Jakes Workshop - Modifications, tweaks, theory, and designing my first custom. Hi.

Jake_Lucas

Jake_Lucas

Joined
Sep 21, 2012
Messages
718
This thread will be my brain dump for the hundreds of knife projects I work on. I'll add projects when I have time to update the thread rather than starting new ones. Check back in if you like what you see :)

This will be the home thread of #WhiskeyPickleKnife events.


1- Zero Tolerance 0561- Custom g10 scale and polished hardware & clip
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Process pics:
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Brous Silent Soldier Flipper - Late Lockup/ Lock Rock. This one needed a new stop pin tuned to fix it proper and safe.
Before:
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Turning the new pin .009 larger than existing
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And the very pleasant, perfect lockup result
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Titanium Heat Anodizing and texture with @metalevon:
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Blasting and Polishing:
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More G10 Work - pink grips on Sig P238
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And some more machining - Milling slide on Ruger SR9c
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Kershaw Groove Ti minimalist scales (these are intended for a buddy's standard steel Groove, not my black Tanto)
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Boker Kwaiken flipper mod
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Benchmade Gravitator 425bk stonewash
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Much more to come!

And the future- First custom design
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A high-tech Sandvik wharncliffe Ti flipper on hardened 440c captured bearings with a roller detent.
11/26/13- now made of paper!
12/9/13- it flips!
12/13/13- made a separate WIP thread - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...t-WIP-Ball-Bearing-Ti-Frame-Linerlock-Flipper
 
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I'll be looking forward to seeing how that roller detent works out! Best of luck :thumbup:
 
Continued here:
Before Kershaw offered it, here's my before and after blackwashing pic


Acid stonewash
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Kwaiken Flipper mod




0561 tweaks


Gravitator bk stonewash





#WhiskeyPickleKnife Gatherings:
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Jake_Lucas said:
Thanks. Hoback was quite clear about wanting people to adopt the idea and credit it as the "HRD" system (Hoback Roller Detent) and I approve :)
Click to expand...

Yup I talked to Jake about it and he was very helpful with details about his design. Not many makers share designs, even fewer share them for free. I hope production companies pick it up soon.
 
12/9 update:

Rough shapes done, pivot reamed, bearing pockets cut, stop pin turned, and it flips nicely. HRD detent is ordered and should be here soon. Still have to heat treat blade and at risk of a mediocre turnout i might use a home made forge for that unless a local heat treat turns up.

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If you don't mind my asking, what did you use to cut the bearing paths?

EDIT: Nevermind, saw the updated pics in the original post :p
 
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I love threads like these! Makes we want to hit the shop and do some tinkering/building!

Nice work, milling with those thin materials is always tricky
 
Hmm, I think you'll find that using the liners and blade as bearing races isn't going to work out very well. First things first you aren't grinding the raceway, which is going to result in a very rough surface comparatively. That's going to result in binding, which results in rapid bearing wear and that means a sloppy pivot. Second, the blade will be heat treated but will the liners? Another source of rapid wear and accelerated slop. On top of that, if you are machining first and then having heat treat done, your raceways will be nowhere near round: another source of binding which results in...you get the picture. Your only hope of making this work well is to machine the raceways after heat treat, then take some sacrificial balls of the same size as your bearings (but made of soft steel or something that will embed lapping compound) and lapping the raceways. Anything else and you will have a nice showpiece, but not a good solid user.
 
eKretz said:
Hmm, I think you'll find that using the liners and blade as bearing races isn't going to work out very well. First things first you aren't grinding the raceway, which is going to result in a very rough surface comparatively. That's going to result in binding, which results in rapid bearing wear and that means a sloppy pivot. Second, the blade will be heat treated but will the liners? Another source of rapid wear and accelerated slop. On top of that, if you are machining first and then having heat treat done, your raceways will be nowhere near round: another source of binding which results in...you get the picture. Your only hope of making this work well is to machine the raceways after heat treat, then take some sacrificial balls of the same size as your bearings (but made of soft steel or something that will embed lapping compound) and lapping the raceways. Anything else and you will have a nice showpiece, but not a good solid user.
Click to expand...

You can always put in a thin, hardened steel washer with a high polish finish. From what I've seen, that's what they did with the 777 to have bearings in a knife with CF handles without adding liners.
 
