All About Pocket Knives

Anyone ever use the ones from Texas or Jantz? Do they work? I think I read somewhere that you could make them DIY style. Anyone know how?

terdl76 wrote:Anyone ever use the ones from Texas or Jantz? Do they work? I think I read somewhere that you could make them DIY style. Anyone know how?

I made one with a small high tensile bolt. ( cut the head off the bolt so the bolt will fit into a drill )
If you notice the small bolts have a concave at the thread end.( you can drill the end to make it more concave )
Do two hacksaw cuts to the end like a cross this helps to spin the brass.
Than I used a grinder to reduce the end of the bolt to the size you want
You will make a few before you get it right ( works best in a drill press )
Hope this helps.
Grant

If you search this same forum for pin spinner you will find numerous posts on the subject. Orvet seems to have more experience on answering this. My 2 Cents worth is that while some make it sound easy to make these, that is not the case. In his book Adrian Harris says to use a 5/16" set screw for the spinner and then take a Dremel with a cutting disc and cut 6-8 slots at a 20 degree angle to create a cutting surface. I have tried this and have seen some other aborted attempts by others. Everyone will tell you the one from Jantz is junk but it does work. What I have found is that at first I was leaving the pin too long and it just wasn't coming out right. I have started to cut the pin down almost flush with the handle material and have been satisfied with the results. The guy in KY that does knife repair has modified the Jantz spinner and is getting great results. On my next visit down there I am going to take my spinner and let him modify it. He has a mill and is set up to do machine shop work so this kind of thing is old hat to him. Here is a pic of 2 pins that were spun with the Jantz pin spinner.

Here are a some of the threads on pin spinners:

A good thread on spinners:
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... it=spinner

Homemade spinners:
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... rs#p122374

Spinner tips:
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... it=spinner

Pin Spinners
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... n+spinners



If you have any questions post them & I (or someone) will answer as time permits over the holidays.

Y'all have a Merry Christmas!

I made some new ones using drill bit blanks (small steel rods without the drill flutes cut). Ebay has them in any size you can imagine and the steel is very high quality. From there, the tutorials mentioned above should get the job done. Good luck!

Would any of you guys who are good at making these consider making some to sell? I was going to buy the one from Jantz but I really don't understand why their shipping prices are so high. It doesn't seem like something small enough to chuck in a drill should cost around 10 bucks to ship.

A lot of companies do the same thing. Check and see if they give you a choice of the shipper. I find USPS Flat Rate is usually less than UPS.

When I was in business many companies had a minimum order. The fact of the matter is that it often costs a company more than they make to sell a couple of relatively inexpensive items. Just the labor of generating the invoice and doing the inventory control. I guess they figure they can make part of it up on the shipping.

I recently placed a big order with Jantz for a whole set of kitchen knives plus some other stuff.
I know the order was heavy, so I was pleasantly surprised when the shipping was less than I expected.
But they did charge me $5 for a backorder fill fee, or something like that. It seems I just happened to order most items that were out of stock. So all in all I still figured the shipping will cost them far more than I paid for the shipping fee.


I have made a bunch of spinners out of hardened set screws. They have a nice cup on the end, but it costs me $12 worth of Nicholson files for every 2 spinners I make because the screws are so hard, they wear out a good American file! So I have about $7 or $8 of material in each spinner and an hour time. Plus my hands are so sore afterward I can't do anything for a couple days.

I was very blessed to get a set of carbide spinners from the Camillus factory. They work well on brass and nickel silver. BTW, don’t try to spin stainless steel, even with carbide spinners. The ss is too hard; it don’t work and it ruins the spinners.