Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

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edge213
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by edge213 »

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Will do... whatever the outcome ::facepalm::
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by rexstubbins »

Hey Bforse. Not to rain on your parade but I've done a few rehandles with pre dyed handles. If they are smooth then when you jig them they are quite light in the jigged ruts. You may want to get some dye to fill the ruts. Looking forward to the Aftas pictures.
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Thanks rexstubbins for the heads up. I appreciate it.
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

So, since I’ve been waiting for my bone to come in, I decided to fix something else. The original celluloid was torn buy the button, and I couldn’t leave it like that.
Before:
E2B9FE0F-EAE5-43D2-8838-F40C495D460A.jpeg
After:
Attachments
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St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by edge213 »

BFORSE wrote:So, since I’ve been waiting for my bone to come in, I decided to fix something else. The original celluloid was torn buy the button, and I couldn’t leave it like that.
Before:E2B9FE0F-EAE5-43D2-8838-F40C495D460A.jpeg

After:
How did you make this repair?
David
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

This is a “replace” fix. Searching online for celluloid with the proper thickness and pattern was a virtual bust. :(
Then there was the problem of forming that celluloid to the correct contour of the shell. It seemed like a hopeless case, especially the amount of effort for such an inexpensive knife; so finding a willing donor was the only option I had left. A perfect donor was found that had his tip snapped off, and fairly decent celluloid. Having some experience with shelled knife repair, I knew I had to be very careful when bending the tabs. The most nerve racking part was removing the celluloid. I started with the donor knife first just in case I tore the celluloid. I used a blow dryer on the lowest setting to help make it a little more flexible; take some of the brittleness out. Then I carefully, slowly, started to push the celluloid tabs on one side off the shell. Once that was accomplished, I removed all the celluloid from both knives so I wouldn’t have a mixed batch on my knife. Then I cut the tabs off of the original celluloid that had the tear, placed it on top of my donor piece, lined up the contours, taped them together and used the old celluloid holes as a template for cutting new holes in the donor piece. I used a Dremel with a very small engraver bit, and cut the holes out. Then I used a tapered sanding bit to fine tune my cuts. All cutting was done with the dremel on the lowest setting and without any force to minimize friction that could melt the celluloid.
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St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by orvet »

Excellent job, and nice detailed tutorial! Very impressive!
If you have opportunity to pick up a Foredom, which is a rotary flex shaft tool, I'm certain you won't regret it if you do any amount of work with a Dremel at all. The Foredom can work at very low speeds and has lots of torque. Usually the Dremel needs extremely high speeds to be effective, the Foredom is the opposite; low speed, high torque.
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Thanks orvet, I have never even heard of a tool like that. I’ll definitely have to look that up. ::tu::
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by glennbad »

That's an interesting fix! You have more patience than I do.
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Thanks glennbad, I had to go really slow; partly because I was nervous. I’m sure everyone here has boogered something up at one time or another; and I’ve had my fair share in the past, and even though I have learned from my mistakes, I honesty was shaking on some of the more treacherous parts. ::paranoid::
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by edge213 »

BFORSE wrote:Thanks glennbad, I had to go really slow; partly because I was nervous. I’m sure everyone here has boogered something up at one time or another; and I’ve had my fair share in the past, and even though I have learned from my mistakes, I honesty was shaking on some of the more treacherous parts. ::paranoid::
Great fix.
David
"Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife" Meat Loaf
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Thanks edge213! I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It also gives me another throwaway knife I can piddle with.
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by bighomer »

WOW, great job. ::tu:: ::tu:: ::tu::
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Thanks, bighomer!
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by Doc B »

Nice job! Looks good! ::tu:: ::tu:: ::tu::
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

If anyone is wondering whatever happened to the schrade double switchblade; right now he is on the back burner. I have been volunteered to design and build a 12’x6’ chicken coop and run with all the bells and whistles. The motivation for completing this project first is the chirping box of chicks in my kitchen. :roll: Some friendly advice: build the coop BEFORE you take your kids to Tractor Supply. :mrgreen:
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by Byrd »

