I'm going to be trying a flipper design and was wondering how deep I could counterbore the blade. I'll be using SS liners and 1/8" S35VN (61Rc). The bearings are for a 3/16" pivot and the counterbore will be 1/2" (if I remember correctly). Including the race, the bearing is approx .065" (again off the top of my head). I will leave .010" on each side of the blade for clearance with the liner. I don't want to counter bore the liner (.048") any more than I have to, but obviously need to maintain strength in the blade. Thanks in advance.
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Recommendation? Counterbore question
- Thread starter Lo/Rez
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Alan Davis Knives
Knife Maker
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- Jun 28, 2010
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You want as much blade thickness as possible to help keep the pivot square to the blade, would not drill out more than about 1/3 the thickness. A better alternative would be thicker liners or metal bolsters for the bearings to ride on and simply drill all the way through liners.
Thanks for the reply. I was wondering if I could go all the way through the liners or if it was a no no. That would definitely make life a lot easier. I'll be using Micarta for the scales if that makes any difference. The race would be against the scale and the bearing in the blade. Would I need to use a metal bolster? The bearings are supposed to be 61Rc and that is what I heat treat the blade to, so I assume there will be minimal wear in that area.
Last edited:
Alan Davis Knives
Knife Maker
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- Jun 28, 2010
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If you use a hard metal bolster like stainless or ti, you do not need a race for the bearing. If only micarta, then as long as you use a race it will be fine. Just be careful on thickness, a race can end up backing up to a countersunk pivot screw. I normally try to use liners thick enough to account for most of the bearing thickness. Sometimes I do have to counter bore into the blade & liner both, but try to keep the blade counter bore depth minimum. If you do go through liner, drill a pivot size hole through liner first before bearing size hole, install handle/bolsters and drill pivot size through them as well. Otherwise impossible to get everything centered.