Thread: Straightening bent pin

Originally Posted by Kyle76

Welcome to my world, Klaus. I hated pinning when I first started replacing scales for that very reason. I was afraid to leave too little pin and not have enough to hold everything together. I have pair of wire cutters that I use to cut pins, and I have learned that I need to cut as close as they will allow and that many light taps are better than one hard tap.

I usually cut the pin with a thin (0.2mm) separating disk [the one on this photo is 0.4mm]. Then - lately - I trim it even further down with a hard rubber wheel. Seems to work.

I just re-pinned my Micarta scales on a Torrey blade. I had a hard time pulling out the old pin. Analyzing the problem, I found that I made an even dumber mistake. Disregarding Bill's advice from his CD (I still can't believe I did it!), I widened the pivot hole of the blade with a cylindrical carbide burr a bit to insert a brass tubing in which the pin would fit exactly. Actually not a bad idea, except for the fact that I did it "free hand". That means, the wider hole that fits the tubing is now not exactly 90 degrees to the blade, which forces the pin to be at the same angle, which forces the scales to be non parallel, ..., you don't want to know where the edge of the blade ends up when closing the razor! Oh well, I removed the tubing, re-pinned, everything works as it is supposed to now.

I also found that Micarta can be polished with Maas and a rotating linen buff, and the hammer doesn't hit too hard so easily if you hold it closer to the head.

Hopefully someone learns from my mistakes! Then they were worth making.

I repinned both of my Goldedges this weekend, and both had bends/kinks in the pivot pin. However, there seem to be multiple factors contributing to the out-of-alignment scales issue. The original pin holes weren't perfectly aligned, one of the razors had a wider scale on one side, and the scales are slightly warped. It actually appears that the bent pivot might have been an effort to counteract some of these other problems.

Both razors are a lot better, but they're not 100 percent. I'm happy, though.

I have come to the conclusion that there was a good bit of variation from razor to razor, even at a well reputed company like Pearlduck.

One thing that I noticed is that Pearlduck used the "bullseye pins" like Dovo instead of pins that are peened on both sides. Made me feel less guilty about using Dovo replacements.

Josh