Liner locks?

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
Once you have the blade shaped, including the lock up and stop pin area, and hardened, and have the liners all cut out and the lock tab cut and the end cleaned up, how do you make the precision adjustment to make the lockup right? I made a jig to hold the liner and sanded the end of the lock tab but didn't find this a precision operation. It was way too easy to take too much off the tab or get the angle wrong. Then I thought about sanding the part of the blade that hits the stop pin. This made it alot easier to not take too much off but it still made it hard to get the angle just right. I sure wish there was a jig I could make to use on my mill or lathe to take all the guess work out of this. Thanks for any tips you can give me!!!!
As soon as I get the keepers made, I'll post some close up pix of the jig I made.
 
Michael, you're not alone! :) I have been wrestling with this same problem on every folder I've made. What I've been doing is leaving the tang a tad long and then cutting the lock out a tad long. Just a few thousandths on each or as close to that as my eyes can make it. Then I VERY carefully grind the tang to fit the lock on the disc sander with 150 grit. Actually, it's not that bad once you get used to it and pretty darned accurate.

Now, the complex part for me anyway, comes from HOW to make that cut in the lock so that no filing is necessary. I find that if I have to file the lock face then I might as well forget it and throw it away. It always ends up crooked, rounded, etc. So I have endeavored to find ways to cut it smooth and even the first time. So far, the dremel cut off discs have been the way to go for me. However, I'm about to receive a slitting saw from Reese Weiland any day now so I'll be trying that.

I don't know how critical the angle of the lock face is on thinner liner locks, but on the framelocks it does make a huge difference. What I'm finding is that with a tang angle of about 7.5 degrees I want the lock face to be about 4 or 5 degrees or I don't get good contact and lockup. Or the lockup is sticky. The last folder I did I used the drill press to hold the arbor and disc and my sliding vise to make the cut. I shimmed up one side of the vise to give me the angle. It was a little tricky but it worked well.

Now I'm looking at the Mighty Mite table saw and wondering if the table angles at all. Maybe popping a 4" cut off disc in it might work for lock cutting. I'd really like a dedicated machine or jig for this though. Any other ideas??? Darrel, Kit??? :)
 
Sorry if I haven't been posting much lately. I'm slowly getting back into it.

If you guys can put up with me, I can do a folder class, concentrating on the lock. I do it a little different than most, but it works and is pretty simple.
 
Absolutely Kit!!!!!!!!!! One of these days I'm gonna be up in your end of the country!
 
Kit,

How about putting up a tutorial thread concentrating on the lock for those of us who can't make it to a class?

Thanks -chris
 
Chris, I am puter illiterate. How do I do that?
I'd like to do it like the Chat we have. You puter smart guys figure out a way and I'm game for it.
 
Kit, take some pix of all the thingamahickeys you use and write up the instructions and I'd be more than happy to post em online and post the link here.
 
Can do to kit..
type her up in word copy it and paste it
in an e-mail if you want.
I can host the page, and put it on as part of a
how to do page I want to put up.
 
Thanks Kit. I'm just now checking back in. Thanks also to the others who said they can help. I too would be glad to host the page if needed to.

The idea I was thinking of was to start thread here and post pictures and instructions in the thread. That way, when people had questions, they could be answered here and everyone could read them along with the tutorial.

-chris
 
Good Idea Chris
nothing wrong with the way think are being done now.
but you know
there doesn't seem to be a place (one place) that everyone can
go to to find all the answers at lease a lot of them,
yes you can search in many different places.
but like ED said a little web school would be great
fact stuff that's been done links to tutorials, 
 Bruce has some nice ones going, along
with other makers but you have to hunt to find them.

I think I'm going to start one for the hell of it
to see if it will fly.
if any makers want to help let me know it may be some 
 extra advertising for you too with links to your pages and pictures of help tutorials.
 I'll address it as www.KnivesBy.com/knifemaking.html this is a dead link until
the end of today
 please pass it on and we'll see what interest we get.
 Spark or one of the moderators may be able to move it around if they were to be so kind. :)
 
No, I haven't forgotten:)

Where do I need to start? Do you guys want me to just talk about fitting the lock, or do you want to see my technique from the beginning?
 
Kit, what ever you want to do I`ll take all the info
I can get. Now doing it after I get it, thats another
matter:rolleyes:
 
Mike
Fit the back of the blade not the liner.
Make a fixture that holds the blade at the correct angle.
Then take a little of the back of the blade.
Simple.
 
Kit
If you put it as a tutorial and of course anyway
you want it said,
I'll copy it and put it in the web page as
Kit Carson's method for a folder lock.
and it will be in the Archives,
 So any and as much as you want.
 only if OK with you Kit?
 this would be like a how to book on line
of course pictures tell a thousand words too.
tell me what you think?

http://www.knivesby.com/knifemaking.html
 
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