Part 1 of my techniques for making liner lock folders

Brian,
I think I understand what you mean. The long cut? Yes, I've seen quite a few that did the cut to match the shape of the handle, usually laser or waterjet cut, and they add good looks to the handle.
For the guys cutting with a fiber disk, slitting saw, or bandsaw, it might be more difficult to do. With a liner lock, it gets covered up with the handle scales but on a frame lock it is exposed.
 
Kit, thanks for the stop pin notch in the blade tip!!!!! It sure makes things come out more precise and more refined looking!
I'm working on a batch of liner locks and ground and shaped the blades today and was wondering, why not finish up the stop pin blade adjustments and then drill the hole for the detent ball all the way thru the lock tab and drill the detent in the blade at the same time? I don't see how you could get anymore precise than that. Whatcha think, any problems I'm not thinking about??
 
Mike,
You can do it that way. I just prefer to do it as the last thing. If you remove even a tiny bit of metal the holes get out of alignment. If you put the detent ball in before you harden the blade, you end up with a grooved track in the blade.

Hope you enjoy Part 2.
 
Wow, I can't believe it. Part 2 is up and 580 people have visited this thread but only 6 or 7 have responded with questions/comments. Is it too confusing or too simple?
The intent was to stimulate some conversation on the many different ways of building a liner lock.
Don't be bashful, jump right in.:) Part 3 covers the detent ball and final fit and finish.
 
Kit, thanks again!!! I woulda messed up 4 more blades by drilling the detent pre-heat treat. I didn't even think about the need for clean up after heat treat and that removing even a few thousandths would make a big difference in lining up a 1/16" ball in and hole.
 
Kit, two questions. Do you use a bushing on the pivot? I may have missed it on my read thru, cause I read worse than I make knives. When putting the handle screws thru and getting them flush with the liner, how do you grind them flush without changing the liner thickness? I cut and grind mine in a jig, then install them. It is a slow death. How do you go about it? mike
 
Mike,
I don't use a bushing. I tried bronze oilite ones and on a large hard use folder they just didn't hold up.
I put the screws thru the liners, cut them off flush, and clean up the ends with a worn 400 grit belt.
 
I started reading it but it was too long...
could we get a two sentence condensed version with no large words??
 
Sure Tom, I can do that. How's this?

Start with a piece of steel.
Take away everything that doesn't look like a knife.

Sorry for the long second sentence, and thanks for the contribution:)
 
Kit you write..
Dykem the tang of the blade on the split side. Put the blade into the handle, slip 2 washers onto each side of the blade and put the pivot bolt in. Holding

Do you only use 2 washers when scribing the lock end on the blade? Then use 1 washer the rest of the time?
 
Bill,
Typing error. Should say 1 on each side. The intent is to get all the parts in their final position before scribing it.
Now, let me try to correct it.
 
there is one question that has been buggin me.
kit,when you are drilling your handle material and bolsters to attach to the liners,how do you control the depth of your step drill bit? seems like it would be easy to drill you step too deep,and instead of having the step then the smaller hole for the screw to go through,you would just have one large hole.
does that make sense?
 
Mo,
Makes perfect sense, and a good question.

On my drill presses, instead of the threaded rod and nuts I have a hub that spins around to the depth you want and can be locked in place. I let the drill bit bottom out at the correct depth.
 
When I do finally amass all the equipment together I would rather use screws (:p to Herman) than pins. Dunno why,just seems easier...of course,pinning isnt that difficult to do anyway.
 
Heres a tip from the peanut gallery on cutting screws off flush.
I took a pair of bull nose wire cutters and ground the face of them so the cutting edges were at the very front. To cut a screw even with a surface like a liner I just put the face of the cutters against the liner and snip the screw. Then hand sand the rest off flush and smooth. I tried the grinder way but 99% of the time I'd end up touching the liner and messin it up.
 
Kit, what size drill bit do you use to drill the hole for the detent ball in the liner?
I tried a 1/16" like I have before and the ball just pushes right thru the hole. Could the type of titanium make a difference in this??
 
Mike,
I'll cover the detent ball and final fit in Part 3. Should have it ready by mid week.
In case you need it now, I use a #53 (.059) for a 1/16" ball and a #49 (.072) for a 2mm ball.
 
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