How 2 rescale blade with tapered thickness shank?

[Johnny J]

I have a full hollow W&B meat chopper that was my first re-scale attempt. The shank of this blade tapers in thickness, so that it is much thinner where the pin goes through than elsewhere. I could not think of any way to make the blade fit in the scales other than shimming it at the pin with nylon washers to compensate for the missing thickness. But this doesn't look good, and is floppier than I would like (i.e. not enough friction against the shank to hold it open). The floppiness is aggravated by the heavy weight of the blade.

Since these were the first scales I ever made, they are much thicker than they should be & don't have much flex. Would it work if I made new scales that are, say 1/10" thick, so that they can bow outward? How do you guys deal with blades like this?

[Philadelph]

Sometimes a tapered spacer will solve this as will a flexible scale material. The bearings at the pivot combined with those other two things should do it I'd say. If not, then it may take some experimentation. Whenever I've had this problem, the tapered spacer ad flexible scales have really done it. You may also need to tighten your pins more since you shouldn't have any floppiness at all. Even with the problem as is you should be able to correct the "floppiness" with bearings and tightening the pins.

[Walt]

Maybe you could add a third pin with a piece of 3/32" brass tubing to act as a spreader and
also as a place for your tang to rest upon. Cut the tubing the same size as the width of the
tang at that location.

[Johnny J]

That's a good idea, Walt. I'll have to make thinner scales tho. The ones I have now won't flex enough.