I’m also in the midst of doing some designing for a folder. Mine is a liner lock and I still have a ways to go. I got some helpful advice recently that maybe can help you at least a little?
I had been using a computer to try and do some “drawing” and at least for me, it posed some challenges. Find something that works for you. I decided to once again try paper at the suggestion of a guy who has designed several cool knives. I started drawing out a blade shape that I liked, which frankly took a while (and it still has room for improvement...). I left what will be the tang long and then took the drawing to the copier. I cut out the photocopied blade and put a push pin a little below center where I thought I’d want the pivot. Then a traced around th blade. After that, I rotated the blade to what would be the closed position and traced the blade again. Then, I could try and draw a handle around the blade. One thing I figured out the first go around was the pivot point wasn’t low enough from center. When the blade was “closed”, the edge was too close to where the back spacer or standoffs would be. Reposition the pin a tad lower and that lowers where the blade edge ends up, giving room for the back spacer.
Now, that doesn’t cover a bunch of design, where to put the end of the tang and lock bar, etc. And I’m not there yet with the design, but it’s further along than I was before. The nice thing about it is you can end up with a blade and handle template that you know will “fit” each other. You can make multiple copies and tweak stuff and then I plan to transfer it to some thin sheet metal to make templates once I land on a final design. You can experiment with stop pin placement and get all the holes lined out so you don’t have as much chance of messing up expensive materials (ask me how I know that...).
Another thing I’d suggest that might help some is check out some of the folder WIPs. There are some great ones that even if they don’t give you specific designs or distances from the outside of the pivot hole to where the lock bar hits the tang, the pictures really help get things working in your head. Folders are really cool and one of the reasons I got started in making knives. Hope some of this helps. As you move through the process and run into challenges, hit up some of the folks on here with specific questions and I’ll bet you get some good ideas. I think there was one on here in the last few days about detent balls that has some really good info. With folders, there’s just SO much and when you change one thing, it in turn changes several other things a lot of the time. Best of luck to you as the project moves forward.
Jeremy
