I've always loved folding knives and always knew I wanted to try making them when I started forging fixed blades. They've been more than a little intimidating, but with a lot of help from great folks and a lot of research, I'm finally giving it a go. I came up with a liner lock design that I liked fairly well and went with it. The blades are going to be from 1080 since it was the bar stock I had that fit closest dimensionally. I have some Damascus I made, but didn't want to waste it if these end up in the bucket 'o shame. I decided to make 4 at once. Figured I might as well do more than one, that way if I mess something up horribly on one, I can just keep going with the parts from the others. I had a bit of a design flaw some guys helped me out with and I wanted to get back to them after thinking about the next steps all day. So, here's my progress from the night.
I managed to get 4 sets of scales dove tailed; 2 are stabilized spalted Maple and the other 2 are black Micarta. I got the side that will face the Ti liners on the Maple ones good and flat on my disc. I'll end up going up in grit (only 220 at the moment) and probably finish them on my granite plate along with the Micarta ones, too. I'm thinking about using some more of the Maple for the back spacers on those 2...
I also got bolster blanks cut out; 1 set of Wrought Iron, the other 3 are Ti. I wanted to do at least one more in WI, but it was taking forever to cut the wagon wheel rim in half...so I gave up and used the Ti... I got one face of the WI nice and flat and will get them, along with the Ti dove tailed to match the scales. I used my mini hand tapper (littlemachineshop.com) for the first time tonight. I tapped the back spacer holes on one liner and got each pair all screwed together. I'd never used a tap before, but am starting to be REALLY glad I got the hand tapper; 12 2-56 holes threaded with absolutely no problems at all. After they were screwed together, I started getting the liner profiles taken down closer to finished. That's where the "fun" began...
I've never ground Ti before tonight. The sparks thrown are REALLY bright. Like burn your retina kind of bright. I found they are also extraordinarily hot, too. I looked down and found my flannel shirt was on fire
. The hole was about the size of my fist and quickly growing. This may surprise some of you, but I've actually caught myself on fire before, while welding...with this same shirt... So, I fell back on my previous experience and proceeded to slap my stomach far harder than I'm certain anyone should, and put the flames out. I finally decided it was time to come in when I burned the crap out of my finger after grabbing the liners right where I'd just been grinding with a 50 grit belt. No one has ever called me overly smart...
So, anyway-here's a pic of where I'm at.
I've made some bonehead moves (other than the ones written about above), but so far it doesn't seem any will make the parts thus far unusable. I still have a ways to go and I'm really hoping I can put a decent grind on the blades and not screw those up. But, here's to hoping I'll end up with at least 1 in the end that works like a folder ought to. I'm nowhere near the level of maker most on here are. But, I figured I'd at least share what I'm working on and if I'm lucky, someone smart will see something I'm doing dumb and tell me. Thanks for looking and if you have any advice, I'd be very happy to hear it.
Jeremy
I managed to get 4 sets of scales dove tailed; 2 are stabilized spalted Maple and the other 2 are black Micarta. I got the side that will face the Ti liners on the Maple ones good and flat on my disc. I'll end up going up in grit (only 220 at the moment) and probably finish them on my granite plate along with the Micarta ones, too. I'm thinking about using some more of the Maple for the back spacers on those 2...
I also got bolster blanks cut out; 1 set of Wrought Iron, the other 3 are Ti. I wanted to do at least one more in WI, but it was taking forever to cut the wagon wheel rim in half...so I gave up and used the Ti... I got one face of the WI nice and flat and will get them, along with the Ti dove tailed to match the scales. I used my mini hand tapper (littlemachineshop.com) for the first time tonight. I tapped the back spacer holes on one liner and got each pair all screwed together. I'd never used a tap before, but am starting to be REALLY glad I got the hand tapper; 12 2-56 holes threaded with absolutely no problems at all. After they were screwed together, I started getting the liner profiles taken down closer to finished. That's where the "fun" began...
I've never ground Ti before tonight. The sparks thrown are REALLY bright. Like burn your retina kind of bright. I found they are also extraordinarily hot, too. I looked down and found my flannel shirt was on fire
. The hole was about the size of my fist and quickly growing. This may surprise some of you, but I've actually caught myself on fire before, while welding...with this same shirt... So, I fell back on my previous experience and proceeded to slap my stomach far harder than I'm certain anyone should, and put the flames out. I finally decided it was time to come in when I burned the crap out of my finger after grabbing the liners right where I'd just been grinding with a 50 grit belt. No one has ever called me overly smart...So, anyway-here's a pic of where I'm at.
I've made some bonehead moves (other than the ones written about above), but so far it doesn't seem any will make the parts thus far unusable. I still have a ways to go and I'm really hoping I can put a decent grind on the blades and not screw those up. But, here's to hoping I'll end up with at least 1 in the end that works like a folder ought to. I'm nowhere near the level of maker most on here are. But, I figured I'd at least share what I'm working on and if I'm lucky, someone smart will see something I'm doing dumb and tell me. Thanks for looking and if you have any advice, I'd be very happy to hear it.
Jeremy