Yep, the way it's normally done is with a race, with raceways shaped to match the ball radii. I got the impression Jake was trying to save some space and that's why he didn't go that route, but they make those races for a reason. Bearing balls are in the mid to high 60's Rockwell C in most cases, so they will rapidly wear paths even in hardened blade steel if one tries to run on an imperfectly formed raceway or on the flat surface of the blade or a washer even. Especially with the way most people tend to just flip, flip, flip, open/close, open/close sometimes.
 
eKretz said:
Hmm, I think you'll find that using the liners and blade as bearing races isn't going to work out very well. First things first you aren't grinding the raceway, which is going to result in a very rough surface comparatively. That's going to result in binding, which results in rapid bearing wear and that means a sloppy pivot. Second, the blade will be heat treated but will the liners? Another source of rapid wear and accelerated slop. On top of that, if you are machining first and then having heat treat done, your raceways will be nowhere near round: another source of binding which results in...you get the picture. Your only hope of making this work well is to machine the raceways after heat treat, then take some sacrificial balls of the same size as your bearings (but made of soft steel or something that will embed lapping compound) and lapping the raceways. Anything else and you will have a nice showpiece, but not a good solid user.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to add. I thought about that, yes. 2 things:

I've seen the innards of just enough ball bearing folders- low, mid, and high quality, customs, etc- to conclude that most of what's on the market today uses two flat surfaces for races. Titanium on one side, blade steel on the other, and no wiggle after a thousand flips. I did make some .001ish races by tightening the pivot and swinging the blade before calling that design "done". I think the reason why traditional bearing races are not necessary is that a properly built and aligned set of frames will yield a pivot that needs very little tension to snug things up. If the pivot were super tight, the differing hardness of all three materials would obviously become a problem.

In the case of this particular folder, I've flipped it about 500 times so far and there isn't even a hint of play in any direction. And that's with the pivot loose enough that the blade swings freely with the lockbar disengaged, yet tight enough that there is no blade play.


This raises a question for me though- have you seen other bearing folders develop race play and which ones?
 
Added some more. I've been slacking in the *take photo, upload, and post* department so there are tons of little projects missing but who cares. Hope you guys enjoy some of the pics.

Jake
 
Thank YOU for sharing! Why dont you upgrade to maker and offer more of your work.
It is a blast and there is no shortage of projects around here.
I love looking at your photos, besides the spyderco that got hit with the ugly stick.
I am upgrading my camera in a few months myself. Every time I take a pic it is in the raw like yours, but that is why it is awesome. I just picked up a small 6 inch hendey lathe for 300$.
This way I can make my own fitting soon when I complete some folders.
 
BellaBlades said:
Thank YOU for sharing! Why dont you upgrade to maker and offer more of your work.
It is a blast and there is no shortage of projects around here.
I love looking at your photos, besides the spyderco that got hit with the ugly stick.
I am upgrading my camera in a few months myself. Every time I take a pic it is in the raw like yours, but that is why it is awesome. I just picked up a small 6 inch hendey lathe for 300$.
This way I can make my own fitting soon when I complete some folders.
Click to expand...

Thanks much. I'd hate to mix business with pleasure, but if I get any more requests I think I'll go ahead and upgrade. I did a freebie for a member through the one of the PIF threads:
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I've also seen how some people treat their "contractors" (in this case, knife customizers), and as someone who would never purposely mislead or mistreat a customer, I've become hesitant. Thankfully though, the bad seeds are grossly outnumbered by good guys and girls.

As for the pictures- every one of my pics have been taken with a regular old iPhone 4s. I do have a cheap light booth and a hooded point-and-shoot which yields some decent quality and for finished shots I plan to use that more often. I'm a firm believer that the lighting matters more than the camera.
 
Just always think of it as pleasure.
Do not be to afraid of it. I have a full time job as well. I simply put my family first. And just keep good contact and dont bite off more than I can chew.
I feel that I offer more of a friendship and passion than anything. In return I attract exactly the type of people I would hope for.
In return ive met alot of great people.
 
BellaBlades said:
Just always think of it as pleasure.
Do not be to afraid of it. I have a full time job as well. I simply put my family first. And just keep good contact and dont bite off more than I can chew.
I feel that I offer more of a friendship and passion than anything. In return I attract exactly the type of people I would hope for.
In return ive met alot of great people.
Click to expand...

I've also been pleasantly surprised by the people I've met (well, forum-met). Having been involved in many online enthusiast communities over the years, it's become apparent that knife people are tied with gun people for "most agreeable".
 
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