SAK - Dumb beginner question - are the bushings required for custom scales?

[TomThumb]

Hello everyone! My first post. I'm a hobby knifemaker trying a SAK mod for the first time. 91mm.

My dumb question: I'm going to make custom scales from G10 and wood and glue them to the outer liners. Are the bushings necessary for the operation of the knife, or are they just to grip the factory cellidor scales?

i.e if I screw up the drilling part and ruin the bushings... am I still ok, or have I busted the knife?

I think the 93mm don't have bushings so I guess they're not essential, but wanted to check before I fire up the drill...

Thanks all. Looking forward to posting my amateurish first attempt soon

[Enginears]

I think technically having a wider surface area between the peen and the liner does change how the forces are distributed, But I have built mods using no bushings and it was perfectly fine. An additional issue I ran into is keeping the scale 100% in place during gluing is harder without the bushings.

[TomThumb]

Thank you, that makes sense. Yeah I've run into problems with epoxied surfaces moving under clamping pressure before. I'll try to minimise it by only gluing one side at a time. And watching like a hawk for the first 20 mins! Maybe also keeping the scales larger than required until they're on, and then sanding to fit afterwards.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it