First Slipjoint Completed: Damascus Takedown

[David Schott]

I almost cried when I saw this; yet another thing that someone else got to before I did. I've been playing with ideas for this for nearly a year now, and was just starting on my first one, and now this.:grumpy:
But since you got there first, now I can ask you something I've been puzzling over in trying to make one. For the backspring, what order did you work in, as far as hardening, tempering and tapping the holes? Tap first, then harden and temper, or did you make it nice and springy, and then tap the holes for it?

I pretty much did all my drilling and tapping soft, then hardened and tempered back to a spring. Didn't have any issues with hardening the tapped holes at all. I can't imagine tapping the entire spring hardened or at spring hardness would work out very well for the delicae taps. Visions of hardened carbon steel taps stuck in semi-hardened carbon steel backsprings haunt my dreams!

 

[D. Bostic]

I can't imagine tapping the entire spring hardened or at spring hardness would work out very well for the delicae taps. Visions of hardened carbon steel taps stuck in semi-hardened carbon steel backsprings haunt my dreams!

That was my thought as well, but I wasn't sure if the tapped holes would create too many stress risers for the backspring to handle, either. Perhaps that's what everyone else has thought so far, and why we've not seen more of them.
Cool work, none the less.