Folders and proportions of materials

[BradleySmall]

For the time being, I am buying pre-existing liner/bolster, springs and blades and learning to do assembly. At some point I would like to make my own liner/boslters and then lastly do the whole kit and caboodle.

There seems to be a plethora of patterns available of knife shapes, blade shapes and spring shapes and so on. What I am wondering about now is liner material and sizes.

I realizes that I can do whatever I please and things will function. But I wonder if the liner thickness should be somehow proportionate to the overall finished knife. Or perhaps relative to the length of the liner to avoid bending and movement.

What is best and easiest to work with to get started. Right now everything is brass liners with stainless bolsters, that are somehow staked into it. I assume I would be well to do brass on brass with some soldering. Are there ways to solder stainless to brass? Or is it always a mechanical attachment?

 

[tiguy7]

You would probably have more luck soldering yellow brass to white brass “German Silver”. Stainless bolsters are rarer than you think.

 

[BradleySmall]

You would probably have more luck soldering yellow brass to white brass “German Silver”. Stainless bolsters are rarer than you think.

Is that the same as Nickel-Silver or is it another alloy altogether?

I just assumed if it was white metal and shiny it was stainless. never even considered it wasn't.
Perhaps I should have simply asked for suggestions of materials to use? Or even sources of such.

 

[Ken H>]

Yep, German Silver and Nickel Silver are both the same material. I don't think I'd ever heard it referred to as "white brass" before. I do like working with nickel silver, but it's sorta on the expensive side, but then plain old brass is amazing how expensive it is these days.

 

[tiguy7]

It’s kind of a loose term that applies to many alloys which are made up mostly of Copper and Zinc. It’s not against the law to add Silver or Nickel, but a lot of companies are run by “beans counters” who discourage the use of more expensive materials. They have taken Nickel and Silver out of coins so it’s safe to assume that bolsters are not far behind.
I have seen folders with Zamac bolsters which are 96% Zinc and 4% Aluminum. This “pot” metal is then covered with electroplated Satin Nickel to improve its appearance and wearability.

 

[BradleySmall]

It’s kind of a loose term that applies to many alloys which are made up mostly of Copper and Zinc. It’s not against the law to add Silver or Nickel, but a lot of companies are run by “beans counters” who discourage the use of more expensive materials. They have taken Nickel and Silver out of coins so it’s safe to assume that bolsters are not far behind.
I have seen folders with Zamac bolsters which are 96% Zinc and 4% Aluminum. This “pot” metal is then covered with electroplated Satin Nickel to improve its appearance and wearability.

then a few hundred times in and out of the pocket... and it's gone

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

One thing to avoid when you start making your own folders is "fat" knives. The blade and handle should be on the thinner side. Most new makers use far too thick stock. .010" blades are thick. .060" blades are not uncommon.

 

[BradleySmall]

One thing to avoid when you start making your own folders is "fat" knives. The blade and handle should be on the thinner side. Most new makers use far too thick stock. .010" blades are thick. .060" blades are not uncommon.

So what sizes are you suggesting specifically? I was thinking that liners should be 1/32" and blades should be 1/16" and bolsters should be either 1/8" to 3/16" for a small knife like <4" folder. I would think that as the size goes up, perhaps there might be some leeway on sizing and maybe liners could be as much as 1/16" and blades might be 1/8" and bolster could be as much as 1/4" thick. But these are just my uneducated guesses. Am I close?

 

[Tyson A Wright]

So what sizes are you suggesting specifically? I was thinking that liners should be 1/32" and blades should be 1/16" and bolsters should be either 1/8" to 3/16" for a small knife like <4" folder. I would think that as the size goes up, perhaps there might be some leeway on sizing and maybe liners could be as much as 1/16" and blades might be 1/8" and bolster could be as much as 1/4" thick. But these are just my uneducated guesses. Am I close?

I'm not Stacy, and I'm sure he'll have some good advice. But instead of giving you measurements, why don't you measure some of the knives you like? What sizes are you seeing? That'll give you some good ideas about what sizes appeal to you. For things you don't have in hand, you can usually look up blade thickness (for most production knives, at least), and then use the pictures to estimate liner thickness in proportion to blade thickness.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Tyson has some good advice.
My liners are usually around .035" on liner lock knives. Bolsters vary a lot.

The thickness of any part is determined by the type of construction and use of the knife.

 

[BradleySmall]

Tyson has some good advice.
My liners are usually around .035" on liner lock knives. Bolsters vary a lot.

The thickness of any part is determined by the type of construction and use of the knife.

so it is in the 1/32 range... At this point I am shopping around for stock goods. Stuff so I can follow some builds on YouTube and go and try and reproduce them myself. Or just come up with a design and give it a shot. So, I guess just coming up with a generalized shopping list is what I am looking to do. Nothing necessarily "exact", but if I can get in the right general ballpark, perhaps I can play.

 

[AVigil]

Here are some patterns you can use https://chriscrawfordknives.com/patterns/

 

[BradleySmall]

Here are some patterns you can use https://chriscrawfordknives.com/patterns/

Thanks, they will be fun to play with. I tried my hand at my version of a "Little Chipper" or I assume it was one version of the Oar Carver

It will need to be redone, but it sure enough walks and talks When I take it back apart I will trace the liners to try and reproduce the slimline jack pattern on my own. But I have about 10 more of these blade/spring combinations, and a bunch of small serpentine liners with bolsters to make it with. But I really prefer the look of the jack instead. I wasn't able to get any more of them already made up though.

You can see the full sized images on Tumblr