My version of the Lum Chinese folder

[Chiro75]

It's a fixed blade version of the Lum Chinese folder as mass produced by Spyderco. I first developed interest in this knife about 5 years ago. I saw a picture of Bob's original titanium-handled folder and I commissioned a kit knife version in D-2 from Madpoet. A little while later Spyderco announced that they would be doing a production version of the folder. Bob Lum also makes a fixed blade version of this knife, and other makers, notably Jens Ansø, make their own versions. This style of blade is called a "leaf" blade and it's obviously an appealing and useful shape.

The version I made is a little different from the original in several important ways. The profile ended up just a little rounder (when you consider the radius from the tip of the knife to the butt), the handle is a little bigger and the blade is slightly larger, too. Also, the knife has a full convex ground blade and the major modification is the finger notch behind the choil. The wide blade of this knife makes it more of a slicer, so I'm sure draw cuts are more intended, but the major "complaint" about the original is that the hand could easily slide up onto the blade. So, I solved that with the deep finger notch. Here are the specs and pics:

Measurements: don't have it in front of me, but it's about 5-10% larger than the folder version, tops. Can provide exact measurements to those interested.

Steel:1084 clay treated and quenched in oil. Triple tempered. 1/8" thick. After heat treat the blade was etched in ferric chloride, sanded, etched and rubbed with a wet white Scotchbrite pad.

Grind: Hand ground convex grind from edge to spine using files. Slight, subtle false edge to be true to the original, lighten the blade, thin the point and add some visual interest.

Handle: Handle scales are 1/8" black G-10 finished to 220 grit with 1/4" stainless steel tubes as "pins."

Enjoy the pictures and let me know what you think! Thanks to Bob Lum for creating a great knife and Spyderco for bringing it to the masses! I hope my version does it justice.

This is the planning stage. The Spyderco folder fits EXACTLY onto a 1.5" wide piece of steel. Upsettingly, the white marks I made washed off really quickly, so I ground the profile freehand on a cheap bench grinder with the folder open in front of me and just sort of eyeballed it.

Here's the knife after gluing the scales and clamping, waiting for the epoxy to cure.

Here's a good view of the handle up close. It's almost exactly to the original, except for the finger notch, of course!

For some reason I couldn't post all my pics, so they're continued in Part II:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2613980#post2613980

 

[neetones]

you did that grind with files!?

wow, I'm impressed. That blue G-10 looks terrific too. Well, it looks blue at least.

Nitin

 

[Chiro75]

Nope, it's black. I "color corrected" most of the pics in Photoshop, so it looks pretty blue in some of the pictures with the natural light, but it's black G-10. Originally the buyer was going to go with blue G-10, but when I came up with the idea to uise stainless tubes I found two pieces of black G-10 I didn't know I had, so we went with that.

As far as the grinding, yes, it's all files. Here's my process:

1) Hacksaw to general shape. Looks like hell, especially since I use triangle-shaped cuts for the finger notch, just to remove as much metal as possible.

2) Refine shape on bench grinder with rough grit wheel.

3) Use Dremel with sanding wheel to complete the finger notch.

4) From then on in it's ALL files. I currently use a mixture of push cuts to get the general shape, then I thin down the radius of the convex edge by draw filing. I draw file the false edge, too. It's pretty precise and you have plenty of time to not screw things up by rushing!

5) I use old sharpening stones and water to get the majority of the scratches out from the filing, many of which can be really deep. Then it's wet sanded with 220, 320 and finally 400 grit paper.

Lots of work, but it's enjoyable and after doing a couple dozen knives this way I'm actually pretty fast with it. A real grinder would make life a lot easier, though! They call these files "bastards" for a reason! I also use a bastard file to shape the handles, followed by wet sanding. G-10 is extremely easy to finish and it grinds with files very nicely.

 

[Rugger]

And she's headed my way!
Thanks Amigo- Can't wait.

 

[Nemo]

Bravo Steve.
this is a another beauty !!!

cheers

JM