How To Liner lock help

T

tommywoh

Joined
Oct 17, 2014
Messages
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Hello all I am currently on my second liner lock build and I have a few questions regarding its construction.

1. How do you taper the lock bar for it to have some clearance for the detent ball to travel along the blade? On the first build I ran into this problem and did not know about the tapering method so I tried to press the detent ball in further which kind of solved it but now the detent strength is gone. I've searched multiple liner lock build threads and haven't found any methods to show how to solve this problem

2. When you are setting up your scales to drill the screw holes and what not, what do you use to hold the scales to the liners? I tried using super glue but it was a pain to get the scales off the liners. Also if I am using Micarta or G10, using acetone or similar products might strip of the material's bond.

3. When you are shaping the handle, do you hold the knife horizontally against the belt and rotate it up and down? Or holding it vertically and rotate it side to side against a platen?

Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!
 
I taper the scale side of the leaf on every liner lock I make without testing for clearance. I install the ball before doing this.A simple way to do this is to cut a wood wedge with say a 10 degree inside taper that is about 3" long and simple place it between the leaf and scale.A 30 or 220 belt will do a good job for you. Drift it a bit over the platen. Don't expect to taper for 1 1/2" back or so. Only go for 3/4" to 1" and take off about 1/3 the thickness of the leaf. Try it. I think this will work real well.
I use a clamp but use a small cut out window in a plate to maintain level which is placed on the inside of the scale over one of the holes to be drilled with the scale clamped in position. Place a drill bit of the same size through this re clamp and go again.
Well know I know it's done both ways . I go 90 degrees to the belt movement.
Sure hope this helps.
Frank
 
A little heat and the super glue will easily come apart
 
Frank Niro said:
I taper the scale side of the leaf on every liner lock I make without testing for clearance. I install the ball before doing this.A simple way to do this is to cut a wood wedge with say a 10 degree inside taper that is about 3" long and simple place it between the leaf and scale.A 30 or 220 belt will do a good job for you. Drift it a bit over the platen. Don't expect to taper for 1 1/2" back or so. Only go for 3/4" to 1" and take off about 1/3 the thickness of the leaf. Try it. I think this will work real well.
I use a clamp but use a small cut out window in a plate to maintain level which is placed on the inside of the scale over one of the holes to be drilled with the scale clamped in position. Place a drill bit of the same size through this re clamp and go again.
Well know I know it's done both ways . I go 90 degrees to the belt movement.
Sure hope this helps.
Frank
Click to expand...
 
I'm not an expert on folders by any means, but have made a few liner locks, so here's my .02 cents.
1. I don't taper the lock bar, I use washers between the blade and liner, .015 thick, and leave only that much detent ball sticking out. I then take a hair off the scale side for clearance.
2. I normally super glue the liners together and drill all the holes and grind to shape, then set in a jar of acetone overnight to loosen everything up, provided grinding didn't make them pop loose, even if it did the acetone makes clean up easier. For scales mostly put a small dab of super glue and drill the pilot holes, acetone doesn't bother mycarta or G10 that I've seen. If I can't use super glue for some reason I will drill one hole and tap the liner and hold in place with a screw and do the other hole, once I've got two holes I can do the rest.
3. I normally have the bolster and scale mounted on the liner and knock the corners off on the belt grinder horizontally then clamp on a piece of hickory in a vise and hand finish the contours.
 
Here's my .02 fwiw :)

1. If you have having clearance issues you have a few choices... make sure the detent ball is pressed in enough (i.e. if you have the tension adjusted and your detent ball is sitting out so much that the ball doesn't seat fully in the tang hole, press it in more - it won't cause you any issues), you can use thicker washers, you can grind the lock bar to thin it out a little bit, or my favorite, make a lock bar cut out in the liners (if possible - probably wouldn't do this on wood though as it will cause chipping)
2. you can use glue I like to use either pins or screws you don't care about.
3. you can grind the scales in any direction you want, mostly the finishing touches will be dictated by the scale contouring (i.e. if you have a palm swell you will be limited to going side to side). The important thing is to remove all the low grit scratches.

Hope this helps.
 
All of these suggestions are great guys!
I had thought about grinding a relief in the bolsters and scale themselves for the lock bar to clear but i don't think my skills are up to that task yet haha
Now that I think back I think I smothered the liners with too much superglue because I didn't want it to pop off on me while I'm drilling. Well that's lesson learned I will start dabbing just a drop of glue next time and see
Thanks for all the advice guys! I will post some pictures of my finished knife soon! It's not pretty but it works!
 
Superglue is great for a temp hold. I use the thickest "gap filling" type for this. A drop at the end of the part, a minute under a spring clamp, and I can drill and grind scales together without fear of them separating but they're easy to pop apart.
 
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