Thread: recessing the pins

Has anyone here recessed their pins for a more flushed look? Any ideas or help on whether it would look right or work would be great

That's a good question. I've thought about it, and decided that with real pins it wouldn't be worth the extra work, because you might want to unpin it later and you'd have just made it more difficult.

There are some recent Dovos with flush wedge "pins" that must actually be rivets or bolts.

Mind you, I'm quite amateur and don't know what sort of hardware is out there to work with. Someone more knowledgeable will chime in, I'm sure.

Recessing the pins effectively makes them rivets.
Rivets have been used for centuries to join things, and they are very strong indeed. The rivets themselves certainly would hold the scales with no problem. However, they do put a lot of stress on the materials used. A recessed rivet works by expanding in the hole, and therefore puts pressure outwards in the hole, on the scale material, which may crack, or just crumble under pressure so the joint is not strong. Used in metal parts they are very strong. Used in wood, not as much. Bone/horn/ivory might crack. The washer allows the pressure to work in another direction, and also helps spread the pressure on the scale material.
And then there is the replacement issue in case it does not hold together well, or in case someone needs to restore your razor in 100 years

In short, I'd think twice about using rivets, unless I was working with metal scales.

Some guys use a square end drill bit to flare out the opening of the pin hole - its mainly used with the large adjustable pins but I see no reason why you couldn't do it with peened pins.

Recessed pins would be very hard to tighten, all pivot pins loosen over time..


I have never seen any system of pivot pin that doesn't loosen up over time, perhaps there is one but I haven't seen one YET !!!

The only way to tighten the rivet would be with a punch and hammer...sounds like a bad time waiting to happen to me; you could try using epoxy, glue, or liquid nails to see if it would set, but if you aren't dead on you are in trouble when it sets.

I have played around with micro fasteners and recessed them. I use a taper head and cut the countersink on the screw head side, and then mill out the opposite side for the nut.

This offers the solution of flush fasteners, and they can be tightened in the future...however (as Glen can attest) I have a considerable way to go on my finish work, but a skilled guy could probably pull this off (don's ask me to, please). I am not sure I would consider it for traditional materials, but I have done it with synthetics like G-10 with results I like.

The front:


The back side: