-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Another Typhoon... this one from scratch
- Thread starter tryppyr
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2010
- Messages
- 8,721
Hey Greg, here is a link to a company I have used in the past for bearings. If it rolls, chances are they have bearings for it.
needle bearings.
Looks like 3x5x7 or .125x.25x.25 are the smallest needle bearings listed, but on their home page is a handy search by dimension tool.
-Xander
needle bearings.
Looks like 3x5x7 or .125x.25x.25 are the smallest needle bearings listed, but on their home page is a handy search by dimension tool.
-Xander
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 3,911
The needle bearings are interesting, but I'm having trouble figuring out how I could use them. For one thing the thinnest are 6mm and .25in respectively. My blade width is 3/32nds (or roughly 2mm) at the pivot points.
So far, every bearing system I've seen is either too wide or too thick. I'll do a more exhaustive sear today and see what else I can turn up.
So far, every bearing system I've seen is either too wide or too thick. I'll do a more exhaustive sear today and see what else I can turn up.
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2010
- Messages
- 8,721
EYeah I just kinda threw that one out there, without knowing what dimensions your knife is. Maybe check out that company's dental tool bearings, I know those are smaller.
-Xander
ETA: I just checked and they have dental tool bearings in 0.093 thick. Perfect for a 3/32 blade (0.09375"), although they are a bit pricey.
-Xander
ETA: I just checked and they have dental tool bearings in 0.093 thick. Perfect for a 3/32 blade (0.09375"), although they are a bit pricey.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 3,911
Spent the last few days sanding this down to 1200 grit to look for flaws... and fixing the flaws I found... and sanding back to 1200 grit to look for more flaws... and so on. Anyway, the whole thing got to be mirror finished.
Just sent the blade off for heat treatment.
I've decided to not mess with a bearing system on this one. If I make another balisong I'll design the handles so they can accept an IKBS like approach. Looks simple, elegant and effective.
- Greg
Just sent the blade off for heat treatment.
I've decided to not mess with a bearing system on this one. If I make another balisong I'll design the handles so they can accept an IKBS like approach. Looks simple, elegant and effective.
- Greg
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2006
- Messages
- 2,418
Do you just mean it's going to be a fine finish, or do you plan to try to polish out the layers into one consistent mirror?
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 3,911
It's a damascus blade, so the mirror polishing step was really just for finding the flaws. Amazing how starkly they stand out. When I get the blade back I'll sharpen it, polish it to 2000 grit, etch in FC, then finish sand with 2000 grit again. I like the contrasty look of the etched damascus.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 3,911
The blade is back from HT. I descaled it, and last night I removed the decarb and started putting the edges on it. Today I'm working through the hand sanding to remove the grinding marks (between meetings... and during the boring ones).
I have to say this is definitely turning out to be my best blade yet, and will certainly be my sharpest. It's well balanced, too. It spins like a top when you hold one finger at the point, and rings like a wind chime when you flick it.
Now all I have to do is not screw it up.
I have to say this is definitely turning out to be my best blade yet, and will certainly be my sharpest. It's well balanced, too. It spins like a top when you hold one finger at the point, and rings like a wind chime when you flick it.
Now all I have to do is not screw it up.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 3,911
Progress shots for the day. I sanded to 1000 grit, etched my makers mark on it, and did a selective etch in ferric. The result is pretty good, I think. My makers mark got a little messed up... no doubt I did something wrong. The damascus etch came out with something like chatoyance... it has a pattern above the pattern that seems to dance in the light. Pretty neat.
Anyway, I'll probably finish assembly this weekend.
- Greg
Anyway, I'll probably finish assembly this weekend.
- Greg
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2011
- Messages
- 16,413
It's looking great!
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2010
- Messages
- 8,721
Way cool man! I love balisongs but can't afford the Typhoon kit, the wife keeps complainin about the kid or something like that. ;-) if I could get my hands on one I would just take a copy of the dimensions and make my own. I admire your ability to take on any project you want, no matter what. I like to think I am the same way, but I have failed at quite a few things I have tried.
Keep up the good work man!
-Xander
Keep up the good work man!
-Xander
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 3,911
Xander,
To be sure, having a kit did allow me to figure out what was important. In some ways, having the kit can mess you up too. When I made the blade to replace the one in the kit, I didn't understand how important it was to make absolutely sure both stop pins were in a perfectly straight line in the center of the blade. What I did with that was simply use the trainer blade as a template and tried to just copy the holes by marking through the original holes to the new blade. That resulted in a blade that didn't line up perfectly when open. Having learned the importance of insuring the proper centering, I was better prepared to do that with this project.
