Thread: Pinned my first set of scales today!

Turned out nice and tight and pretty well centered too!

Pictures for feedback- how did I do? Pointers welcome as always






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Looks damn good.!

Nice job. Well done.

Looks good, though hard to tell as the pics are a little blurry. My 1st pinning job was only slightly less scary than cutting my son's umbilical cord.

Is the blade tight and centered, and most importantly, will it stay tight in the open stropping position? I have found that if it has loose spots, to just keep turning it over and tapping as I tighten it up at all points between closed and all the way open-I like a tight blade for honing and stropping! I recently cut a pivot pin just a hair too long and gave up trying to tighten it-just repinned it: live and learn.

One more thing that I learned on here, it might have been from Euclid/Marty or some other mentor. If you filed and smoothed your pin heads and used a polished peening hammer, but they still look a little beat up, try this (if you have a drill press, though I suppose a dremel might work):

Start by rubbing pins vigorously on a damp 3000 sanding pad or similar. This will do a LOT, but you're not done!
Put hole protectors from the office supply store around your pin and collar if you want to protect your scales.
Take an old-school wooden pencil with an eraser, cut it to length, and tighten the wooden part up in your chuck.
Dab your favorite metal polish on the eraser, your pins, etc.. Turn on and spin away using moderate pressure and moving things around until the hammer marks are smoothed out. Those erasers do a good job of buffing IME.

You can try doing this by hand, too, but it would take a lot longer. You can also buff the hammer marks out to a degree if you're careful using a cotton wheel and something like Fabuluster. Clean up with mineral spirits or other solvent and q-tips, rags, etc. Buffing and polishing compounds can be tricky to get out of those gaps!

I want to start and say I didn't polish this pin. Just a handy example!

A piece of aluminium about twice as thick as a beverage can. You can use it for hand sanding or buffers if you think about holding it right.

Congratulations on your first pinning. Read all the tips you will find here and it just becomes easier and easier.

I think for you first pinning job if you did not break anything you did well. If it is functional that is fantastic. Over time you will likely get more practice and get a little faster. Fantastic job.

A good bit better than my first few!
~Richard