I have a victorinox classic sd with black scales and a victorinox rambler with red scales. I'd love to swap the scales. Is it possible to carefully "pop off" the scales and "pop them back on"? Or are the scales damaged at the connection points once you pop them off? What are the chances that simply swapping works? Are there tips to do it the right way? Thanks in advance for the advice from the modders.
As long as both knives are the same size (for example, both the Classic and Rambler are 58mm) you should be able to trade scales. Check Sakwiki if you need further info on sizes, number of layers, etc., of the different models. Worst case is that when reapplying the scales you may have to use just a tiny drop of glue on each of the tops ONLY of the brass pins. If you use too much you may get glue into the pivots and that won't make for fast opening. Good luck!
Thank you for the quick answer. Now I know it is possible without ruining them if I am carefull and somewhat lucky.
Should be pretty easy to do, Tranx! The absolute worst, worst case is if you break one of the scales somehow (admittedly pretty hard to do) you'd have to buy a replacement. But, the good news is everyone sells them, from Victorinox directly (most $$$) to eBay (least $).
So now I have a back-up to the back-up plan (new scales) . I will try it this weekend and keep you guys posted.
Thanks ... I'll definitely not use that for gluing scales in the future. See, we learn from each other!
I can highly recommend Bison Kombi Power for general tinkering and fixing. I will not dissolve/heat up anything, its a 2 component pu glue that is slow setting and incredible strong with great filling properties and doesn't shrink. The packaging is made for higher volume but with one of those cheap chinese scales (2hundreds of a gram precision) you can just mix it by weight and if you do that a set of tubes will last you very very long. Ive been using it for donkey years and the only thing i've been unsuccessful at making stick to it was silicone (no real surprise).
Did anyone ever try to take the scales off in a warm state? Maybe won't need boiling water, but that could hep to take it off intact and when you put it back you'd only need a drop of superglue...