84mm Golfer with stag scales build process

[Max Stone]

It's been a while since I did any modding, and when some old stag horn was about to be thrown out, I thought I could repurpose them for some scales and give me an excuse for a build. The stag horn was a little small (was from a trophy shot by my grandfather around the 1930's in Austria), so I was worried about getting a couple of scales out of them. You need an area that's not curved and has enough diameter.

I found a 10cm length about midway that had a bit of suitable straightness so used a hacksaw to cut the piece. Pure bone, so the smell is a little unpleasant when cutting. I used a dust mask for all the cutting and sanding work on the stag horn.

Here you can see the section I cut. You'd think the wider area higher up would be better, but the horns curve back along this area so no good.
 

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You need to avoid the pithy center of the horn. In the cross section you can see that there's quite a bit of pith, but the hard outer area should be enough to avoid most of it once cut to size.
 

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Will be a tight fit, but I should get 2 scales out of this.
 

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[Max Stone]

Next to cut in length. Here you need to pick the best opposite surfaces that will yield suitable scales. Once I'd made this selection, I drew a mark around the piece.
 

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Using a Japanese pull saw, I made the cut. Definitely better than a hacksaw as the teeth are sharper and the deeper blade keeps the cut straight. I just switched ends in the vise to complete the full cut. As the scales will need more of the horn removed, the cut did not need to be perfect.
 

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Here's the pair with the 84mm scale that I'll be using as the template to shape further.
 

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[PitCarver]

That should be a great project, especially using stag that you're grand father took.

Following.

[Max Stone]

Next to thin down each blank. My trusty sander with a course belt make quick work of this. Lots of bone dust...
 

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I was aiming to remove as much of the pith as possible and get the scale a thin as practical, while keeping enough width to still cut out a scale.
 

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Here's the first one done. Still a bit of pith, but the ends are OK, as these will be exposed at each end of the scale once finished.
 

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Once down to the right thickness on the sander, I sanded each scale flat with sandpaper of a piece of polished granite to get suitable flatness to the scale.
 

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[Max Stone]

With the scales thinned and sanded flat, I traced out the shape using an existing scale, and back to the belt sander and more dust.
 

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And once sanded to shape. Easy to compare to the original and get the shape perfect. As the scales are thicker than the cellidor scales, it's not practical to fit scale tools...they'd be difficult to extract and the cut outs would look odd on the stag.
 

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Quite a bit thicker than cellidor, but the ends will still get a further sanding, and it's not a bad thing to have some thickness to support the rivets and reduce the risk of cracking.
 

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[Max Stone]

Showing the progress compared to the cellidor template.
 

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And done! Well, almost...still need to cut out the corkscrew recess...back to the belt sander.
 

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[Max Stone]

So now the SAK components. I like scissors so I decided to have a go at a Golfer tool set. So I needed a Compact and a Climber as donors.
 

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The Compact will give me the 84mm backspring, large blade, combo tool and outer liners. The Climber donates the scissors and backspring.
 

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Importantly, I used an older Climber without hook, so I could mod the backspring to fit the 84mm frame. As bonus, I get a grooved CS and I had a crossbow tang blade from an older 84mm tear down.
 

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The last item is the 84mm middle liner. I had one of these spare from a previous tear-down.
 

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[Max Stone]

I use a Dremel to drill out the rivets. As the 84mm rivets are 2.2mm, I use a 2.2mm drill and drill down inside the bushing to the level of the scale. The outer rivets on the 91mm Climber at 2.5mm, so I use a 2.5mm drill for these ones. If you are careful, you can save the bushing. Depending on how the drilling goes, the bushing will either pop off by itself and spin up your drill bit, or you may need to drive down the pin through the layers to release it.
 

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Using the Dremel with a small grinding wheel, I grind off the head of the 4th rivet that does not have a bushing, and tap out the pin.
 

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The 91mm scissors and backspring liberated, ready for some modifications to make them fit the 84mm frame.
 

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[Max Stone]

So the 91mm scissor are obviously too long to fit an 84mm SAK frame. So the most effective option is to move the pivot point and shorten the scissors behind the pivot. Moving the pivot point requires a new hole...

Some advice for new modders...never, ever, underestimate how difficult it is to drill through Victorinox stainless steel. It's hard. Don't bother with HSS. Only carbine bits work. Or diamond grinding. With the carbine bits, you can drill an oversized hole, fill this with brass, and then drill to size with HSS. I don't have carbine drill bits, so I used a small spherical diamond grinding bit on my Dremel to get a small hole established (working from each side), and then a small cylindrical diamond grinding bit to open the hole to 2.2mm (just test fitted with 2.2mm brass rod).

It's important to position the new hole accurately so that the new curved end that you will make does not intersect the original hole. Here's the new hole. Still to do is the new curved end (I traced using an 84mm small blade as template), and to cut in further the locking notch.
 

