Liner lock thickness?

wilhurley

wilhurley

Joined
May 9, 2004
Messages
252
I'm going to try my hand at making a liner lock. I'm going to use stainless for the lock. What would be a good thickness. I will be attaching handle material to the lock. Also what would be a good choice in stainless for the lock? Also the blade will be .125 thick.
 
I know that 303 is commonly used, but I don't know what thickness you would use for stainless.
 
Titanium is a favorite material, as I'm sure you know.
Liners are getting thicker. It used to be .050, now there's a lot of .063 and I suspect you'll see liner thickness around .075 (in Ti) more often.
If I was going to make a linerlock with something other than Ti, I'd probably use 15-N-20. It's a Swedish high carbon (about .75, I believe), but with a lot of corrosion resistance from a high nickel content. It's an excellent spring material with extremely good corrosion resistance. It usually comes about 1/16 thick, which would be an acceptable thickness for liners in this material. Also, it comes in a condition other than annealed (It's not full hard), but can be worked carefully in the condition it comes. This is useful, because if you use SS for a liner, it should be rendered into a spring condition for the lock.
There are other SS choices, of course.

I REALLY prefer Ti for liners, though.
 
If your liner lock is stainless .050 is plenty strong. Beefy strong really. For titanium I personally prefer thicker. Some of my liked liner locks have .070 and .080 locks and no lock relief just the lock at that thickness bent. (Buck Strider 880 and 881)

These work fine enough that my wife can open and release the lock without issue or complaint. Thicker will wear better also.

STR
 
You might try 17-7 PH. I have not used it but I am going to try. Does anyone have experience with this SS.
 
Heck 410 stainless at max hardness is plenty strong IMO. But I don't know if 45Rc is as high as you want it. As I recall thats the max on that stainless but the ones I've made out of it have tested quite well and stood up to long term beating and wear well with little in the way of indenting or deforming the lock face. The ones I made out of .040 thickness tested out better and took more than the .060 titanium locks did.

STR
 
Yes, stainless is harder than Ti. Ti is strong, but not particularly hard.

I have some experience with 17-4, which is more common and very similar to 17-7. Its a great material with tremendous wear characteristics. It's also nice because it's precipitation-hardening. You simply heat it to something like 900F for a couple hours and that's it. No quench. Max hardness is about 45Rc. Excellent machining characteristics. Not a cheap alternative.
I'm surprised 17-4 is not used more for pins, etc.
 
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