Folder design, whaddaya think?

T

TexasWade

Joined
Sep 8, 2015
Messages
132
I think it's sort of generic looking but fairly handsome. This one will have a slipjoint and I'm still up in the air about putting it together with screws or peened pins. Kind of feeling like the screws will be worth the extra work in case I want to try tweaking something after it's built. Also it might look a little too plain with that big inlay, I don't know. It's a 3-1/4" blade with a flat grind up to the fillet radius at the spine. Slight back grind to make an interesting line. No nail nick or thumbstud, the blade contour should allow one-handed pinch opening. Handle thickness is .350 and I have a couple real nice pieces of snakewood to inlay.

Angled%20view%202_zpsn4evk2jk.jpg

Angled%20view_zpsn2h3z92t.jpg

FLAT%20VIEW_zpsnq5rhyu9.jpg

Edge%20on%20view_zps20in7ce3.jpg
 
I'm not an expert.

My decidedly non expert opinion however suggests that there is a lot of unused real estate near the pivot on this design. I would either add a finger groove at the bolster-ish area of the knife or extend the indentation for the first two fingers toward the pivot, bringing the hand closer to the blade without having to worry about a choking-up grip leading to injury. Just my two cents. I'm sure you'll get many more educated posts than mine. Sharp looking knife overall
 
I'd say that's a fair assessment, but there are reasons for leaving the front bolster area as large as it is. First off, the point at the bottom of the frame/bolster is where it needs to be to cover the corner of the blade when folded. I prefer to have that rather than like on my Mini Barrage where the pivot end of the blade spine is exposed when the knife is folded. Benchmade did a good job of rounding that corner off but I'd rather keep it nice and crisp but bury the hard edge inside the handle.

Also the bolster area is a bit oversized to accommodate a larger than usual pivot area. The larger pivot creates a longer lever which will allow less side play at the tip for a given amount of clearance in the handle. That will allow me to have a very fine action with a bushing ground .0005" wider than the blade and the handle screwed down tight against the bushing.

As for choking up, I'll sometimes get my thumb and forefinger right up on the blade bevels if I need very fine use of the tip. Say digging for a sliver or something. Reversing that bottom front bolster curve isn't a bad idea though, I'll give that some thought. If I did that, I'd probably make the handle profile blend smoothly into the blade like I did on the last folder I made over 20 years ago before I had CAD or CNC toys to play with...

Flowing edge to handle contour.
IMG_2651_zpspajscmao.jpg


Covered corner.
IMG_2645_zps932kiggi.jpg


Crisp blade spine end... where's the lock bar end and blade begin?
IMG_2658_zpsepo11ica.jpg
 
Both look sweet! I agree with BR though, the first model looks nice but reminds me of the one thing I dislike about the mini-griptilian, which is that the index finger is too far from the edge, and the handle therefore becomes too small even though its actual length should be sufficient. is there a way to gracefully dish in the area beneath the pivot, creating a concave-not-convex area for the index finger to rest securely without breaking up the overall flow of the design?
 
Sure FF5, that's kind of what I was trying to show with the first picture of the old folder. Just not as severe of an arc on this one. It's an easy change to make and it sounds like a good idea. I'll give it a try =)
 
Very nice design, but a less severe front arc than the old folder sounds as it would be a bit of improvement. To keep the flow then you may follow the modification slightly changing the choil area of the blade, maybe.
 
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