Ken Erickson Knives: A Retrospective

To have worn the tang down on that Empire to that extent must have required an incredible amount of open/close cycles + grit +/- a poor heat treat, no? It's nearly round!

It's a real treat to see the knife and mechanism broken down- can anyone explain why the liner with the shield cutout has a pivot hole that is more like two different size holes that intersect?

I agree with all the above comments, this knife is going to be AMAZING, can't wait to follow along. Thanks for the great pictures!

-Greg
 
greg c said:
To have worn the tang down on that Empire to that extent must have required an incredible amount of open/close cycles + grit +/- a poor heat treat, no? It's nearly round!

It's a real treat to see the knife and mechanism broken down- can anyone explain why the liner with the shield cutout has a pivot hole that is more like two different size holes that intersect?

I agree with all the above comments, this knife is going to be AMAZING, can't wait to follow along. Thanks for the great pictures!

-Greg
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That probably just happened when the pin was drilled out to take it apart.
 
greg c said:
To have worn the tang down on that Empire to that extent must have required an incredible amount of open/close cycles + grit +/- a poor heat treat, no? It's nearly round!

It's a real treat to see the knife and mechanism broken down- can anyone explain why the liner with the shield cutout has a pivot hole that is more like two different size holes that intersect?

I agree with all the above comments, this knife is going to be AMAZING, can't wait to follow along. Thanks for the great pictures!

-Greg
Click to expand...

J. Oeser said:
That probably just happened when the pin was drilled out to take it apart.
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Good eye Greg and perfect answer Jared! That is exactly what happened. I was not concerned about this knife going back together so I was a bit heavy handed taking it apart.
 
I have had a chance to get some work done on the Empire electricians knife. I have the parts cut out, surface ground to thickness and close to heat treat. I was able to forge over the small lug that is used to unlock the screwdriver blade. Turned out well for the first and only attempt.

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This pictures shows the parts cut out.

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I keyed in on the the two backsprings. The unusual one is the screwdriver backspring with the lug.

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This picture shows the relationship of the kicks on both the screwdriver blade and spear. You can see just how close the fitting needs to be.
 
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Wow. Just W O W.

I've blown up the area of the last picture that contains the kicks at the folded over lug and I'm staring at it. That's a lot of angles coming together perfectly!

The tongue of the folded lug appears to arise from its base seamlessly and it is rounded so smoothly, what configuration did you machine it to prior to forging it over? Will its relative thinness affect how you will heat treat?

This is so cool to watch, thanks for the great pictures!
 
greg c said:
Wow. Just W O W.

I've blown up the area of the last picture that contains the kicks at the folded over lug and I'm staring at it. That's a lot of angles coming together perfectly!

The tongue of the folded lug appears to arise from its base seamlessly and it is rounded so smoothly, what configuration did you machine it to prior to forging it over? Will its relative thinness affect how you will heat treat?

This is so cool to watch, thanks for the great pictures!
Click to expand...

The configuration was a simple "tee" shape. I left it long to compensate for the bend. I will leave the thickness and length as it is now, and do my final shaping and fitting after heat treat. I have heat treated springs much thinner than than the lug when building certain whittlers and lockbacks and hopefully will not encounter problems. I am forging (pun intended;)) into uncharted territory with this one, so final results are still to follow.
 
Nice to see the forging worked out. I assume from the discoloration that you heated it some. It must be tricky on relatively small-mass pieces like that!?
I am following this one with great interest! It is spellbinding, Ken. Thanks for the WIP!
 
Very cool, Ken. I have a Schrade with the same unlocking mechanism. I think that will likely be the first custom with that unlocking mechanism--very cool! Thank you for sharing the WIP photos.

 
My first knife from Ken arrived yesterday. Here are a quick pic before I dropped it in my pocket.
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Trand you are one lucky dog! A fine, practical knife!!
 
Trand,
way before I knew that knife was yours, I wrote what I think about it. Things haven't changed ever since...I love it.
Congrats to both you and Ken, and enjoy it :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
Thanks again guys!!

rprocter said:
Very fine Serpentine Jack. What is the closed length ? And, is it Ken's jigging ?
roland
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Hi Roland, its 3 5/8" closed with a 2 3/4" main blade. The modified pen is 2 3/16". The jigging is Ken's peach seed.

Here are the rest of the pics I took when I got it. Its already got a few scratches on it :)

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Just a Beautiful knife. Congrats and enjoy my friend, looks like Ken has out did himself yet again :thumbup:
 
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