J.J., now that I've said I want a Dremel Work Station, how do you use it to support your Dremel tool while you're making a nail nick?

JJ .. would you snap (with the other hand) a pic of that set-up ?!?!

I clamp my dremel in a my vise if I'm not using it free hand. Same with my drill when using the polishing wheels.

JJ .. need a 3rd hand ???

I usually clamp the knife w/ a vise or equiv .. then, hold the dremel in my right while resting the heel of R hand in palm of left hand .. or .. some combination of a 2 hand hold .. looking for a better secure easier way ..

yrs ago .. bought one of those spring loaded, clamp the dremel tool in, drill press thingies .. was about $15 in early 80's .. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY !!!!

That workstation JJ posted looked functional & useful !!

$ 35 .. that is a good deal ..

The $15 POS was something I bought for drilling ckt bds back in college .. it was truely a pc of .. wk .... the clearance @ the "guide pins" was sloppy lg .. difficult drilling the same hole twice .. small base .. had to be clamped to a wk surface .. held the dremel body V only ..

The posted wkstation is certainly higher quality !! It appears to have addressed the issues I experienced.

The flex shaft , ability to position dremel @ H, V, & in between, plus drill press merits the $35. ......imo........

Beware, I looked at those a while back and found that there were some mixed reviews. Particularly in the precision of the drill press.

Hey, guys, you know the problem I had with matching pin sizes to the holes in pocket knife parts? I just remembered that our local hobby shop has a variety of pin sizes in stainless steel, but I had passed them up and ordered nickel silver pins instead. Just for curiousity's sake, have any of you used stailess steel pins to replace the old ones on a multi-blade pocket knife? I shied away from them because they are so much harder than NS and would generate a lot more heat in grinding them or sanding them, which could damage the scales. What has been your experience with SS pins, if any?

Terry .. you could file them by hand .. wouldn't be restored in a vintage sense .. but, certainly repaired .. might take another look @ the "repinning a bali-song" tutorial .. bolster your confidence ..

I think I can help, although I have never used stainless for rivots, I believe the man to ask would be Todd Davison, he is a member here and created the Knife Makers Group. He has certainly pounded more rivots than I will in a lifetime. http://www.iknifecollector.com/profile/TADAVISON

Daniel and Dale, thanks so much for your suggestions. I will defiinitely follow up on them, and I really appreciate the help.

Terry .. I do enjoy the sharing of resources that iKC facilitates .. your forethought in starting this grp discussion .. my/our opportunity to "pitch in" .. tis a nice place here !!!!

Dale, I heartily agree with you! Everything seems to be working like a well-oiled shop machine!

Hi J.J.,
OOPS! I forgot! Thanks for the reminder, though. I'll do my best to remember to keep a record on the next knife I restore. Sorry, my bad!

?? .. Anybody having any fun yet .. ??

One of my $8.00 knives is almost finished, but I made an OOPS on the scales that I'm trying to hide. I guess my fun will have to wait til another day. Don't you just hate it when you spend hours filing, shaping and sanding, then a simple little blooper turns perfection into caca? I can hear life's sucking noise loud in my ears.

Terry,

Pin sizes aren't a problem. Just take the next size up and chuck it in a drill press and turn it between two files to bring it down to size. Works like a charm.

Terry .. Alex has good/wking solution ..

.. implemented similar approach replacing the lock pin in a Paragon auto .. original snapped in half @ narrow section .. only replacement on hand was from the flea-mkt auto's I've posted here for "fun/mod" purposes .. it was LARGER than the original .. chucked the oversize replacement part up in the drill press & used file & sandpaper ..

..specifically .. my application .. used a single file applied @ an angle .. maintained taper on locking surface .. finished w/ worn sandpaper .. keep the vernier calipers handy !!!!

Chucking up on the part wasn't fun .. wked like a charm though !!!! the resulting "machined" surface .. round dia, tapered lock surface, smooth, functional, ...

Alex .. thanks for pitching in here .. did you catch the Mikov assembly tutorial in "Reference Material" ?? know your interest in that area ..

Yep,yep,yep.
I'm Havin' fun.

Thanks Dale and Alex! Pin size IS no longer a problem. I'm certainly prepared for the next time!
Terry

JJ .. welcome to the practical lab section of Knifeology 101 .. did you catch the course pre-requisites .. must have destroyed at least one knife in the pursuit !!

JJ, Dale gave you the primary pre-requisite. The second one is that you must carry at least three knives and/or multi-tools of your choice at all times, and together they must be capable of:
1. Slicing and dicing
2. Cutting your finger nails
3. Filing your finger nails
4. Opening wine bottles
5. Gripping things tightly (pliers)
6. Turning flathead and phillips head screws
7. Puncturing holes in leather or heavy canvas
8. Opening cans
9. Eating a three course meal
10. Starting a fire
11. Signaling a plane overhead
12. Sawing off a limb
13. Writing a note
14. Magnifying an image
15. Storing digital data
16. Cutting wire
17. Cutting cheese
18. Cutting corners
19. Cutting boring conversation short
20. Cutting egotists down to size
21. Cutting class
22. Cutting through the b.s.
23. Cutting in
24. Cutting out
25. Cutting a deal
26. Cutting others a little slack
27. Cutting your nose off to spite your face
28. Cutting down on expenses
29. Cutting marshmallow roasting sticks by the fire on the beach
30. Cutting the cards after roasting marshmallows.
If you can do all those things with three knives, you are a Master Knifeologist and an iKC icon.

