Liner Lock Project

G

gudspelr

Joined
Jul 1, 2013
Messages
451
I had the good fortune to spend some quality time with my friend John Doyle this summer. He helped me make a liner lock and it was a lot of fun, but it also gave me a lot of tools of how the process goes. I had tried to make my own folder a while back and that didn't go very well. With John's tips, I'm tackling a liner lock on my own.

I had seen a folder of Raphael Durand's and he was gracious enough to give me permission to try copying the design. I did a fair bit of drawing, then when I got close, I transferred it to a G10 template.




Which then made it to some Ti liners.




And some 80CrV2 for the blade.




I've had some natural micarta blocks sitting around for quite a while and I wanted to try making the scales and back spacer out of that. So, I cut them on edge and got things drilled.








I've got a long ways to go, but I'm fairly pleased with where it's at currently. Fingers crossed that I don't mess it up moving forward.


Jeremy
 
Ken H> said:
I LIKE that design and blade shape. I've tagged this thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Ken. Raphael has some REALLY nice looking knives. I drew this one up based on one of his that I’d seen after getting in touch with him.

Jeremy
 
I've gotten some more done on this. There have been a few hiccups, but nothing fatal to the knife itself-however, good learning experiences. The blade came out of the quench with a bit of a left turn to it and John Doyle got me lined out on some torch straightening. Ended up working like a charm. The scales are pretty close to shaped, one side needs more work than the other, still. If anyone has great insights into the proper finishing of Micarta, please feel free to let me know. This is my first go with Micarta.













I'm trying to figure out what I want to do as far as a clip and I think I'm closing in on what I want to make. Not sure it'll work out, will try with some practice stuff first. I got the blade tang up to 800 grit and need to thin the back spacer a bit to match. Then it's onto the lock bar, detent ball, etc.


Jeremy
 
looks great :cool: your micarta looks nice, i can tell its consistently sanded. if you want shine, bring the micarta up to 1000 grit and buff it with some white compound.
 
Thanks, John. I’ll have to go up in grit a bit-I’d stopped at 800 before. After I get through a few more processes, I’ll give it a go with some 1000 grit. I don’t have any white compound, but I’ve got some pink scratchless if you think that might work?

Jeremy
 
The end is nearing. I have managed to get through the big hurdles with the build and have learned a whole bunch of things along the way that will hopefully make the next one better. I wanted to make a pocket clip for this knife, so I got some .040 Ti out and went to it. There were some challenges...but it's at least functional. I milled a pocket in the scale for the clip so where it attaches, it's recessed.



Here it is attached with some of the heat coloring from getting it shaped:



Then it was time to work on the lock side liner. Things were going swimmingly until it was time to fit the lock face on the bar to the tang...then I ground too far and it was time to start on a new liner after I got done being irritated with myself... I suppose I could've started a new trend and left it like this? ;)




Second time around, it went much better and it locks up really well. No rocking of the blade at all and an early lock up. I also managed to get the detent set just the right depth. I like it when the tang rides on the detent as long as possible before falling off so there's very little distance from coming off the detent until the lock face engages. I didn't want to get too close to the lock face, but next time, I'll bump it a bit further so it stays on the tang a bit longer.




I also made a cut in the off side liner and scale to make pushing the lock bar open a little easier.




After finish grinding, I hand sanded to 800 on the blade and 1000 on the tang. Thinking of giving it all a ferric chloride bath to see how it looks and how the finish would do after carrying for a while.







Thanks for looking.


Jeremy
 
Looks great! I like that side grain micarta. Everything looks very well proportioned too.
Way to go
 
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