That's OK! We're a patient bunch! I hate it when other projects interrupt the important stuff though!
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Thanks Byrd! Well, I’ve pretty much finished the chicken coop and painted a cat portrait by the time I started my week long thanksgiving break.
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So, originally I had decided to go back with faux ivory, then it was suggested that I go back with bone. I liked the bone idea better. I knew this would be a massive undertaking but I also knew that I would learn a lot in the process... this was definitely not a plug and play project and I didn’t have much to work with.
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I decided to use one bone slab as a test piece and use the other nicer looking bone as my slabs. I had just enough width to cut two pieces from one slab. My thinking was that the two slabs would be, for the most part, identical in grain and color.
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Of course I took my time and sawed it but hand so I wouldn’t be in a hurry and make a mistake with the band saw. So that took some time. I also had some mineral spirits left over from painting so I through the knife in to loosen up any old grease oil and lint.
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80+ years and you could make soup of what settled out from that old pocket knife.
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So while the knife cooking in the mineral spirits I tried my best to compensate for the shrinkage and tape together the remnants of the celluloid handle for a template.
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I then taped the template to the bone slabs and use a one-sixteenths bit to drill the pin holes.
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I noticed that one of the tiny pins fell out that was holding one of the buttons in place. I had originally decided not to disassemble the knife more than was absolutely necessary but I decided to carefully drive out the pin on the other side as well to clean everything a bit more thoroughly than the spirits could do alone.
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Now, I knew that the odds of the bone being the correct thickness from the manufacturer was highly unlikely. But I don’t own another knife like this and don’t know anyone who does so I stilled a YouTube video and estimated the thickness.
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I just want to mention that if you don’t own calipers, do yourself a favor and go pick up a set. Also for a project like this you will probably want a dremel set, a portable drill press, bench sander, band saw, pliers, wet/dry sandpaper and a ball peen hammer... for when you need to hit something because your bone slab split in half while drilling a pin hole. Yes, that happened to me. Fortunately, I had that test piece of bone left.
Next comes the hours of thinning the slabs and routing the holes for the buttons and locks.
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I would periodically hold the scales to the light to see my thin spots.
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

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It is important to test fit your button and lock with the bone slab as you take material away.
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While test fitting one of the slabs I found the reason why one side originally split and fell off. The dimensions were slightly off from the factory; the spring and button were putting excess pressure on the scale. I notice that the curvature of the spring did not match the other.
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So.... i knew the odds of success going in, and for me personally bending a spring had been about 50/50... but not this day.
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100% fail... WHERE’S MY BALL PEEN! Obviously there must be something wrong with my head that needs fixing. So now what? Where do you go to buy a NOS spring for a 80 or 90+ year old schrade double switchblade??? To the best of my knowledge you don’t....You pull yourself together and start thinking of a solution. This popped into my head, but would it work? It had to!
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A little dremel and hand file work and you have yourself a replacement spring! Make sure you go slow and constantly cool the metal before it gets hot.
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Now I think I had originally said I would do a pick bone but I don’t think that would be an accurate jigging pattern for the particular date of this knife so I tried replicating the pattern that might fit it the best. It turned out alright but not as close as I would have liked, partially because of the thickness of the bone and me not wanting to jig as deep Incase it broke.
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Time to DYE!!!
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All I had was a water based leather dye and by this time I was ready for this project to come to and end so I dyed it several time till it dried, wiping off what would come off in between coats. It was finally done. A good EDC that may hold up for another 80+ years.
07C57AF5-8C2A-429D-8E56-1497A7C29B4E.jpeg
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by danno50 »

Wow BFORSE, beautiful work! ::tu:: ::tu:: Excellent job on the jigging, I would say, also on the spring rebuild!
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by BFORSE »

Thanks danno50!
St. John Chapter 1
...12 But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God...
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by bestgear »

I’m digging the cat portrait, great eye!
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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by stockman »

Nice Job, looks like you do his everyday. Beautiful knife.

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Re: Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

Post by edge213 »

Great job on the rehandle.
David
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