I have a small pocket knife I carry most of the time. It is a multi bladed Rosterei/Solingen that I was given many years ago. I has faux pearl scales and over the years they have gotten chipped and otherwise damaged from use (ok abuse ) Well the last time I dropped it was the last straw. One scale flaps like an insect wing So I want to replace the scales with some homemade micarta. My question is about the pins. They appear to be brass. Is this a common folder pin material? also, I am planning to shape the scales to near finnish then pin, peen then file, sand, and buff to finish. Is this a workable solution? OR should I peen after I get them nearer to the buffing stage so as not to remove the "head" that is peened? Thanks for any input

Scott

Yes, I think brass is a very common pin material, especially on factory knives. I would think the origional pins were peened on the handle material before the knife was assembled. I would think it would be hard to peen the pins with the knife assembled. I sometimes use a head spinner in a drill press to round over the heads of pins, but it does very little peening to them.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions, BG. I have seen those spinners in the supply sites and cats but I really want to keep the flush surface of the pins. The exposed pin where the scale is broken has a slight "head" but it is so thin, I assumed they were "peened" or some other process and then buffed flush in the final finish stages.

Home made micarta? How is that made?

Its basically made of layers of cloth; denim makes some nice stuff, or other absorbent material saturated with acrylic resin. Here are a couple links: From AES Custom Knives and from one of our members here, Tyrcarta :D

Way cool! I have not heard of home brewed micarta, quite a lot of possibilities with that.

More Trycarta talk that will probably lead some other innocent soul astray and into countless hours of R&D (and fun); you gotta love it!

"Lsiten to the Force, Luke."

"Stay away from the "light", Carol- ann!!"

"Beware of the "Dark Side", my son!"

Muhah,ha,ha,ha,ha!!! (Maniacal laughter) :lol:

when i do the final assembly i add some glue along the pins ....and i may take another piece of brass and make it like a rivit set and give it a little tap...so it leaves a rounded head or a flat head it.

I've seen on youtube a guy made trycarta with denim and epoxy resin. just soaked each layer squeegy the layers onto each other then put in a vise and wait. his visees were plywood and hand clamps. or rolled it and put it in a machine vise, wrapped in wax paper for a rolled effect.

I've seen on youtube a guy made trycarta with denim and epoxy resin. just soaked each layer squeegy the layers onto each other then put in a vise and wait. his visees were plywood and hand clamps. or rolled it and put it in a machine vise, wrapped in wax paper for a rolled effect.

Just like that, Edge! :D