Knife Pick for Slipjoints

A

Andybrock

Joined
Feb 5, 2017
Messages
60
Hope you’ve all had a good Christmas.
One of my customers who’s getting on in life has said he’s finding it increasingly difficult to open his knives ( he’s got a lot of old slipjoints) and he’s asked if I could make him and his friend a knife pick to help opening their folders.
What steel would be best and presumably I just HT it and temper it to below blade hardness to stop it damaging nail nicks?
Many thanks.
 
I would use up small pieces of whatever blade stock I had laying around. 3/32" CPM-154 for example and temper to spring hardness (46 rc approximately) .
 
ea42 said:
You could also use brass, it won't scratch any steel and it's very durable. Here's one that's about twenty years old and has opened literally thousands of blades.

View attachment 2744762

Eric
Click to expand...
Thanks Eric, That’s a lovely looking pick, what’s the thickness of the brass and have you got scales on both sides? I was going to use scraps of blade steel but the use of brass sounds more practical.
 
Bronze is also good.

This thread reminds me that I need to make a batch of blade openers for the April show. I use shorts and scarps of colorful micarta and G-10 for the scale, as it does not crack easily. The scale is between .100" and .125" thick. The scale is one sided and glued and riveted to the blade. Intense curly maple is another a good choice. Mine look like a slightly large guitar pick with a rounded tip. I'll look for one when I get home. Harrisonburg has a lot of folder collectors, and everyone needs a good pick.

TIP:
Just like doing a fixed blade - Shape and polish the rounded edge of te scale at the front where it will be on the opener blade. The other sides will be ground and shaped in finishing.

My basic process - (doing a dozen or so as a batch is very fast)
Cut out the bade blanks as basic shapes and tumble them or put on a matte finish with a scotch-brite belt. Tumbled looks best. Leave the sides and final shaping for later after the scale is on.
Cut triangular scale blanks and finish one side of all of them ... then glue to the blade, ...then drill and rivet ... then trim the profile to shape and finish the scale.

I experimented with sandblasting the finished picks once, but didn't love it. It may appeal to others, though. I'll have to revisit that on the new batch.

Funny story -
I started making these as openers for our Pandora line of bracelets at the jewelry store. Women would not use tgheir expensive nail manicures to open te bracelets. We had custom plastic guitar picks with our store name and logo on them. They worked fine, but many women found them too small to hold easily. I made a larger version in sterling silver and put a red G-10 scale on it. I realized it was a perfect folder blade opener and made more in bronze and low-carbon damascus scraps left over from san-mai. The damascus was nice but not worth the extra work for a $15 knife pick.
 
Last edited:
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Bronze is also good.

This thread reminds me that I need to make a batch of blade openers for the April show. I use shorts and scarps of colorful micarta and G-10 for the scale, as it does not crack easily. The scale is between .100" and .125" thick. The scale is one sided and glued and riveted to the blade. Intense curly maple is another a good choice. Mine look like a slightly large guitar pick with a rounded tip. I'll look for one when I get home. Harrisonburg has a lot of folder collectors, and everyone needs a good pick.

TIP:
Just doing a fixed blade - Shape and polish the rounded edge of te scale at the front where it will be on the opener blade. The other sides will be ground and shaped in finishing.

My basic process - (doing a dozen or so as a batch is very fast)
Cut out the bade blanks as basic shapes and tumble them or put on a matte finish with a scotch-brite belt. Tumbled looks best. Leave the sides and final shaping for later after the scale is on.
Cut triangular scale blanks and finish one side of all of them ... then glue to the blade, ...then drill and rivet ... then trim the profile to shape and finish the scale.

I experimented with sandblasting the finished picks once, but didn't love it. It may appeal to others, though. I'll have to revisit that on the new batch.

Funny story -
I started making these as openers for our Pandora line of bracelets at the jewelry store. Women would not use tgheir expensive nail manicures to open te bracelets. We had custom plastic guitar picks with our store name and logo on them. They worked fine, but many women found them too small to hold easily. I made a larger version in sterling silver and put a red G-10 scale on it. I realized it was a perfect folder blade opener and made more in bronze and low-carbon damascus scraps left over from san-mai. The damascus was nice but not worth the extra work for a $15 knife pick.
Click to expand...
Thanks Stacy, that’s a great help. I shouldn’t think the blade material needs to be very thick 2-3mm perhaps?
 
Yes 2-3mm. 1.5mm would work. Much thinner and it may bend or ger sharp. I have a slight taper at the tip and just rounded the sharp edges all around with the scotch-brite belt.

Don't overthink it ... it is just a wedge-shaped object to pull a grove. No need for any real design or physics. Not too pointy and not too thick ... that's it.

I think the laser and water-jet boys would have a field day cutting out these. No need for a scale, they could do the upper part all engraved or filagree. Once the program was set, they can male one, ten, or a hundred. Material cost would be almost nothing.

If done from titanium you can use a torch or anodizer and color them like a peacock. Hmm, I have aa sheet of 18-gauge titanium in the shop .... Hmm. ... Dang you Andy, now I have another project to put in a box for when I get caught up.
 
Andybrock said:
Thanks Eric, That’s a lovely looking pick, what’s the thickness of the brass and have you got scales on both sides? I was going to use scraps of blade steel but the use of brass sounds more practical.
Click to expand...
Yes scales are on both sides. It's actually old butter and molasses material from the old Schrade factory from the 1950's. The brass is just liner material, also from the factory, I believe about .035" or around .9mm. I also made a few with old Schrade Cut Co steel knife scales that I had found some time ago. They were for a lobster pattern that had steel handles as one of the handle options. The steel is in its soft state which is just fine for a knife pick. Got that idea from some old Ulster Knife Co openers that I have. I think the one I did was around .045 thick. I taper the ends a bit. I may do a few of those with some added handles as well. If given a choice though I prefer to use brass just to be on the safe side as far as scratches go.

20241228_130934.jpg

20241107_153624.jpg

20241228_131609.jpg

Eric
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top