The kit also had one too many holes in the bottom of the handles. They did that to enable the user to move the latch from one side to the other. That seemed pretty pointless to me, so I didn't drill the extra hole. Also, the spacer parts in the kit were a specific shape and size... which works well for the way those holes were drilled in the kit, but since my holes were drilled differently, I needed different spacer pieces.
Something else to consider... the orientation of those pieces (and the associated holes) at the bottom of the handle is important. Get it wrong and the blade will contact them as you're closing the handles around it. Get it right and it all fits together nicely. You'll want to think about that orientation as you're applying the decorations to the handle, since you'll want them to come together a specific way.
There are several ways you can mess yourself up when making a balisong. I think I did all of them at one point or another. But that's why I did this project... to learn from those mistakes.
If you really like balisongs I'd say just go for it... try your hand at making one. I think I saved a scanned image of the original kit pieces, which (if printed) would provide you with a pattern for the parts and the holes. Where you go from there is up to you.
By the way, if you're wondering about how I joined the handles together... I made rivets out of nails. Basically, I countersunk the holes to match some nails I had on hand. I took a bolt cutter and trimmed the nials down to about the right size, leaving about an eighth of an inch extra. I then sanded the cut end of the nail flat and used the center punch tool to put a dimple in the center of the flattened cut end. I used a carbide drill bit to cut a cone shaped dimple. I then positioned the nails in place, and pounded on the dimpled end with a nail setting punch that had an inwardly domed tip. The result was that the nail mushroomed out to fill the countersunk hole. I then sanded it to the level of the rest of the handle, making it virtually disappear.
Not exactly an elegant solution, but it was cheap. One thing, though... I would not recommend using this approach for the latch piece. I determined that the reason it is having trouble closing is that the nail bent slightly due to the enlarged hole I drilled in the latch to allow it to swing freely. So instead, I'd recommend using some kind of bolt (like a Corby) on any pivot point for a moving part.
- Greg
To be sure, having a kit did allow me to figure out what was important. In some ways, having the kit can mess you up too. When I made the blade to replace the one in the kit, I didn't understand how important it was to make absolutely sure both stop pins were in a perfectly straight line in the center of the blade. What I did with that was simply use the trainer blade as a template and tried to just copy the holes by marking through the original holes to the new blade. That resulted in a blade that didn't line up perfectly when open. Having learned the importance of insuring the proper centering, I was better prepared to do that with this project.
The kit also had one too many holes in the bottom of the handles. They did that to enable the user to move the latch from one side to the other. That seemed pretty pointless to me, so I didn't drill the extra hole. Also, the spacer parts in the kit were a specific shape and size... which works well for the way those holes were drilled in the kit, but since my holes were drilled differently, I needed different spacer pieces.
Something else to consider... the orientation of those pieces (and the associated holes) at the bottom of the handle is important. Get it wrong and the blade will contact them as you're closing the handles around it. Get it right and it all fits together nicely. You'll want to think about that orientation as you're applying the decorations to the handle, since you'll want them to come together a specific way.
There are several ways you can mess yourself up when making a balisong. I think I did all of them at one point or another. But that's why I did this project... to learn from those mistakes.
If you really like balisongs I'd say just go for it... try your hand at making one. I think I saved a scanned image of the original kit pieces, which (if printed) would provide you with a pattern for the parts and the holes. Where you go from there is up to you.
By the way, if you're wondering about how I joined the handles together... I made rivets out of nails. Basically, I countersunk the holes to match some nails I had on hand. I took a bolt cutter and trimmed the nials down to about the right size, leaving about an eighth of an inch extra. I then sanded the cut end of the nail flat and used the center punch tool to put a dimple in the center of the flattened cut end. I used a carbide drill bit to cut a cone shaped dimple. I then positioned the nails in place, and pounded on the dimpled end with a nail setting punch that had an inwardly domed tip. The result was that the nail mushroomed out to fill the countersunk hole. I then sanded it to the level of the rest of the handle, making it virtually disappear.
Not exactly an elegant solution, but it was cheap. One thing, though... I would not recommend using this approach for the latch piece. I determined that the reason it is having trouble closing is that the nail bent slightly due to the enlarged hole I drilled in the latch to allow it to swing freely. So instead, I'd recommend using some kind of bolt (like a Corby) on any pivot point for a moving part.
- Greg