Broken Remington Lock Back Spring

[KaminskiJL]

Hello,

I have a large chinese-made Remington 700 series lockback (looks like a Buck 110) that I inherited from my cousin when he passed. The spring on the knife is broken so the knife will not lock open or stay closed. I was able to remove the pin that the lock bar pivots on and shake out the broken piece of spring metal, however, I can't seem to locate the pin(s) that hold the two slabs together so I can remove the rest of the lock spring. Can anyone out there help with how I would locate the pins so I can completely disassemble the knife. I would also appreciate any advice on how to make and fit a new spring. Any help will be appreciated. I have attached some pictures so you can see my dilemma.

[glennbad]

Most lock backs that I've worked on, once you remove that lock bar, the spring was either part of that lock bar, or a separate spring that sits in a well inside the knife frame. I could be wrong, but normally you don't have to take apart the whole knife to replace the spring, just that lock bar.

[Bill DeShivs]

Glennbad is correct. If there is a piece of spring left in the handle, it can probably be dislodged by tapping the handle on a hard surface.
The springs are just inserted in a slot, and the backspring holds them in place.

[ea42]

From the looks of it I think the spring in that knife is integral with the butt piece, like this;

You'd need to find a donor knife with the same spring as your knife as you'd have to replace that whole unit.

Not sure of the construction on those knives. There might be pins through the bolsters and caps or the bolsters and caps might be clipped over a skeleton frame. Hard to say.

Eric

[Bill DeShivs]

If the integral spring is the case, I can tell you how to find the pins, I can tell you how to make the spring, and I can tell you how to put the knife back together.
What I can't tell you how to do is how to do any of these things without the tools or experience to do so. You will probably ruin the knife trying. If the knife has sentimental value, ask around here and someone will be able to do the work for you.

[tinkerer]

My $.02 - the pins are probably oriented as ea42 says but are blended in by sanding and polishing.

They should be somewhere like the image below, though not those exact locations.

pins on knife.png (70.91 KiB) Viewed 556 times

You may be able to scuff up one side gently to see if you can make them appear. They're peened over so you may need to do a bit of grinding to get them to budge.

Fitting the new spring would depend on whether there is a slot cut in the butt for a spring or if it's an integrated piece.

And to concur with what Bill above says, there's some tools and skills that would make the job go and look better.

[KaminskiJL]

Thank you Glennbad and Bill, but I'm pretty sure that Eric is correct. When I removed the lock bar and took out the broken piece of spring I could not see any evidence of a pocket on the remaining piece of spring (I am calling it the spring base). Also, the piece of spring that I removed was rectangular in cross-section, not round like a typical spring rod. I could see the remaining piece inside the knife, but could not see any evidence of a pocket. Based on this observation I was assuming that the spring was some kind of 1 piece design. The pictures that Eric has provided seem to confirm what I was thinking. My plan was then to completely disassemble the knife and, since I would have both pieces of the spring, use them as a pattern to make a new spring. Failing that, I was going to machine a pocket into the spring base, re-install it, and insert a piece of spring steel (ala buck 110) as the new main spring. However, upon close examination I could not find any evidence of the brass pins used to hold the two slabs together. Is there some way to chemically treat the bolsters to expose the pins?

[Bill DeShivs]

Since you insist,sand the bolsters with 600 grit sandpaper. The pins may become evident.
You can also drive a wedge into the blade well and it might pull the pins and make them show. Be very careful. You can cut yourself AND ruin the knife.

[Fisher Cat]

You've already heard from more knowledgeable people than me, but I have used the method shown in this tutorial a couple of times and it worked great. Once the knife is in half, its easy to see the bolster pins and drive them out from the inside. - Good Luck! - John

viewtopic.php?t=5236

[Bill DeShivs]

Another method is to use a single-edge razor blade, or an extremely sharp knife and hammer it down between the liner and back spacer. This will make the pins show, and you can keep driving it until the blade cuts the rivets.