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The end of the backspring that forms the scissor rest also needs a new pivot hole, but thankfully this just needs to be reduced in size. So I ground the hole larger and hammered in a copper ferrule that I then ground off and drilled to 2.2mm. This is not a moving pivot, so copper is fine to use.
 

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There's lots of test fitting, adjusting, refitting, adjusting. Here's a test fitting with the new curved end of the scissors done, but not the new locking notch. You can see I've marked where I need to cut the backspring, and where I need to reshape the scissor rest. Taping the scissors closed with a bit of duct tape is essential.
 

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If you use a very thin cutting disk on a Dremel, you can use just one 91mm backspring to create the new 84mm backspring. Here it's fitted but still to trim and flatten the interface edge where it touches.
 

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[Max Stone]

The new backspring needs more work, as the 91mm one is not just longer, it's also slightly wider (deeper), so it will stick out beyond the end of the scale if it's not trimmed.

It's best to mark the excess part that needs trimming with the backspring in place and under tension, so you need to fit the scissors between temporary scales. I use my belt sander for most of the reshaping, 1000 grit sand paper to remove the scoring and then a polishing wheel on my Dremel to bring the new surface to factory finish. Here you can just see the marked edge than needs trimming.
 

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Some more testing fitting to ensure the backsping follows the liner nicely. This is also the time when I trimmed a little off the end of the handle on the scissors, otherwise it prevents the scissors from closing against the inside of the backspring.

At last, the 91mm scissors layer is modified and working for 84mm.
 

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As the main blade is the older crossbow tang style, which is thicker (2.4mm) than the newer blade tangs, I had to hammer flat this raised aluminum bushing on the liner, as I did not have the original liner than came with the older blade.
 

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The exploded view.
 

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[Max Stone]

Having exposed rivets just on the end pivots introduces some complexities to the build. I first assembled the SAK peening the 2 inner rivets.
 

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It's important to get the right tightness on these peens, so there's no side wobble on the CS. But not too tight that it binds.
 

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Here are the stag scales ready to mount, with blind holes for the inner rivets and drilled for the outer ones.
 

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Once the inner rivets are peened, you need to remove the outer pins by using the follow-pin method, with the following pin positioned through the first scale, tapped through to push out the temporary pin.

I counter-sink the top of the temporary pin, and grind a tip on the new pin than will take it's place. This allows you to drive through the new pin without the entire SAK popping apart.
 

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[Max Stone]

Here's the first new pin driven through, with the scale now in place.
 

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Once the first scale is on, you can push on the second scale.
 

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The excess length can be trimmed off and peened. This is the last time to check everything is correct and working. There's no easy return from here...
 

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And done!
 

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[Max Stone]

Some final pics.

[Max Stone]

It was a fun build.

[Max Stone]

That should be a great project, especially using stag that you're grand father took.

Following.

Thanks PitCarver. All the pic's and build process now posted. 

[proletenstahl]

Very nice!

[Max Stone]

Thank you proletenstahl 

[Jud65]

Beautiful job Max.

[Max Stone]

Thanks Jud65 

[SteveC]

Looks awesome, great job !   

[Max Stone]

Thank you Steve 

[Vidar]

Interesting process. Very nice! 

[pietervn]

PRAGTIG!!!

That is one beautiful SAK. The bone scales are very nice. Do they need to be oiled / treated from time to time?

Cheers, Pete

[Max Stone]

PRAGTIG!!!

That is one beautiful SAK. The bone scales are very nice. Do they need to be oiled / treated from time to time?

Cheers, Pete

Hi Pete, thank you! The bone should be quite stable so I’ve not treated them. BTW, your brass went into the end pins… 

[Max Stone]

Interesting process. Very nice! 

Than you Vidar 

[PitCarver]

Thanks PitCarver. All the pic's and build process now posted. 

Very nice job on the build, Max.  I wish I had the know how to do a MiniChamp like this.

Perhaps one day.

[pfrsantos]

Incredible work, well done!

 

Hope you took precautions when sawing/sanding the antler. The dust is quite harmful.

An idea for future mods: put the awlready peened side of the rods in the scale with the cutout. Like this, you'll be peening on the side with more material, thus more resistance to any strike that might hit it.

[Max Stone]

Very nice job on the build, Max.  I wish I had the know how to do a MiniChamp like this.

Perhaps one day.

Thanks PitCarver - I'm still to venture into 58mm territory... 

[Aloha]

Terrific work.  Does it feel "very" heavy now? 

[Max Stone]

Incredible work, well done!

 

Hope you took precautions when sawing/sanding the antler. The dust is quite harmful.

An idea for future mods: put the awlready peened side of the rods in the scale with the cutout. Like this, you'll be peening on the side with more material, thus more resistance to any strike that might hit it.

Thanks pfrsantos    Yes, full respirator. Nasty dust.

Thanks for the tip on peening. I use a 350g ball-peen hammer which has quite a wide curve on the ball, so less risk of wacking the surrounding scale.