Rizzuto disassembly technique question

[QGofLake]

I have this rare 7 inch red scaled rizzuto. The zinc rocker is broken. It sure looks like the rocker failure occurred early. Scales are perfect without even scratches. Same for the bolsters. Tried coaxing the knife open by holding the blade in to remove tension and tapping on a surface button side down. Dripped some lube in onto the blade trying to let gravity take it to the sear. Tried compressed air. No joy. Sure want to see the blade and am figuring its in nice condition.

I've taken a busted and rusted rizzy apart before using a dremel. While effective, my technique could easily be described as crude. Any advice on how to remove the pivot pin without buggering up the bolsters? Sure don't want to botch up this knife. I've got a few hammered up rizzutos to practice on.

[BestVintageKnives]

I have this rare 7 inch red scaled rizzuto. The zinc rocker is broken. It sure looks like the rocker failure occurred early. Scales are perfect without even scratches. Same for the bolsters. Tried coaxing the knife open by holding the blade in to remove tension and tapping on a surface button side down. Dripped some lube in onto the blade trying to let gravity take it to the sear. Tried compressed air. No joy. Sure want to see the blade and am figuring its in nice condition.

I've taken a busted and rusted rizzy apart before using a dremel. While effective, my technique could easily be described as crude. Any advice on how to remove the pivot pin without buggering up the bolsters? Sure don't want to botch up this knife. I've got a few hammered up rizzutos practice on.

Cool knife. Have you tried a long X-acto blade under the scale to push the rocker up and out of the sear hole?

[QGofLake]

Tks BestVintageKnives. I have not. That is a good idea however the scales are well pinned in place with no gap with the liners. I am thinking its going to come down to removing the top bolsters. This thing is like The Sword Of Excalibur.

[BestVintageKnives]

Tks BestVintageKnives. I have not. That is a good idea however the scales are well pinned in place with no gap with the liners. I am thinking its going to come down to removing the top bolsters. This thing is like The Sword Of Excalibur.

Give it a shot. You may at least get the knife open.

Rare red marble color too.

[wiseguy]

You could tape up the bolster then flat file the bulk of pins head, then lightly dremmel and drift if out. That’s what I do.

[BestVintageKnives]

You could tape up the bolster then flat file the bulk of pins head, then lightly dremmel and drift if out. That’s what I do.

Great idea.

For other jobs that require disassembly I know guys will sometimes slide a razor between the liners and backspring and cut the through pins

[QGofLake]

You could tape up the bolster then flat file the bulk of pins head, then lightly dremmel and drift if out. That’s what I do.

tks Wiseguy. Will give it a try.

[Bartlow]

I put a new razor blade between the scales and liners and cut the brass pins by tapping the razor blade.

[BestVintageKnives]

I put a new razor blade between the scales and liners and cut the brass pins by tapping the razor blade.

That’s what I said above. It works. I’ve done it myself. I’ve done other repairs as well. Most knife repair work is fairly simple. Like fixing a lawnmower.

[Bartlow]

Yes I agree that cutting the pins works and if you are careful can cause no harm. A second “yes” from me for the technique.

[Bartlow]

I have this rare 7 inch red scaled rizzuto. The zinc rocker is broken. It sure looks like the rocker failure occurred early. Scales are perfect without even scratches. Same for the bolsters. Tried coaxing the knife open by holding the blade in to remove tension and tapping on a surface button side down. Dripped some lube in onto the blade trying to let gravity take it to the sear. Tried compressed air. No joy. Sure want to see the blade and am figuring its in nice condition.

I've taken a busted and rusted rizzy apart before using a dremel. While effective, my technique could easily be described as crude. Any advice on how to remove the pivot pin without buggering up the bolsters? Sure don't want to botch up this knife. I've got a few hammered up rizzutos to practice on.

It sounds like the knife will need a new sear once you successfully get into it. Does anyone make or supply such a thing? I have looked unsuccessfully. It seems like people use parts off of other knives that are in even worse shape than the one under repair. I wish new made sears were available.

[QGofLake]

It sounds like the knife will need a new sear once you successfully get into it. Does anyone make or supply such a thing? I have looked unsuccessfully. It seems like people use parts off of other knives that are in even worse shape than the one under repair. I wish new made sears were available.

It needs a whole new rocker. It seems to be broken in half on the side of the pivot towards the font of the knife which holds it in place. I am not aware of any suppliers of such things. I will be looking for a parts knife. I am with you 100% and wish new rockers were made. A rizzuto warranty repair department would be great! It would also be busy

I read that zinc is diamagnetic. While a long shot, might be able to push the sear with a strong enough magnet. If it works, will post it here.

