Pins for knife scales

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Washburnedout

Joined
Mar 23, 2014
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I was wondering what would be a both cheap, good looking, and durable pin to hold my handle scales in place. I would like to be able to go to a store and buy the materials and not have to do so online. Any suggestions?
 
Washburnedout said:
I was wondering what would be a both cheap, good looking, and durable pin to hold my handle scales in place. I would like to be able to go to a store and buy the materials and not have to do so online. Any suggestions?
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I do not know any stores that sell pins at least around me, but there might be some around you that sell rods of nickel or brass that you can cut down. Brass and nickel are two very common choices and work great. They have been used for years. I use nickel and brass, but some other makers can chime in with what they use or what works better. I do know there are some higher end pins or custom pins you can make out of Micarta or other material, but in the long run these are not cheap and durable, but do look good especially if you can blend them in completely with your handle.
 
Check your local Hobby Lobby, or other b=hobby shops, for a K&S Engineering display. They have brass, nickel, copper, and stainless tubing and rods that are great for pin material. Your local store may be hit or miss, as not all stores carry the brand.
 
Thanks! Would cold rolled rod work for pins? Because I don't want to spend $10 for a lot of brass rod that I might only use a few sections of in the future.
 
Any hobby store that has model trains will have short lengths of brass, copper, piano wire and sometimes nickel silver. By short, I mean 6" to 1' for about $3. They will also have long set epoxy, CA glue and CA debonder.
 
Try a local welding shop. They'll have brass brazing rod, usually 1/8" diameter (maybe stainless too). Probably be tough to find any brass rod/pin stock less expensive than that.

I also use electrical wire, 12 gauge is about .090". You might be able to con a guy at Home Depot or anyplace that sells bulk wire to give you some samples or off-cuts of Cu wire. Runs of less than 3" are rare :).
 
If you have a ace hardware where you live, they have a few choices. I bought a 3' long 1/4" brass rod for pinstock for maybe $9. I also bought a 3' long 1/4 rod of aluminium for like $6. They have other sizes and steel rods to. I just prefer 1/4 pins.
 
Yep, Home Depot and hobby shops. Home Depot will have brass rod. Your local home center will also have bare unshielded copper ground wire. I get some lengths of the heavy gauges. I cut off a piece and roll out any kinks between two heavy steel plates. Hobby shops will have brass and probably carbon fiber rods. Also, welding supply houses have bronze rods.
 
I saw carbon fiber tubing the other day... Where was that... Probably at Hobby Lobby. Can't flair the ends though AFAIK.

Acrylic rod might look kinda cool on the right knife. It's not as tough as any metal, but should be fine for a knife that is otherwise well designed and constructed and won't see heavy use. Imo, that covers most knives btw (ducks and covers).

There are probably a dozen seriously cool pin stock subs out there that none of us have thought of. You can always turn softer materials into rods too, so if you're crafty, don't automatically discount anything that doesn't come in rod stock.
 
Thanks everyone! But one final question does size of the pins matter? I was planing on just two 1/8 in pins, is that too few and too small?
 
You can use as many or as few pins as you want, just glue the slabs
well and probably peen the pins if you use 2, 1/8" pins. I've used the
colored orange, blue, yellow fiberglass driveway markers for pins too
with good results.
Ken.
 
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