knife advice needed

[dodss]

Advice please.
I have CK folding knife which has a metal round bar at the end of the handle-above the blade to stop it opening past the horizontal. This bar has become soft and can bend. I did heat it and rapidly cool it to strengthen, this did improve it. I mostly use at home in the kitchen home. I only have stoves, soldering iron as heat sources.

I have an Opinel 7knife and a saw Opinel 12.Both have become tight at the end and need work to get them open. Possibly they have been wet and the wood has absorbed and become thicker. Again advice would be helpful. On both these I have grooved the handle to accept my thumb for a better grip but that has not helped much. I don't want to bully and spoil them.

 

[Adze]

The Opinels are easy to fix, keep them dry and they'll loosen back up. Once they're loosened to your liking, rub a little beeswax into the wood at the pivot, you can warm it a little to help it move and aid absorption.

Pics of the CK would be a good idea, but it sounds like you're going to need the services of someone who can re-treat that bar for you - whether that's economically viable or not depends on the value you attach to the knife.

 

[Big G]

I keep my little food prep knifes ie folders, in zip lock bags. After use i clean, sharpen and re oil.

Helps keep the damp air, moisture at bay.

Sorry can't give any advice regarding your CK folder, a maker on here may pop in, be able to advise on the best course of action.

 

[Tomteifi]

Hi. Its most unlikely that the metal has become 'soft'- it is more likely that it is either broken or fractured. A picture of the thing in close up would be good. Have you any idea what the metal is? Is it brass or copper or aluminium? These would be likely culprits as they are somewhat soft metals anyway. Post a pic and no doubt you will get some more help on your problem.

Tom.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Moved to Edged Tools, best place for all cutting tool related threads.

By CK folding knife, you mean something like this?

http://cktools-superstore.co.uk/epa...?ObjectPath=/Shops/eshop841008/Products/C9037

If so, the metal bar would be the "stop pin", and on a knife this cheap it probably was pretty soft to start with and may or may not be capable of getting hard. Even soft I am surprised that it bent. Deformed, sure, but bent, I am surprised there is space for it to bend. A close up photo would be useful indeed.

 

[dodss]

Is there an idiots guide to adding photos on here; it is not the system I am familiar with i.e dbl clk and it appears. If I put the the jpg number in that is what appears.Thanks

 

[sunndog]

For pics i just copy 'n' paste the img link from photobucket

 

[Barney Rubble]

With the opinels there is a simple technique you can use to release a stiff blade. Simply tap the end of the handle on a table, that normally helps release the blade enough for you to get a better grip on it.

 

[C_Claycomb]

How to insert photos on VB has come up before.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40192&highlight=insert+photo

This may also help, albums on BCUK, I have never used it so don't know how it works these days.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/faq.php?faq=vb3_user_profile#faq_vb3_albums

I used to use Photobucket, it has the simplest interface for pasting img links to forums, however, for me their site is so full of moving advertisements that it has become un-usable and I have changed to Flikr which is a lot less laggy, but also a lot less intuitive for pasting photos to forums. Google photos, when last I checked, did not support pasting photos to forums.

If you can view the JPG in its own window then its easy to paste a link into the post

. The hosting sites usually make it difficult to get your picture by itself in a window as a jpg, so they have various canned links that can be copied and pasted for use in forums.

 

[dodss]

I do not have photobucket. If the jpg works you will see the knife.I found it about 30 years ago in a park, probably thrown away by some miscreant. It is not a flick knife but it does have a release push at the butt end which lifts the bar allowing opening of the blade I am describing.
I guess soft is not the right technical term, annealing? I think it is steel. I now don't trust it as it has bent in the past.I have fiddled a copper ring on it to make sure the blade does not come up. I wouldn't take it out the house as it looks lethal.