Folders?

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
Why are the blades on most folders set an angle towards the cutting edge when open? Is it to make them look mean or does this give them more leverage in use?
Has anyone devised a method other than the detent ball for holding the blade closed in a liner lock?
Not that the ball isn't fine but I've never heard of any other form of blade holding mechanism in a liner lock and was thinking in the shop today that surely someone has come up with something else.
 
Back in the late 80's and early 90's there were a couple of guys that were using the screw head that held the thumbstud in place as the detent. The thumbstud was placed at a point on the blade where there had to be a cutout in the bolster, so it had clearance for the thumbstud so blade would close completely. The screw head that held the thumbstud on was left slightly exposed and there was a small recess in the liner on the lock side. When the knife was closed the screw hhead sliped intot he recess like a detent ball would do and kept the blade closed. The only drawback was the lock rubbed on the blade when opening and closing.

I have also thought of using a rare earth magnet.
 
Most people set the handle to blade aspect that way to avoid having a "broken back" look with the knife open. It just looks better to have the blade slightly tilted down as opposed to having it tilted up. :)
 
Thanks Don!
Reason I asked this question is while I was putting the finishing touches on the spacer of two folders I'm working on I was deciding the angle to set the blade at and put them both slighty in some. That made me wonder why folks do that and just to see how it would look I put one straight out from the handle and it looked fine.
I went ahead and ground the spacers on them both the normal way though. Figured why buck the norm.
 
I think its just a style thing on the blade pointing down. Makes the back of the knife form a little bit of an arc and looks nice.

I did make one that the point kinds of trails (not on purpose :footinmou ) and while I think it looks a little funny its still a good user.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top