Tightening joint on antique folding scissors

[Steve]

SWMBO has a pair of antique folding scissors. The main joint between the two halves is held with a screw and therefore is easy to adjust.

But each half has a hinge-joint in the middle, to allow the folding action; these joints are not easily adjustable (no screw head). Each hinge-joint is very simple, one piece of metal is sandwiched between 'prongs' in another piece. There is a rather blurry photo to show this:

sort of rivet (or screw?) passes through to hold it together.

On one face, the end of the rivet (or screw?) is visible, but filed/polished flat with the surrounding metal; on the opposite face there is nothing - just continuous plain metal with no evidence of the rivet (or screw) end.

The hinge-joints need to be quite tight to allow the scissors to be used easily, but one joint is very loose.

Is anyone familiar with this construction - can you suggest the best way to tighten the hinge-joint without damage?

Cheers

[Spamlet]

Some sort of rivet (or screw?) passes through to hold it together.

My modern version - out of a christmas cracker: the most useful thing I've ever got from one - has simple rivets in all three joints. Mostly they tend to be on the stiff side as they often get damp in my pocket. Tightening is simple: just find a small hammer with a ball end. Hold the rivet joint firmly on a decent heavy piece of metal - like the end of a bigger hammer, and give the rivet a smart tap. It doesn't take much. If you are careful you will be able to tighten without spoiling the polish very much.

If the rivet heads have completely gone through polishing and erosion you could punch them out with a fine punch, and make some new ones from say, stainless wire such as can be got from coat hangers.

You are probably safer with old scissors, as some cheap modern ones are cast iron and break at the drop of a hat.

S

[Spamlet]

> Some sort of rivet (or screw?) passes through to hold it together.

PS: I've just shut mine, for the first time in ages, and noticed an unexpected springiness, that tells me there is also a spring strip in the handles, like they have in a penknife to hold it closed. If yours has these too, it may be that one of them has come adrift and no longer presses on the base of the scissor blade pushing against the rivet. In mine the spring appears to be held in place just by being squeezed, in the fold of metal that makes up each handle. If yours is similar and the spring has not been lost, you may find that squeezing the fold of the handle a little holds it in place. (For the record, mine are 'spear brand' and made in China of course.)

S

[Steve]

>> Some sort of rivet (or screw?) passes through to hold it together.

Thanks for taking the time to reply S. Attacking it (gently) with a hammer may be worth a try. Using a fine punch where the rivet head should may be also an option, as there's no rivot head whatsoever.. It's not a 'spring' system by the way.

Cheers

Steve

[Spamlet]

>>> Some sort of rivet (or screw?) passes through to hold it together.

Done tidily, a rivet hole would be countersunk at each side, so that when the head flared out with hammering it could then be polished down level with the metal surface it was holding. With practice the polishing can virtually hide the rivet. but you could show it up by etching with a drop of acid if you wanted to. The fact that you can't see the join rather indicates that it has not come very loose, and a gentle tap with the ball of a hammer will probably do the job.

Using a punch presents the additional difficulty of holding things in the right place. To tighten you need a bigger (flat ended) punch than the rivet hole, and good solid flat metal surface 'anvil' behind. To punch right out you need a punch only a little smaller than the rivet hole, and you need to punch it into a slightly larger hole than the rivet head on the anvil side. That can be fiddly: if you look at a push bike chain pin pusher you will see the easier way, and it is possible to rig up similar mini jigs you can use with a vice to push pins out. All depends how patient you are.

Most likely a tap with the hammer will be enough though.

S

[Steve]

>>>> Some sort of rivet (or screw?) passes through to hold it together.

Thanks for all that useful info' S. I think you're right - the rivet holes must be countersunk and the rivet heads are polished down level. Yes - sounds like the hammer is the best option.

Cheers Steve

[Spamlet]

>>>>> Some sort of rivet (or screw?) passes through to hold it together.

[Matty F]

Don't hit it too hard, as it's difficult to fixonce it's too tight.

I can't tell if you have used the Macro option on your Nikon E2100. If you don't know about it, before taking the picture, press the Down arrow on the big circular control on the back of the camera. It has a little tulip underneath it. That allows focussing as close as 4 cm. Don't use the zoom. Be sure to press the tulip button again to clear it for normal shots!