HA I love it... a few more things we could slash with a good magic piece of cutlery... Slash the national debt, cut of the flow of oil in the gulf, cut the stupid bickering in washington and get some decent work done for us working guys. I am sure i could think of more.. but thats a pretty good start.
Alec

Alec, I love your "...cut the stupid bickering in washington and get some decent work done for us working guys..." And J.J., be cool! If you "don't cut nobody no slack", you may be heading for the "unkindest cut of all." Anyway, you're both "a cut above" in my book.

Lol thanks Terry, what are you doing up at this hour?.....

That's Terry.

#22.

Terry .. remember that tie-wrap mod to the spyderco that started a bunch of this .. thanks for posting .. I see it's catching on everywhere ......

Dale, that's FUNNY!!! Seeing your photo, I smell a contest coming, a contest to see who can think up the most bizarre use for tie-wraps. (Of course, entries must be accompanied by a photo.) Should the contest result in a tie (no pun intended), it will be broken by a hoop tossing contest using hoops made out of tie-wraps. What do you think? Will this absolutely brilliant idea cut the mustard?

.. came across it @ http://thereifixedit.com/ ..

I'm game .. maybe we can hit tie-wrap's marketing dept up for funding .. you know .. kinda like duct tape applications on steroids ..

Hi Alec,
I'm a night owl mainly because my wife has a sleep disorder and I'm up when she's up. I'm sure glad iKC is a 24/7 operation. You can only watch so many Turner Classic Movies without your brain turning into a gelatinous mass of goo.

Dale,
Great idea! The tie-wrap manufacturers should love it. If you'll draft the Business Plan and Prospectus, I'll pay the postage for them using USPS' Flat Rate postage. (#28)
Terry

TCM .. commercial free .. try Independent Film Channel (IFC) .. Fox Movie Channel (FMC) .. Netflix sub for more commercial free ..

.. it’s the commercials that turn the grey cells to a gelatinous mess .. not the 1942 Bogie & Bacall .. “To Have & Have Not” ..

.. It’s my wife that has the spouse w/ the sleep disorder here ..

Knifeology 101 .. a couple of us have put together a database of resources/info/history/interesting facts .. we had to outsource the database ..for sorting & indexing .. features not well supported w/i the Ning environment ..

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knifeology101/
.. we hope you like it !!!!

!!! .. contributions welcome .. !!!

.. a source that stocks that odd size metric pin stock ..
.. a tidbit of cutlery history ..
.. manufacturer links ..
.. your favorite knife maker .. "Support your local Blacksmith"

Dale,
BEAUTIFUL JOB!!! What an outstanding resource! Kudos to you and your partner(s).

Terry .. thanks !!

JJ & I discussed the (in)ability to readily reference all the interesting useful schtuff we're finding here .. the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Knifeology101/
is what resulted !!

Terry .. contributions are welcome .. we all have our passions .. what kind of specialized tools are used in inlays ?? hat kind of inlay tutorials/resources are out there ?!?!

Dale,
Here are some links to wire inlay information:
1.
2. http://www.blademag.com/article/silverwireinlaypartone/
3.
4.
5.
These links provide a wealth of information on the techniques, tools, and materials used in silver, brass and gold wire inlay. Square wire, rather than round wire, is used almost exclusively, and is sold by several suppliers on the Web. Here are some links to suppliers of square wire:
1.
2.
3.
4.
There are also eBay sellers who sell inlay wire at good prices.
The tools used are primarily a hammer or mallet and small chisels that can be purchased or made from old hacksaw blades, as described in one of the reference links above.

Hey, the links I inserted were lost in the final message! I don't get it! What a waste of effort! I'll have to regroup and figure this out.

J.J.,
Thanks, but I tried that and out of 10 links I inserted in the comment, only one of them was contained in the final comment. This one:
http://www.blademag.com/article/silverwireinlaypartone/
I'll try a slightly different way of doing it, without numbering them as I did in the first try. Maybe it will work this time.

Just copy and paste the links onto seperate lines. Don't even try to use the
hyperlink button. I think we can get them posted for you.

OK, let's try this again. Here are the links I included in my comment that got lost, as well as I can recall:
http://www.blademag.com/article/silverwireinlaypartone/
http://www.blademag.com/article/silverwireinlayparttwo/
http://www.hooverandstrong.com/blog/archives/81/
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/inlay-work-10-3.htm
http://www.mickleyknives.com/html/page_22.html
Here are some sources of square silver and gold-filled wire for inlays:
http://www.silversupplies.com/catalog/metals/sterling_silver/square...
http://wire-sculpture.com/sterling-silver-wire-square-1.html
http://www.wire-sculpture.com/gold-filled-wire-1.html
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=square+silver+wire&_sacat=0&am...
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=square+gold+filled+wire&_sacat...
Square brass wire can also be used, but should only be used for practicing wire inlay because it tarnishes so easily.
Hope these links are helpful!

J.J.,
Talk about great minds thinking alike. Just got your message!
Terry

J.J.,
It was my pleasure. I'll keep an eye out for more resources. Thank you for all your work.

Hey, groupies/groupers/groupoids,
Just finished restoring/modifying one of the two old beat-up pocket knives that I bought for $8.00 apiece. Here's a photo of it:
http://www.iknifecollector.com/photo/modified-and-restored-2bladed?...