Part 1 of my techniques for making liner lock folders

Kit Carson

Kit Carson

Joined
Oct 6, 1998
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2,300
I finally finished Part 1 of my techniques for making liner locks. This is the first installment and it covers from the start to fitting the lock. Feel free to come back to this thread with your comments/questions/whatever or you can email me at kcknives@bbtel.com

Thanks go to Dexter for editing it and Dan for putting on his Knifemaking tutorials site.

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

Dan should have it up and running soon.
 
Ayyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Thanks Kit, Dex, Dan!!!!!!! Sure is sweet to be able to learn from the best there is!!!!!! Outstanding!
 
Excellent.I could not make a knife if my life depended on it, but it sure gives me some insight into what is put into them and the how's and why's. Thanks
Had me running for my Mod 4:)
 
Thanks Kit, Dex, Bruce, for your time to get this started. 
as makers contribute, it should make for a great mini web
school. Ed what do you think, Ideas?
 I see I will have to make changes as we go here.
 
And i am not even a knifemaker. Kit, when you are talking about bending the liner, you say that the liner should have a general radius to it, and not a single bend; Is there a time (like at a certain liner thickness) that you would want a single bend in the liner, so it would be more like the bends i have seen on frame locks?

thanks

Brian
 
Brian,
If the liner is bent in one place on a liner lock, when you push to release it, that point will hit the handle material and put too much force on the liner, usually causing it to push the blade off center. If it's done correctly, when the knife is closed, the liner should be straight and flat. On a frame lock, it doesn't matter as much since there is no handle for it to hit.
Hmmmm, did that make any sense?
 
Thanks guys :)
Now Kit...how come you don't clamp the liners together and drill 'em together? Jest curious whether it's personal pref or whether you've discovered some weakness of that method, thanks.
 
Wow Kit! Thanks for putting the hard and speedy work in on a tutorial!

I have a question on that bent liner issue as well...On a framelock I often see two scallops but sometimes I see only one. Is there an advantage to the two rather than the one? Perhaps strengthening the lock since you're not relying on just the one place for the relief to occur?

Also, on your lock cutting technique, you mention that you drill two holes to indicate the starting and stopping points of the split. I take it that the bit you're using makes a small enough hole that when you make the cuts the holes just end up getting assimilated into the cuts? I have tried that but my holes were too large and I ended up with a radius showing at the top of the short cut so that my lines weren't totally crisp.

I would love to see a pic of your lock face grinding jig.....

Thanks!
 
Ferret,
Probably personal preference. The way I rough cut the liners out made it hard to be sure there was enough material around the edges, without making each piece larger than needed. It helps with the confusion when you have alot of pieces to drill and tap. The one with the Dykem and scribe mark is always the solid side.

Peter,
I feel that the thickness of the side plate on a framelock determines how many and how deep the relief cut should be. On most of them I mill into the side plate above the rear hole, leaving about .070 material, and mill it to about 3/4" back from the lock. That area is where I put the serrations/notches use push against to release the lock.
I use a #55 drill bit to mark the two holes for the split. Doing it this way makes it easier to keep the lock position in the same place.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon.
 
Thanks, got it :)
FWIW, my technique is now to match drill the backspacer holes, tap, screw 'em together and only then match drill the pivot and stop pin holes. Seems to eliminate small variations caused as the tap bites. Then again, I'm still learning and get confused real easy :)
 
LOL, Ferret, I do just the opposite. I drill the pivot holes first then stick the pin in then drill the stop pin. To keep things flat on my drill press I have a chunk of aluminum channel material with a couple of dozen holes drilled in it. This gives me any number of positions possible for my piece even if it has stuff sticking out of it and I can clamp it down with KantTwist clamps. I press fit the stop pin as Tom Anderson taught us, then proceed to the spacer holes. ON a couple of knives I have done the spacers first then the stop pin last, it all depends on whether the knife is a duplicate or a new prototype.
 
Ferret,
No doubt that you are right. Even Mike O is doing a few things different from the way I showed him.

What pictures do you guys think I need to post?
 
Chuck Bybee said you might be doing this, and I was sure hoping you would. I am really looking forward to learning from you. Dont know when i will actually get time to work on folders, but I sure want to.. Thanks again for the time and effort you guys have invested in this project.
It will be greatly appreciated by many..

Trace Rinaldi
 
You could do endless pics...I think the parts that would benefit most are the lock cutting and the U-channel trickery...
 
I'm real curious to see how you manage to slip that bandsaw blade in there and also the lock face grinding jig.
 
I'm not a knife maker, but I know I will be some day. Still, I love tutorials to learn all that goes into making a knife. I know that Kit has helped a lot of makers over the years and when I get around to actually making real knives I hope he'll let me visit his shop. I'm still surprised he had the time to write all of this.

For a tutorial like this you really need some good closeups of how the parts relate to each other and go together. I think this tutorial is very well written and I'm sure somebody could follow along and get a lot out of it.

Good work Kit, and thanks.
 
Guys,
I have Part 2 being edited by the Master and will get it posted soon.
This one covers up to finishing handles/bolsters.
 
kit, what do you think of knives that have a relife cut that is curved to follow the contours of the handle? I have a few drawings that would benifit from this type of cut, i also think that my LCC has a curved cut.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Brian
 
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