My Latest Two Folders

Laredo7mm

Laredo7mm

Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
1,240
Sorry for the bad pictures again, I will get better ones in the morning. But here are my latest folders. Both have blade, bolsters, and back spacers made from 51 layer slow twist damascus and heat colored titanium liners. The top one has Amboyna Burl scales and the bottom one has Beng Burl scales.

Over all length.......6.625
Blade length..........2.75
Weight.................2.5 ounces

I played around with the stop pins and bolster screws between the two knives. One has a hidden stop pin and the other has a screwed in pin.

As always, let me know what you think, good or bad. Thanks for your input.

folder2_3col2.jpg
 
MAn those look nice. The only thing I can see is maybe countour the handles a little more. Not just roundover the sides but I can see these (looking down on them) having a cokebottle shape to them. Nice!
 
Nice work Sean. It must be nice to make your own damascus and be able to just use it like a normal material. ;) For what it's worth, the screwed in stop pin makes the setup look a little unbalanced to me. I like your handle profile a lot, it's hard to do anything even remotely original for folder handles and these look good.
 
I got to see one of these folders in person yesterday during my visit with Sean. They're really great size, nice knives. I'll post more when I recap our visit, but Sean's shop is pretty cool. He has knife stuff all over the place in his house, too! Every drawer had something hidden away in it! We started making some damascus but I must be a bad luck charm. Read about it in the thread later!

Suffice to say, these knives are sweet looking little folders. Can't imagine having something that nice banging around in my pocket with change and my little Burt's Bees tin, though! :D
 
Looking good bud! I like these. I've become pretty mute about where screws are located anymore, they all look good to me. Sometimes, getting them lined up perfectly takes away from it a little, but both of these just look fine Sean.
 
The one on the bottom is the one I saw. The upper one has a blind stop pin, which is how I know. I like the lower one better because of the placement of the screws, now that you guys have pointed that out, but I doubt I would've noticed on my own.
 
Yeah I had some running design changes on these as I was making them. I agree about rounding the edges. I wanted too, but it all looks different in CAD than in real life. It looked like I had plenty of room on my computer, but when everything was getting drilled and tapped things were closer to the edge than I wanted.

I updated the above post with a little better picture taken in gale force winds and snow.
 
Really nice....I hate you :D

I really like the looks of these but I have to agree with Brian and say that I'd like to see them contoured more. They look a little flat and sharp around the edges still.
Another thing, since your using the same material for your blade and backspacer, why mess around with a stop pin at all? Just lengthen the backspacer a little bit and then you have a nice flat joint that won't peen, and more importantly you don't have that seam. I've made a few this way and like it a lot better. It can be a little trickier getting clearance for the blade than with an open back, but since you already have the full spacer, you've got that figured out already. Just need to lengthen it a little bit.

Thats a hell of alot better than I can do though, and to think you've only made a couple of them :eek: You suck :D
 
Hey guys, thanks for the great feedback. I love to here "what people really think" It helps me to make a better knife.

Matt- I was thinking about that today, but my back spacer is mighty thin at the point where the back of the blade butts up to it when fully open. One of the knives has a much better fit in that area than the other. Just part of learning when to trim to fit. Ideally there would be no gap. Practice, practice, practice. :D

Bruce- Yup, new for me. These are numbers 2 and 3. My first one was a working prototype to figure out how they go togther. I used Ray Roger's tutorial that is on his website. Thanks again Ray!

I am working on the next one right now. I have moved the screw locations a bit to give me a wider lock and to have them flow down the knife better. I even have the scales counter bored already. The biggest reason the above ones are not countersunk is that I had some issues getting the countersink centered on the screw holes in the scales. I am using a harder scale material this time and was able to get everything centered. Before, the counter sink would grab the wood on initial contact and off center the countersink. I tried to counter sink them a couple times but all I did was add to the scrap pile.

The next one should be cleaner with rounded edges and the counterbore thing. I don't have an 1-72's so i am using some 0-80's. I am also using a new/old pattern that I developed a year ago. Hopefully it didn't get too distorted from forgin out what I had. Also another first on the next one is that I am using synthetic material for the scales. Should look neat, but I have been wrong before. :D

Thas again for the replies, I appreciate it.
 
Thouse are great, but as was stated I too feel they need a little conturing. You've got plenty of material, you just need to counter sink to get the screws below the material.

I've bought several small packs of screws that I'll probably never use just trying to figure out what to use. I can say stick with torx, and I use almost exclusivly 1-72 flat head screws. I am experimenting with button head screws and think I've found a counter sink that will work for them and let me get better countoring that the flat heads. On the flat heads just use an 82 deg. counter sink and counter sink just enough to get the screw flat to the scale/bolster, leave that area flat and raidius the rest.

I cant' wait to see what you come up with next, great job.
 
Might want to concider hardening the bolsters, that way they'll etch the same as the blade instead of having a different shade to it.
 
When I showed my buddy the first one he asked why there was such a difference in the etch of the blade and bolsters. I told him because the bolsters are not heat treated.

That was last saturday, and needless to say, the bolsters, back spacer, and blade have all been heat treated and are tempering right now. All that is left on the next one is grinding the blade, etch everything, and final fit and finish.

Keep your fingers crossed for an improved looking folder soon. Still shooting for today, but it will probably roll into the wee hours of the morning. I seem to do my best work after midnight. Go figure. :rolleyes:

Thanks again guys for your honest comments. It is what I look for from you all. What better input can you get than from your fellow knife nuts?

Edited to add: How much of a radius do you usually put on them. Just enough to break the edges or like 0.0625 or more?
 
Sean Those look great, i like the top one best. Do these have a lock (like a liner lock)? how about add a thumbscrew, i only get knives that i can open one handed since i crushed one wrist in a motorcycle wreck about 20 years ago. :D
 
Yes sir, they are liner locks. I always forget to drill the hole for the thumb stud before heat treat. Plus, I have not found a thumb stud that I like yet. Most are too wide for me to incorporate into this design, so for right now, I am not adding one.

I think what I am going to have to do is design and make my own studs. Damascus or mokume most likely. I just haven't gotten that far yet. I might make one for the one I am working on right now. I will just have to buy a carbide drill to go through the hardened steel.
 
Laredo7mm said:
Edited to add: How much of a radius do you usually put on them. Just enough to break the edges or like 0.0625 or more?
Click to expand...

Huh?

I just take the beltsander to it the same way I would a fixed blade or anything else and round stuff off however I like. Go for a comfortable grip, that looks nice. Some spots I take a whole bunch off, and some spots just get the edges knocked off. You've got enough meat there you could have given them a little bit of a palm swell, or made them taper from back to front. All kinds of things you could have done. They look really cool as is, but its almost like you stopped with just profiling the scales. You could take them a lot farther if you wanted and make them top notch :eek:
 
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