- Joined
- May 16, 2008
- Messages
- 87
Just to be clear, I am not a knife maker - I am an attorney that loves woodwork and has a passion for knives.
I have been collecting and gently tinkering with knives for years, but a couple recent custom projects have inspired me past the point of no return. I bought my very first auto knife, a Dalton Ranger (still have it) from a guy named Mike Turber at World of Weapons in
Jacksonville, FL, about 25 years ago (still have his card). I was going to get a Microtech Socom D/A, but I was a little short on cash at the time and grabbed the Dalton. He also sold me a an inexpensive lever lock called a Scorpion which had, and still has, a warped blade. I was so happy to buy an auto knife, having always thought they were illegal, I didn't examine it well, nor did he. LOL.
About a year and a half ago I commissioned Kaleb Reynolds (Muskratman) to modify a modern Lepre automatic into a mammoth-scaled beast with mokume bolsters, a large rectangular button (his signature) and no ears. I officially had the custom "itch".
Move ahead to about 8 months ago and thanks to Bill DeShivs, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the 2016 Blade Show, I was then introduced to "Picklock" Pat Havlin who worked with me over the past year to build me a 12" piece of glorious knife art: an ivory handled (sorry Dumbo) square button stiletto with Mike Norris Hornet's nest damascus. That knife can be seen in a separate thread here and I named it the "Tuxedo Sticker." I only hope one day I can even come close to that level of quality.
So in the interim, armed with not much more than an old 1x42" craftsman belt grinder and 10" bandsaw, an angle grinder, a bunch of files, a dremel, a buffing wheel, a small map gas coffee can forge, and the miracle called YouTube which shows you how to make just about anything under the sun, I fabricated my very first friction folder. Damn it- I'm pretty proud of how it came out!
I used a cheap billet of random damascus I grabbed at the 2017 blade show, made handles of black linen micarta, inlaid the scales with silicon bronze TextureTec in Gila pattern (thanks Alpha Knife Supply) to give it a Japanese-ish stingray feel, and finally, I borrowed a feature from Morris Knives - I incorporated bottle opener so It has some extra utility on beer-friday.
I hate "stealing" an idea and I want to buy one of their knives eventually, but Morris Knives are 8 months back ordered and I can be impatient at times. Using a dremel and a triangular file I copied a simple file work pattern on the back of the blade from another another knife (I didn't want to get too crazy the first time out).
After watching a dozed or so videos and just about every episode of Forged in Fire, (twice), I heated the blade portion until she was glowing red and quenched it in warm motor oil. (Word to the wise - quench outside your garage and cover the ground with cement board or your wife may castrate you). It seems ridiculously hard to me and holds an edge very well. I don't need to beat it against a thigh bone or baton it against a coconut to know that "it will keeeel".
I didn't heat treat the bottle opener side but probably should have in hindsight. I was more concerned about being able to grab the blade from the forge at the time without dropping it on my garage floor which has an Epoxy coating (NOT a good finish if you make knives). I tempered it at 400 for two cycles of 90 minutes each.
Call it a faux pas, but after heat treating, tempering, grinding and some polishing, I etched the blade rather aggressively with a combination of muriatic acid for my pool and hydrogen peroxide (1:3) and then re-ground and mirror polished the pattern right out of the flat sides of the blade so that the damascus pattern is only visible on the main grind. I have no idea of the hardness; I really don't know the composition of the steel I got either. I didn't want to spend to much money on the off chance that I would muck it all up, nor did I want to try and heat treat damasteel or something like that on my first attempt. I think I paid $20-25 for the small billet over near the Jantz display.
Despite the thickness and heft of the tanto-style blade (about 4.4 mm thick and 3.25 in long), I put a 22 degree edge on it as a compromise - somewhere between durability and hair-splitting, and took it up to 5000 with my homemade version of a wicked edge/lansky. It has two points of tension adjustment-- the pivot and the stop pin, and I keep it pretty tight for now to prevent partial pocket opening. I probably should have tried to put in some type of detent but I'm not quite there yet and not sure how to fix a detent bearing into micarta or even if you can??
I didn't go apeshit polishing the micarta because I kind of like the satin look, I know it will see use, and also because I couldn't seem to get much more of a shine out of it. Perhaps I was doing something wrong, but I sanded it to 800 and then hit it with the buffer and white tripoli and it just didn't seem to want to get glossy. Suggestions???
If anyone is wondering, the stop pin, pivot pin, lanyard tube and screws are stainless, and the handle pins are nickel silver.
Considering this is my first deep dive into the pool, I'm exceptionally pleased with the results, (gloating really) despite some obvious flaws here and there.
See for yourselves below and please feel free to point out possible improvements or suggestions. I know there are some grinding errors, but c'est la vie. I have no tool rest on my belt grinder to I have to rely on my eyeballs which aren't so great. I am all ears as far as comments. (And, yes, I am a lousy photographer.)
