Anatomy of a lockback half-whittler

ken erickson

ken erickson

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
2,676
Let me start by saying this knife is not available.

I was asked to make a scaled down version of the Tony Bose/Case collaboration lockback whittler and thought this might interest folks here in this forum. (mods, if inappropriate please move). If your like me, I had wondered what the extra pins serve. Tony was kind enough to send me the pattern for the 3 7/8 Bose/Case version. I scaled this down to 3 5/8 and instead of two secondary blades , only one and its a small clip blade. Anyways I wanted to show how these cool knives are set up inside. The backspring works the secondary blade in the conventional manner other than being anchored in two spots so it does not pivot. The front of the backspring works the locking bar/rocker pushing up , thus locking the master blade.

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Interesting! Thanks for posting that. Looks like you did an excellent job on the scaled down version. Please post some pics of the knife when it's done.
 
That's too cool. I can't even imagine the difficulty of trying to make everything fit right.
 
Too cool Ken. :cool: Says something about you and your abilities that you are tackling this pattern this early in your career. Thanks for the photos and I look forward to seeing more.
 
Ken - that is amazing!

Got any more work-in-progress photos?

Getting all those parts to work properly together must be like juggling cats!
 
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I went through 3 backsprings before getting it right on this!:eek: I was wondering why the last thing Tony said to me on the phone was "have fun with this one". Now I know.

I also wanted to thank Kent(2shot) for being kind enough to send me a Tony Bose/Case Lockback whittler for me to study.:thumbup:
 
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Lookin' good, Ken! :thumbup::cool:
 
That's going to be a really cool and useful knife for someone -- it's a perfect size - I love two bladed penknives, and this really kicks it up a notch. Actually, I'm a bit surprised you only went thru 3 backsprings on this one to get it right. Now you also know why lockback whittlers were rare and made by very few manufacturers - even in the old days. Thanks for showing us the innards - quite educational - and you can now also add frontlock knives in general to your pattern list.

Next step, you need to make a double lock/single backspring 2 blade pen - like PJ Tomes does with his Model 2-F - http://www.tomesknives.com/Stag Double Lock.htm - basically a variant of the Remington R4353 Bullet Muskrat (considering how hard this sort of thing is to do, I can guess how the model name came about - surprised he didn't call it the model 2-CF -- along with the standard 4" closed model, he makes a 3" closed model - yikes).
 
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zerogee said:
That's going to be a really cool and useful knife for someone -- it's a perfect size -

Next step, you need to make a double lock/single backspring 2 blade pen - like PJ Tomes does with his Model 2-F
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I think my customer nailed the size request on this one. :thumbup:

I may try a double lock/single backspring when the nice gentlemen in the white coats tell me I can play with sharp things again! JK. Building this knife has been a worthwhile learning experience for me.
 
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Ken, of all the many things I am thankful for this past year, I am grateful that I was lucky enough to have acquired one of your ebony trappers on the knifemaker forum here about this time last November.

It's always a pleasure to see your posts, and you've obviously "been having fun" with that one. What a beauty!

:DGobble Gobble:D
 
Ken

This looks so cool.

The shot of the inner workings of the knife show how complex this knife has been to build.

Absolutely great how you are willing to take on these crazy projects. It also amazing that you dont pull out all your hair while trying to get these patterns dialed in.

Rick
 
Gorgeous!



ken erickson said:
I went through 3 backsprings before getting it right on this!:eek: I was wondering why the last thing Tony said to me on the phone was "have fun with this one". Now I know.
Click to expand...


Having build a few slippies now, That was my first thought; those two functions and all those pins spacing on one spring? "oh, gee, I bet that's fuuuun..." ;)


As to the Tomes double lockback... I love those, but to try building that, would be suicidal toward your sanity..


G.
 
ken erickson said:
I was wondering why the last thing Tony said to me on the phone was "have fun with this one". Now I know.
Click to expand...

I think that is Bose speak for "Now you really stepped into it.":eek:

Looks great and I really liked the internal pictures. You never cease to amaze me as to what you will tackle next……ever seen a 10 blade congress:D
 
Ken, That is the coolest custom pattern. I thought it might be helpful, if not interesting to see an old New York Knife Co of the same pattern. Now that I can relate to how hard of a knife it is to manufacture, I now realize why I've never seen another. When I first got it many years ago I thought it might have been a special order knife, but did eventually find a photo of one in a HSB catalog. The master blade on this one is probably about 3/16" short. Check the photo of the catch bit & you can see that the blade probably went a little further. Whoever was the original owner of this knife sure knew how to sharpen, it is still razor sharp. Keep in mind this knife was made between 1880 and 1930.
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