A tale of two stockmen: 1970s Boker USA

[Enginears]

The saga began when I received a Boker stockman that had great blades left and a broken main blade spring. 

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I spoke to Boker and got the inlay replacement on the way. I tried a few stockman springs I had available but nothing was quite long enough, even if I thought the hole would line up okay. After some hunting I was excited to find a blown out 1970s Boker Lewis and Clark stockman. 

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Much to my dismay, it arrived with the same spring broken. So back at square one, but now I had two broken blade springs, and two identical double sided springs. I had the idea and it took a week or two to find the effort, but a combination spring was in order. Last night I did the rough work and got it within spitting distance. 

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Ground the far end off of one of the broken blade springs so it could act as a spacer for the other double ended spring.  So here it is as it sits. A load fiddling and fine tuning and I believe I will have a very nice 1970s Boker stockman to unleash back into the world as a useful tool. 

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[SteveC]

Ambitious repair ! 

[Enginears]

So heres how the fiddling looked. I pinned the spacer and double sided spring to the broken one and filed until it was essentially the same outer profile. Despite appearing identical in length and shape when I did a test assembly the blade was cocked forward. Another notable item was the fact that thing were not just sliding together, the bone on the outer liner has kind of bowed and it created a lot of stress. 

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[Enginears]

I made some tweaks to the spring tip, and nearly flew too close to the sun. 

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The tiny bit I took off still has the blade sitting a tad more laid back than it should. It bugs me hahah. Live and learn.
 

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  The inlay did not actually fit 100%, so it took a little wallering out of the hole but in it went with epoxy.

The good things on this project are: pull and snap on the big blade is excellent, maybe perfect. When I was peening I kept the blades open and a spacer in the center to keep everything lined up better, and I think that improved the spacing and blade rub that was happening prior to disassembly.

The bad is obviously the blade sitting up like that, and there is a bit of a gap going on in the back with the hacked spring. On the end pins there is only one that is perfect, and 3 that have a tiny void where the peen didn’t fully fill out the spot. Both things are not perfect but don’t really effect the functionality and durability of the knife. Heres a shot of the gap. 

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Now I will carry for a week or so to make sure nothing blows up. Never tried a large stockman. 

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My next exciting project is taking a destroyed Case mini trapper and turning it into two single blade knives.

[AzteCypher]

How are you getting in there to peen the pins without hitting the scales?

[nate j]

Now I will carry for a week or so to make sure nothing blows up. Never tried a large stockman.

Nice work!

Some find them too big, but the large stockman is a great pattern, especially if you’re looking for one knife that can pretty much do it all but is still reasonably pocketable.

The large blade is long enough for most food duties, short of carving a turkey or cutting up a watermelon.

And of course you have the two smaller blades for packages, whittling, or whatever else you need.

And with a typical closed length of around 4 1/4 inches, most folks have no problem getting all four fingers on the handle if needed.

[IMR4198]

That Boker is a good looker.  That must have been a tricky patch up with the spring.  Congrats.  Best wishes.  G
 

[SteveC]

Excellent job !   

[PitCarver]

Awesome job.  I'm a big fan of large Stockman knives.

[Enginears]

How are you getting in there to peen the pins without hitting the scales?

I have a system where I have a larger dull punch that can get into recessed holes, but on this one I ended up just using the hammer. It is okay, no sharp edge or protruding parts, but I think next time I will attempt to make a smaller head further recessed.

Nice work!

Some find them too big, but the large stockman is a great pattern, especially if you’re looking for one knife that can pretty much do it all but is still reasonably pocketable.

The large blade is long enough for most food duties, short of carving a turkey or cutting up a watermelon.

And of course you have the two smaller blades for packages, whittling, or whatever else you need.

And with a typical closed length of around 4 1/4 inches, most folks have no problem getting all four fingers on the handle if needed.

So far its a great thing to have in the pocket. Thanks for the kind words G,  Steve, and Pitcarver. I am glad to have it back in working order. 

[AzteCypher]

 

[LoopCutter]

Impressed!

Very nice work and  great explanation. 

They make “cupped” punches for this delicate work, (gun smiths).  May allow for effective pinning with lower risks.

[Enginears]

Impressed!

Very nice work and  great explanation. 

They make “cupped” punches for this delicate work, (gun smiths).  May allow for effective pinning with lower risks.

Oh yeah! I forgot about those, I will look into acquiring some for better shaping.

[IMR4198]

    Some cup punches from Brownell's might make the job safer, but I want to say it looks like you did a perfect job with what you had already.  I started to say I didn't have a stockman anymore, but I remembered I do have an ancient Camillus medium stock knife.  Best wishes.  G
 

[David]