As a final thought, I am considering etching a mark or my initials on the blade with a battery charger but I need to find a vinyl sticker or something first and watch a couple more videos.
I have been collecting and gently tinkering with knives for years, but a couple recent custom projects have inspired me past the point of no return. I bought my very first auto knife, a Dalton Ranger (still have it) from a guy named Mike Turber at World of Weapons in
Jacksonville, FL, about 25 years ago (still have his card). I was going to get a Microtech Socom D/A, but I was a little short on cash at the time and grabbed the Dalton. He also sold me a an inexpensive lever lock called a Scorpion which had, and still has, a warped blade. I was so happy to buy an auto knife, having always thought they were illegal, I didn't examine it well, nor did he. LOL.
About a year and a half ago I commissioned Kaleb Reynolds (Muskratman) to modify a modern Lepre automatic into a mammoth-scaled beast with mokume bolsters, a large rectangular button (his signature) and no ears. I officially had the custom "itch".
Move ahead to about 8 months ago and thanks to Bill DeShivs, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the 2016 Blade Show, I was then introduced to "Picklock" Pat Havlin who worked with me over the past year to build me a 12" piece of glorious knife art: an ivory handled (sorry Dumbo) square button stiletto with Mike Norris Hornet's nest damascus. That knife can be seen in a separate thread here and I named it the "Tuxedo Sticker." I only hope one day I can even come close to that level of quality.
So in the interim, armed with not much more than an old 1x42" craftsman belt grinder and 10" bandsaw, an angle grinder, a bunch of files, a dremel, a buffing wheel, a small map gas coffee can forge, and the miracle called YouTube which shows you how to make just about anything under the sun, I fabricated my very first friction folder. Damn it- I'm pretty proud of how it came out!
I used a cheap billet of random damascus I grabbed at the 2017 blade show, made handles of black linen micarta, inlaid the scales with silicon bronze TextureTec in Gila pattern (thanks Alpha Knife Supply) to give it a Japanese-ish stingray feel, and finally, I borrowed a feature from Morris Knives - I incorporated bottle opener so It has some extra utility on beer-friday.
I hate "stealing" an idea and I want to buy one of their knives eventually, but Morris Knives are 8 months back ordered and I can be impatient at times. Using a dremel and a triangular file I copied a simple file work pattern on the back of the blade from another another knife (I didn't want to get too crazy the first time out).
After watching a dozed or so videos and just about every episode of Forged in Fire, (twice), I heated the blade portion until she was glowing red and quenched it in warm motor oil. (Word to the wise - quench outside your garage and cover the ground with cement board or your wife may castrate you). It seems ridiculously hard to me and holds an edge very well. I don't need to beat it against a thigh bone or baton it against a coconut to know that "it will keeeel".
I didn't heat treat the bottle opener side but probably should have in hindsight. I was more concerned about being able to grab the blade from the forge at the time without dropping it on my garage floor which has an Epoxy coating (NOT a good finish if you make knives). I tempered it at 400 for two cycles of 90 minutes each.
Call it a faux pas, but after heat treating, tempering, grinding and some polishing, I etched the blade rather aggressively with a combination of muriatic acid for my pool and hydrogen peroxide (1:3) and then re-ground and mirror polished the pattern right out of the flat sides of the blade so that the damascus pattern is only visible on the main grind. I have no idea of the hardness; I really don't know the composition of the steel I got either. I didn't want to spend to much money on the off chance that I would muck it all up, nor did I want to try and heat treat damasteel or something like that on my first attempt. I think I paid $20-25 for the small billet over near the Jantz display.
Despite the thickness and heft of the tanto-style blade (about 4.4 mm thick and 3.25 in long), I put a 22 degree edge on it as a compromise - somewhere between durability and hair-splitting, and took it up to 5000 with my homemade version of a wicked edge/lansky. It has two points of tension adjustment-- the pivot and the stop pin, and I keep it pretty tight for now to prevent partial pocket opening. I probably should have tried to put in some type of detent but I'm not quite there yet and not sure how to fix a detent bearing into micarta or even if you can??
I didn't go apeshit polishing the micarta because I kind of like the satin look, I know it will see use, and also because I couldn't seem to get much more of a shine out of it. Perhaps I was doing something wrong, but I sanded it to 800 and then hit it with the buffer and white tripoli and it just didn't seem to want to get glossy. Suggestions???
If anyone is wondering, the stop pin, pivot pin, lanyard tube and screws are stainless, and the handle pins are nickel silver.
Considering this is my first deep dive into the pool, I'm exceptionally pleased with the results, (gloating really) despite some obvious flaws here and there.
See for yourselves below and please feel free to point out possible improvements or suggestions. I know there are some grinding errors, but c'est la vie. I have no tool rest on my belt grinder to I have to rely on my eyeballs which aren't so great. I am all ears as far as comments. (And, yes, I am a lousy photographer.)
As a final thought, I am considering etching a mark or my initials on the blade with a battery charger but I need to find a vinyl sticker or something first and watch a couple more videos.
