I changed the blade on my folder.

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
Does this blade change help this folder design enough or should I just forget the whole knife and start drawing again? Go ahead and let it rip!
 
L6 U ned bolsters and less screws near the pivot. But looks good. I would also add a little more contour to it.


Otha
 
Thanks for the tips Otha!
The reason I dropped the bolsters on this one is it's big and the first two I made with bolsters were way too heavy.
Those two screws in front of the pivot are the screws that fill the holes not in use by the belt clip. I figured two screw heads would look better than two empty holes.
 
That looks pretty good. I would play around with it a little more though.
I like how you changed the point on the second one. I think I would either lengthen the false edge, or drop the spine a little to try to get the line of the back of the handle and the back of the blade smoothed out a little bit.
For the handle, theres two things I can think of that I think would look good. The back of it looks pretty good, I would only change the edge your fingers grip/where the blade goes in.
1. Make it one big curve. Abrupt/deep at the choil/back edge of bolster area that fades out towards the butt. Sort of matches the back edge.
Then round the edges off the same way, take alot off up front and fade out to fairly square edges towards the back.
Or
2. 2 curves. The first one deep enough and long enough to accomodate your index and middle finger. The second one more shallow and longer. It looks like you sort of started things that way, but didn't make them very deep.

I like what you have so far though. Looks like a good user.
Wish I could make choices about how my folders look. Just have to keep makin peices an see what I have left to work with as the project moves along :D
 
Thanks for the input guys!!
Matt, I was thinking of grinding the frame so there would be more curve in the finger/grip area but once I had the knife together I realized that would remove material from the lock tab and I was afraid it might make the lock up weaker. Maybe I'm just paranoid, since I used .083 ti for the liners it probably wouldn't hurt the strength of the lock any but I just don't know and prefer being safe.
By smoothing out the back of the frame and the blade, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Do you mean make them straight, with no curve to them?
 
That knife, in the first configuration. is very much like the Al Mar Passport, w/ the exception of the thin, slick Al scales. IMHO a great looking knife.

The only major visual difference I can see from the pic is that the bottom of the top grind on the Al Mar curves whereas yours is straight.

I say add a bit of recurve to the original design, sort out the point, and it will be a winner for my money.
 
I agree with Matt about dropping the spine just a little bit.

The revised blade looks much better than the original one. It has much better proportion. The handle is a little blockier (is that a word?) than I like, but the knife does have good balance. There is potential there.
 
After looking at the pic some more the handle kind of grew on me. I know what you mean about the lock tab and grinding stuff off. I wouldn't change that part of the knife after all. It looks good. If you get too big into the curves you end up with a knife that only fits certain peoples hands.

About the spine. I try to make things so that if you were to continue the curve of the handle it would be a pretty close match to the spine of the blade. Not necesarrily a perfect match, that would mess up the clip point. But the spine of the blade should fit inside the curve of the handle.
Its tough to explain. Lay the knife open on a sheet of paper, and trace the back from the tip of the blade to the butt of the handle. Now take a close look at that line, instead of being a smooth curve there is a slight hump in it right where the square spine meets the false edge.
If you angle down the straight part, and take a little more off the false edge at the corner, or maybe even just lengthen the false edge a little, it would make a big difference. At least I think so. Its still all personal preference.
Is that clear as mud now? :D

You've got a good thing going there, I wouldn't scrap the idea by any means.
 
I like both styles. I think you have two distinct folders here. The clip point and the spear point are two separate uses. I would give the
clip point a real good bowie grind and the spear point a sharp tip ;)
The clip point with a bowie swedge could appeal to your tactical types, the current clip style would make a nice hunter, and the spear point is a nice general purpose do all knife. With the strength these liner locks have they would fulfill all three of the above uses.
 
Michael,

I really like the handle shape on that knife. It's not overly complicated and looks quite comfortable. As far as the blade......

I would shape the blade just like the one in the first photo, slightly less belly and "pointy-er" than the second photo. Then, add a top grind all the way to just in front of your logo. Using a small contact wheel for a real "tight" grind would also add a certain "WOW" factor. Try to make the top and bottom grinds converge as close to the point as possible.

Just my $.02


Neil
 
Love the grind and I bet in Carbon fiber that knife would be stunning.

And of course you are still back-logged:(

Keep up the fantastic work.......ira
 
I was diggin in my folder box and found these spear point blades, or maybe they're drop points, I'm not sure. You guys think they'd be a good user blade for a big folder? They're heat treated but I haven't cleaned em up yet. I really like em without the false edge. Thats something I really have to work on. Don't know why I'm having so much trouble gettin it right. I like the false edges some makers do that are just very slight, just enough so you can see it but not enough to make it gaudy like I did on my folder blades.
Ira, I'm scared of working carbon fiber after all the horror stories I've heard about it. It sure does look nice though.
 
Nice changes, L6. I would stick with the overall shape, but maybe put a little more curve in the handle and blade. Sort of round it out a bit. I think a deeper finger notch at the front of the handle would be cool, too. It's very reminiscent of the REKAT Pioneers, which I like a lot. Good work. A couple refiniements and I think it'd be sweet, although it looks good now, too!
 
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