Originally Posted by
IanW
And Matt had the same thought as I did re crimping the back with the plate in place. Because of springback, you need to over-crimp a little, which is a lot harder if you are crimping against a sliver of spring steel. It might work well if you have some thinner plate than the blade the back is intended for. It's not too fraught if you take it easy & test frequently, you'll quickly get the hang of how much of a squeeze it needs to get the desired effect. I concentrate on getting several inches at the front & back of the spine to the right tightness, the middle section isn't as important, imo. When adding the spine at final assembly, start at the handle end and tap the corner on, then tap it down bit by bit. The plate should feed in nicely as you go. If you try to tap it on all at once, it's far too difficult to keep the entire blade & slot aligned with just two hands!
If by chance you over-crimp severely, you could always run it along your slitting saw again, & start over. Been there, done that early-on..
:)