[Bill DeShivs]

You are going to have to remove the rear bolster pin, the backspring pin, and probably the blade pivot if you want to get it apart without breaking the handles or kinking the liners. Remove the backspring pin first to relieve spring pressure on the blade.
Then you have to remove the front scale pins-without breaking the handle.
Then, you can get to the sear.

[BestVintageKnives]

It sounds like the knife will need a new sear once you successfully get into it. Does anyone make or supply such a thing? I have looked unsuccessfully. It seems like people use parts off of other knives that are in even worse shape than the one under repair. I wish new made sears were available.

It needs a whole new rocker. It seems to be broken in half on the side of the pivot towards the font of the knife which holds it in place. I am not aware of any suppliers of such things. I will be looking for a parts knife. I am with you 100% and wish new rockers were made. A rizzuto warranty repair department would be great! It would also be busy

I read that zinc is diamagnetic. While a long shot, might be able to push the sear with a strong enough magnet. If it works, will post it here.

Let us know how it goes. I’m sure you’ll be successful at fixing it. I bought a Rizzuto from a kid in high school and it peeked. I took it apart and tried to fix it and had medium success. Anyone who took shop class and a has a garage full of tools can work on knives with zero training or skill.

[mikeynj]

I repaired one of my Rizzutos zinc rockers, and made it out of the 1084 I use for blade stock. I remember finding drilling the pivot hole is a good first step, then you trace and grind/file the shape after(it's easier to clamp and drill larger mass). Getting the pin end that locks into the blade hole round and center is also a challenge, have access to jeweler's files, or near that size. You will probably have to fit the rocker into place and check tolerances a whole bunch before you're done, and I would stress from experience that it is a hassle, but you're better off taking your time fine tuning the pin end a few file strokes at a time as opposed to over doing it and scrapping your work to start anew. This is why repairing the R.E.M knives is so tough, because they quite frankly are too delicate to be manhandled in this fashion. But replacing a zinc rocker with another zinc rocker is just setting up a future repair job. Maybe if the part was right at hand and the knife was going into a permanent display and never handled. Finish with fine sandpaper before you harden and temper. Harden with a little propane torch and whatever to quench, it's too small to worry about proper quenchant. Loop some steel wire through the pivot hole or just wrap around it, get it reddish and dunk it, don't cook it for too long. Then it ought to get tempered down a little, or it's toughness will tear up that soft blade steel. Tempering should be done by placing the rocker on a marginally larger piece of steel and heat that larger steel, watching for the color change of the rocker. Pull when it starts to go blue and let cool(or have an image of the rocker burnt into your fingertips like I did!) If the color goes purplish it should be o.k. but if it goes silvery grey you've overdone it and it's annealed and too soft, you'll have to harden again and temper. This can only be done a couple three times before you burn the carbon out of that little piece of steel, and the color comes fast, so be ready! At the end comes soldering the brass cap from the zinc rocker to your newly made steel one. As before, watch your heat or you un-temper your rocker and it'll probably bend under use and you get to do this all over again! I accepted at attempt # three that the brass cap was re-soldered level enough for my tastes, which means I stopped trying when it was only a little crooked.
As for dis-assembly, I flattened the pin ends with a file(masking tape on bolsters, and the scales were shot so I didn't care) and put the knife in a drill vise and used my little Ryobi tabletop drill press to take out the rest of the peen, then punched the pinstock. Those scales are quite fine so I defer to better hands than me on removing the backspring pin. The razor between liners is old school acceptable but again, the Rizzuto is a bit delicate all around, so go slow! The knife has kept this long, a little longer won't hurt. Please post photos if the job gets done, would love to see it! MB

[BestVintageKnives]

