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Framelock folder
- Thread starter greenbone
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2000
- Messages
- 1,146
I like something in the range of 0.125 in 6AL4V Ti for each handle slab.
Also a blade that will run at least .10" and preferable .125-.140" thick at the tang.
The style I'm talking about is the all Ti handle....possibly kinda like Tom Mayo's folders.
Also a blade that will run at least .10" and preferable .125-.140" thick at the tang.
The style I'm talking about is the all Ti handle....possibly kinda like Tom Mayo's folders.
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 12,957
I've built them anywhere from .070 thick titanium all the way up to .160 thick like seen in some of the Emerson conversions I've done in my homepage link under STRprojects. I like beefy but .070 is a fine thickness. Some really nice working folders I did were .100 thick ti. A lot of makers and productions are .125 thick titanium. I think this is a good thickness if its a big folder.
STR
STR
For a true framelock, I tend to stick to 0.125" to 0.150".
It seems a good compromise between handle thickness, rigidity in the load-bearing portion of the slab (i.e. no handle scales to hold things in place), and the lockbar relief.
0.100" and under (0.093", 0.080") is thinner, but I feel it makes for a too-thin handle. In this thickness I actually like a scale or a half-scale on the lock side.
Basically, my feeling is that the extra thickness is just giving you bend-resistance on the lockbar itself, since the relief is often cut down to below 0.050" anyhow.
-j
It seems a good compromise between handle thickness, rigidity in the load-bearing portion of the slab (i.e. no handle scales to hold things in place), and the lockbar relief.
0.100" and under (0.093", 0.080") is thinner, but I feel it makes for a too-thin handle. In this thickness I actually like a scale or a half-scale on the lock side.
Basically, my feeling is that the extra thickness is just giving you bend-resistance on the lockbar itself, since the relief is often cut down to below 0.050" anyhow.
-j
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 12,957
On some productions like the Zero Tolerance 300 series folders in the 301 and 302 the slab of titanium used on the lock side is .190 thick titanium. Talk about a beef cake folder! That thing had to be a lot of work to machine and groove those even with CNC help. I know just shaping one of those Emerson conversions is a lot of tough a$$ grinding to get to the finish line.
For what its worth, many of the relief cut outs I've measured have been as low as .033 on some Strider PT models or .039 on the Emerson CQC12. I like mine to be around .055 as a minimum thickness. Most of the relief cuts on my own are .058 to .070 depending on what I can get away with. Any thicker and the spring tension on the lock is so strong it can make the blade close off center bad and be very hard on the thumb to close them. This isn't always the case but its been the case for me many times. The length of the cut out has to do with that also though.
STR
For what its worth, many of the relief cut outs I've measured have been as low as .033 on some Strider PT models or .039 on the Emerson CQC12. I like mine to be around .055 as a minimum thickness. Most of the relief cuts on my own are .058 to .070 depending on what I can get away with. Any thicker and the spring tension on the lock is so strong it can make the blade close off center bad and be very hard on the thumb to close them. This isn't always the case but its been the case for me many times. The length of the cut out has to do with that also though.
STR
I was taught that the lockbar length should be as long as possible to minimize the effects of wear on the mate surface.
(The shorter the bar, the shorter the rotational radius. The shorter the rotational radius, the more the bar will foreshorten relative to the mate face as it increasingly engages the lock.)
Whether this creates an appreciate difference, I don't know.
-j
(The shorter the bar, the shorter the rotational radius. The shorter the rotational radius, the more the bar will foreshorten relative to the mate face as it increasingly engages the lock.)
Whether this creates an appreciate difference, I don't know.
-j