I cleaned of some rust with sandpaper and put a good edge on it. I have since learned that is probably best done AFTER you have finished fooling with it, but I really wasn't sure how far I'd go with this one.

Here are before:

 After:

I started  out just sanding the scales into a rounded shape, for more comfort,

"You know, I bet it's not that hard to take apart" I ran into some problems with that idea, but was eventually able to figure it out. It ended up sitting, like that, in pieces, inside one of the little pots I keep aside for holding projects in progress for quite a while until I was talking to a friend of mine who admitted he'd done the same thing- taken one apart but not got it back together - it gave me the motivation to try and get it finished.

I cut out some rough scales in Maple Burl

Decided to glue (with locktight) the liners on to the scales and made some holes (1/8" stock is the smallest diameter i have so i figured why not just drill through the liner to!

I found out why when I realized the middle (rocker?) pin had to go through the spring which I couldn't drill, so I sanded on of the 1/8" pins down. I also discovered that you have to put the tension in the spring before it'll go together, makes sense now I think about it.

I sanded the scales down. Making the scales on there own is similar to making a fixed blade handle and I sued the same process as in other posts, getting them on the knife was the part that kept being surprising.

I found out one of the liners had come away from the wood in the process, re-glued and clamped in the vice

Decided I may as well try for a pocket clip to and broke apart a cheap "modern" style folder and stole it's clip, sanded a curve into the base and started to round it to fit the scales

Ended up breaking it on both sides to get it to "curve" but they are hairline cracks and I think it'll still work (edit: it did)

I treated the scales with linseed oil - this is me taking a break while I think, don't think it through) hen put it all together. Ended up holding the knife down with one hand (new scales and all) and using a screwdriver to force the spring back while working the blade in front of it (three hands would have been nice for this maneuver.)

Lined it out and found the tension curved the butt pin, so I had to take it apart an try again. Getting it all together was a bit of a job

Very surprised to find myself this far along (even if it did take me two weeks and a few scrapes and the knife doesn't look so good) without too much (subjective term) trouble, I then found out what I'd not thought of ... no gluing folding knife pins, is there?

So I scanned the BladeForums and found some info on "penning" pins, and thought I could make a punch out of a screw remover that doesn't work. I did that, then found out the other side of the pin would just go straight thought he wood block I used to brace it.

Frankly i'm almost glad I've lost most of the pictures from this section, because I fooled around with a  lot of different, punches, and bracing materials.

I think i may have trimmed the pins to far to "penn?" them , looking at other pictures on the WWW. but, I decided to cruse that bridge when it hit me in the face, and carried on.


Till I got this;

I decided the peen method wasn't working for me and that hammering the thing would probably be best. So I used one hammer and another as a flat surface (honestly the best solid surface I could find that wasn't curved or too weak to take the pin on)  The Hammer really is the "I don't know what I'm doing" tool of choice anyway.

So I did that, linseed oiled again and after fine sanding back to 600 grit (I left it a little grittier then I have done before because I kind of liked the grip) I had this.

Overall I'm pretty happy, and I'm almost sure I can work out the bend in the liner to get the snap back (edit: it did)...but maybe another day

Thanks for looking