Swapping a Serrated Blade?

[ToolJoe]

I know I have seen Recruits and Spartans with a main serrated blade. Has anyone swapped on a serrated blade onto a Tinker or Super Tinker?

[AimlessWanderer]

I know I have seen Recruits and Spartans with a main serrated blade. Has anyone swapped on a serrated blade onto a Tinker or Super Tinker?

I plan on putting one on a CT34 along with a pruner blade, and also getting rid of the pliers. The only serrated blade addition I've done so far is on my Mega84 which has two main blades - one serrated and one plain

[jazzbass]

I've seen several people do it before and even seen Victorinox do it on a repair once. If you want to do it on a 91mm model, keep in mind that the serrated blade is still of the pre-2005 design with the thicker 2.4mm tang vs. the newer 2.0mm tang. This applies even to the serrated Spartan run that came out last year (my guess is that they were using up old stock). That means that a straight up blade swap into a Tinker or Super Tinker needs to be done with an older, pre-2005 model. If you want to use a post-2005 Tinker/Super Tinker, you'd need to completely disassemble the knife and change the rear aluminum liner from the divoted style used with the thinner tangs to the flat model used with the thicker one.

An alternative, if you're interested, is to find a McKinley. These were made in the mid 1990s and is a Tinker with a partially serrated blade. They also made Matterhorn and Rainier models, which were Deluxe Tinker and Huntsman models (respectively) with the partially serrated blade.

[ToolJoe]

How can you tell if its a post or pre 2005 Tinker design?

[jazzbass]

How can you tell if its a post or pre 2005 Tinker design?

The 100% guaranteed way is to look at the thickness of the tang of the main blade. Pre 2005 they are 2.4mm thick, post 2005 they are 2.0mm thick. Visually, this means that 2.4mm tangs will have a very defined ridge where the spine of the blade and the tang meet, as the spine at the base of the blade is always 2.0mm thick (so a 0.4mm ridge, for those doing the math at home). With the newer 2.0mm tangs, there is no ridge as now the tang and the spine are the same thickness where they meet. BTW, the ridge is only visible on the BACK of the blade (the side that says "Officier Suisse").

The 95% guaranteed way is to look at the rear tang stamp. If it says "Officier Suisse" AND has the crossbow, then most likely it's 2.4mm thick. But it MUST have the crossbow (aka the umbrella). If it says "Officier Suisse" with no crossbow it's definitely 2.0mm thick. The 5% exception here is that in 2005 they spend about a year making 2.0mm tangs with the old crossbow stamp.

Here's a picture of the rear of a 2.4mm blade. Here you can see the crossbow and the ridge at the top of the tang.

[twiliter]

How can you tell if its a post or pre 2005 Tinker design?

The 100% guaranteed way is to look at the thickness of the tang of the main blade. Pre 2005 they are 2.4mm thick, post 2005 they are 2.0mm thick. Visually, this means that 2.4mm tangs will have a very defined ridge where the spine of the blade and the tang meet, as the spine at the base of the blade is always 2.0mm thick (so a 0.4mm ridge, for those doing the math at home). With the newer 2.0mm tangs, there is no ridge as now the tang and the spine are the same thickness where they meet. BTW, the ridge is only visible on the BACK of the blade (the side that says "Officier Suisse").

The 95% guaranteed way is to look at the rear tang stamp. If it says "Officier Suisse" AND has the crossbow, then most likely it's 2.4mm thick. But it MUST have the crossbow (aka the umbrella). If it says "Officier Suisse" with no crossbow it's definitely 2.0mm thick. The 5% exception here is that in 2005 they spend about a year making 2.0mm tangs with the old crossbow stamp.

Here's a picture of the rear of a 2.4mm blade. Here you can see the crossbow and the ridge at the top of the tang.

(Image removed from quote.)

More good info JB! I actually found a 2.0 tang with the crossbow stamp (my scale swapped Traveller Lite) and didn't realize it was a one year only thing. Also, the bottom knife is a Weekender, and I haven't seen any serrated factory main blades that were not 2.4 tangs. The Weekenders (Serrated Spartans) that I got from CVW which I think are the latest ones (not NOS) are all the thicker tangs. 

So essentially if a mod is done with the serrated main blade, if it's 2.4mm (most likely) then the older flat outer liner should be used with it, as the newer ones have the dimple to make up the difference for the thin tang. 

[twiliter]

Oops, here's the pic. 

[Caranthanus]

  could say so, although Super Tinker has contributed only the pliers to the project


 

 

 

 

 
and btw, the differences between "My Troubleshoter" and Truobleshoter:



SE & PE is somehow mandatory combo if there are two blades