All About Pocket Knives

When I was on ebay a while back I found a large group of rod for craft and hobby making Item number: 270820114126. I thought this was the standard rod like you get From Jantz, but was surprised when I got it because it was 3 ft long, the auction just said random lengths and I had no idea of what I was getting. After the auction ended the seller asked me if I had any interest in stainless rod because they were trying to clean things out and get rid of it too. I ended up with a large amount of 3/32 and 1/8 rod for very little money. I have been thinking though and took the rod to a friend I have that runs a welding shop and asked him about it. He said it all looked like welding rod to him and showed me some he had just like it. There are many types of stainless steel and they vary by alloy content. The grades with high nickel content are high priced. A common grade of stainless is 304 and that is 18% chrome and 8% nickel. So I have been looking at welding rod and studying all of this. There is a lot of rod with nickel/chrome content, but I don't see nickel/silver rod. So here is my question - finally, I guess. Is the only reason nickel/silver rod is used in pocket knives is because it is softer and more malleable than stainless steel is? Is the right alloy content welding rod the same as knife repair rod? Couldn't stainless steel rod actually be used and could you really tell a major difference? How do you tell the difference between stainless rod and nickel/silver rod without testing? I have a lot of this rod and if you have some smaller diameter you want to trade for some just pm me.

I have a few sizes of stainless steel rod I keep for knife pins.
The huge difference is the hardness, you cannot spin a head on a stainless steel pin.
I find it is even hard to peen them, especially in something brittle like bone.
It has been my experience that stainless tend to swell the length of the pin, before mushrooming, making the handles split more often, if I don’t drill the holes big enough. I don’t like to work with ss pins unless I absolutely have to, like when the knife had them originally.


Nickel silver is sometimes referred to as ‘white brass.’ “The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc.” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_silver

Brass is an alloy of copper & zinc. The nickel is what gives the nickel silver its color. I have some bar stock nickel silver that has a decidedly yellowish cast to it, especially in the unpolished state. I think the percentages of copper can vary depending on the maker.

I have known some guys to use brass brazing rod (used for gas welding) as knife pins, but it seems to me my brass brazing rod is harder than the brass pin stock I use.

I like to use brass and nickel silver on old knives, as they are the historically correct material. The old cutlers were using brass and nickel silver long before the advent of stainless steel. I would think your rods might be a bit harder than nickel silver, with the addition of the chromium, but the only way to know for sure is to try it out. See if you can peen it ok. Softer metals are easier to get a nice mushroom on the end, forming the head.
My only concern with your pins would be using it as handle pins, and most handle pins on old knives are brass anyway.
In the other hand, it will probably work better for pivot pins than regular nickel silver especially if it is a tad bit harder!

Work with your pin stock a bit and see how it performs and let us know what you find.
I am always happy to find alternate sources for parts and materials, especially when it is less expensive!

While the Kabar Folding Hunter is an extremely durable knife, it is one I see for repair quite a bit because of broken hinge pins. The nickel-silver pin wears out faster (okay, most have been in hard use for 20 years or more), so I replace them with stainless. It makes for a long lasting repair and looks great as long as you remember to shim the blade/liner area to avoid over tightening when piening. Piening against NS bolsters isn't bad, but like Dale said, it can get tough when used around bone or other brittle materials. One down-side to stainless for pivot pins is that while doing the final buffing, the NS bolster wears away faster than the stainless leaving a bulge where the pin is.

It seems lots of older knives of German manufacture used SS pins in nickle silver bolsters.
Mark

How old is ‘older’?
Do you recall the source?
I am very curious about this. I have not heard this before.

According to one website, stainless steel was invented in 1914 in Sheffield.

I'll bet what is said on here is true and the n/s rod is softer and easier to pien. I'm going to have to experiment with the rod I did get and see how easy it is to use. I very seldom use 1/8 rod and may very well take what I have and sell it to the guy for welding rod. The 3/32 is about as big as I use. Thanks for all of the info.