Sacrilege? Homemade bail for my Elinox Pioneer.

[Myron]

I have this dandy Elinox Pioneer, but I never carried it because it had neither bail nor keyring.  I like to carry my alox SAKs on a light lanyard so they won't slip out of my pocket and get lost, and also so they stay upright in my pocket which I find more comfortable.  After studying the way Victorinox put bails on these older Pioneers, I decided to add one myself in the same way so the knife could get some use. 




The first thing was to go out in my chilly garage workshop and put shallow, precise holes in the brass rivets.  Having committed to what already seemed a little sacrilegious, I decided there was no further harm in putting the bail on the main blade's pivot, thus avoiding future potential "bail bite." 




Cold in the garage today: 




Next I cut a piece of stainless steel bike wheel spoke 55 mm long.  I put the piece of spoke in the drill press and rounded/smoothed the cut ends.  They started out like this:



And after smoothing,



ended up like this:




Then I carefully bent the 90 degree ends.  I learned through trial and error that these needed to be bent actually just a little bit more than 90 degrees.  Eventually, the piece looked like this:




I then started the main curvature by bending the spoke around a solid steel 1/2" punch.  After getting the curve started, I put it in my vise and squished it past the point that it would ultimately end up. 




When released from the vise, it looked like this:




Now came the tricky part.  Without unbending the bail too much it has to be fitted onto the knife and still have enough spring tension from the curvature to grip the little holes in the brass pivots.  Alas, after several attempts I felt it was still too loose, so I had the idea to heat it up and re-squish it in the vise while it was still hot.  Just a couple seconds in the torch did it. 




And the final result is perfect! 




Now I can carry the knife on a light leash and actually get some use and happiness out of it.  Plus, because the bail is in the main blade's pivot I won't ever accidentally close the knife on the bail. 

[Fuzzbucket]

Wow... Outstanding!!! 

[Aloha]

Nice project.  I also like the leash 

[Fuzzbucket]

Nice project.  I also like the leash 

   it's all very classy. 

[zrxoa1]

Well done!!!  I once made a few out of coat hanger, just to see how hard it would be.




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[kottskrapa]

Nice work! And good that you are using it, that's what it's made for

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[RF52]

Nicely done!

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[Borg]

  good job 

[Don Pablo]

I love it! 
I want one on my bail-less soldier. 

[Myron]

Thanks you guys!  I was really torn between leaving it intact and making it more useful/carry-able.  It was a fun project and didn't take all that long.   Also, bike spokes are cheap -- 2 bucks at my local shop.   

[Myron]

Well done!!!  I once made a few out of coat hanger, just to see how hard it would be.

Looks great zrxoa1!

[microbe]

Nice job! Inspired me to cut op a coat hanger tomorrow and make one for my old soldier

[zrxoa1]

I had made a rounder one, but I broke it.

Haha

The silver one is the oem bail from my Wenger SI...






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[Myron]

Rase your hand for a homemade SAK bail sub-forum!

[zrxoa1]

‍


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[Sparky415]

Very nice work Myron 

[Poncho65]

Awesome way to make the knife more usable for you very nice looking

[Myron]

Thanks guys!

[SteveC]

Nice job Myron, I made one for my 108mm solo out of a spoke as well.   




https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,63965.msg1206898.html#msg1206898

[zrxoa1]

Myron,

What size drill bit did you use and how deep did you drill?

I would like to try the same on my Pioneer X. I removed the key ring nub but would like to try the bail trick.

Thanks!!!!




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[Myron]

Nice job Myron, I made one for my 108mm solo out of a spoke as well.   

Steve,

Yes, actually I think I got the idea from your thread originally.  Should've given you credit! 

Myron,

What size drill bit did you use and how deep did you drill?

I would like to try the same on my Pioneer X. I removed the key ring nub but would like to try the bail trick.

Thanks!!!!

The bike spoke I used is 0.063 inches in diameter.  I'm sure a cycling enthusiast could tell us what gauge this corresponds to, but i'm pretty sure I remember  the guy in the bike shop saying it was the skinniest they had. 

I first used a 1/16" drill bit and the spokes fit perfectly in the holes.  If you do the long division, 1/16 comes out to 0.0625", explaining why the spoke was a perfect fit in this hole.  I was worried that it might lead to wear on the brass pin, although now that I think of it, a tiny drop of SAK oil would probably eliminate that. 

So anyway I drilled them out with the next size up bit, which in my set is 5/64".  This tiny bit of extra room made the trial-and-error fitting process easier, so perhaps I did save some wear on the brass pin after all.  I really wouldn't recommend using anything bigger than this, so if you don't have a 5/64" you should consider a quick trip to your neighborhood hardware to pick one up. 

I didn't have a good way to measure depth, but I used the stop on my drill press to make the holes on both sides of the knife the same depth.  I adjusted twice and made it a bit deeper each time.  My guesstimate would be that the holes are between 2 and 3 mm deep. 

If you look at an original Pioneer from this era that came with a bail from the factory, it looks to me like the holes are only about 1 mm deep.  I wasn't comfortable with this, so I made mine that much deeper, realizing I was taking a risk. 

Hope that helps! 

Edit -- Just thought of something else.  If the pins on the Pioneer X are steel, this job might be considerably harder.  The pins on my old Pioneer are brass, so drilling them was trivial. 

[zrxoa1]

Guess I’ll have to look.  Thought all rivets in SAKs were brass??




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