I repaired one of my Rizzutos zinc rockers, and made it out of the 1084 I use for blade stock. I remember finding drilling the pivot hole is a good first step, then you trace and grind/file the shape after(it's easier to clamp and drill larger mass). Getting the pin end that locks into the blade hole round and center is also a challenge, have access to jeweler's files, or near that size. You will probably have to fit the rocker into place and check tolerances a whole bunch before you're done, and I would stress from experience that it is a hassle, but you're better off taking your time fine tuning the pin end a few file strokes at a time as opposed to over doing it and scrapping your work to start anew. This is why repairing the R.E.M knives is so tough, because they quite frankly are too delicate to be manhandled in this fashion. But replacing a zinc rocker with another zinc rocker is just setting up a future repair job. Maybe if the part was right at hand and the knife was going into a permanent display and never handled. Finish with fine sandpaper before you harden and temper. Harden with a little propane torch and whatever to quench, it's too small to worry about proper quenchant. Loop some steel wire through the pivot hole or just wrap around it, get it reddish and dunk it, don't cook it for too long. Then it ought to get tempered down a little, or it's toughness will tear up that soft blade steel. Tempering should be done by placing the rocker on a marginally larger piece of steel and heat that larger steel, watching for the color change of the rocker. Pull when it starts to go blue and let cool(or have an image of the rocker burnt into your fingertips like I did!) If the color goes purplish it should be o.k. but if it goes silvery grey you've overdone it and it's annealed and too soft, you'll have to harden again and temper. This can only be done a couple three times before you burn the carbon out of that little piece of steel, and the color comes fast, so be ready! At the end comes soldering the brass cap from the zinc rocker to your newly made steel one. As before, watch your heat or you un-temper your rocker and it'll probably bend under use and you get to do this all over again! I accepted at attempt # three that the brass cap was re-soldered level enough for my tastes, which means I stopped trying when it was only a little crooked.
As for dis-assembly, I flattened the pin ends with a file(masking tape on bolsters, and the scales were shot so I didn't care) and put the knife in a drill vise and used my little Ryobi tabletop drill press to take out the rest of the peen, then punched the pinstock. Those scales are quite fine so I defer to better hands than me on removing the backspring pin. The razor between liners is old school acceptable but again, the Rizzuto is a bit delicate all around, so go slow! The knife has kept this long, a little longer won't hurt. Please post photos if the job gets done, would love to see it! MB

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Too bad they didn’t make them a little better quality.

The early post WW2 Japanese knife makers in Seki made an incredible amount of autos. Hundreds of patterns with patents for some of their designs. But here in the USA we only see a few different patterns.

The original Japanese “Milano” swing guards closely resembled the Italian models. Just unfortunate the Rizzutos were not made with steel rockers.

[Folgore1]

you will have to remove the bottom bolster pin and the backspring pin then you can swing liners around to get to the handle pins . i use dremel for all dis-assemblies and works great with correct diamond grinding stone head i ver rarely touch the bolsters or handles when grinding pin heads away but after you grind heads off use a automatic punch to push pins out , you have to be super careful working on Rizzutos as they are very cheaply made and you can destroy it very fast so make sure to secure all pieces on wood or metal backing also make your own rocker its not too hard , take old one trace it out on some new metal and use files to file it to size and shape you need , use a sharpie black marker to trace out old one then file new one until it fits and functions good . if you use the correct files you will be surprised how fast you can shape metal pieces.
you do want to drill hole first in the metal for rocker and work around that . very few repair guys work on Rizzuto's but i guess Liam Clark works on them and modifies them along the way as most parts just dont hold up to being dis-assembled then re-assembled so lots parts are replaced along the way with better ones .

[Folgore1]

also when dis-assembling with a dremel if you do hit the bolster you can always just resand the bolster and it will look like new again , if grind marks are deep start with a 320 or 400 then move up 600 then 800 then 1000 and they will look awesome but now you will have to do all 4 bolsters to match each other or you will have one looking lil different then the others

[Bill DeShivs]

With a broken and stuck sear in the closed position, you can't "swing the liners around" without bending them.

[Folgore1]

With a broken and stuck sear in the closed position, you can't "swing the liners around" without bending them.

you should be able to once the backspring and bottom bolster pins are removed , why wouldnt it swing around after them pins were removed ?

[BestVintageKnives]

With a broken and stuck sear in the closed position, you can't "swing the liners around" without bending them.

you should be able to once the backspring and bottom bolster pins are removed , why wouldnt it swing around after them pins were removed ?

I agree. If both pins are out you can swing the back one around and I’m sure by this point the knife will open
up and come apart

[Folgore1]

when you swing it around you will have access to the handle pins once the handle pins are removed the top handle will come off and you can then take out the broken rocker and blade will then be freed up to move where you need it to for repair.

[Folgore1]

after thinking about it once you get it apart swing it around you will probably only have access to 2 of the 3 handle pins remove the 2 you can see and then you may be able to see what is holding the blade shut worse case you will have to do what Bill said and remove the top bolster/pivot pin to get blade off so you have full access to handle pins. the worst part of fixing a Rizzuto is really -re-assembly, parts can be easily made. if you are not super careful you will crack handles and its very very easy to do . a friend of mine Jeremy Kreis (JTK) worked on them alot and used to give me tips on how to fix them and stuff he learned along the way on fixing tons of them but man he sent me pic one time of a pile of broken handles all from Rizzutos he was fixing most Rizzutos he fixed got new solid black blackhorn handles or whatever material the customer wanted but he would tell you up front i dont think i can save the original handles as they get brittle and are very hard to not crack them upon re-assembly .