slip joint question

2

22h2

Joined
Dec 16, 2005
Messages
159
I have made several slip joints and I still run into one consistant issue. I mill the inside of the liners for clearance and for some reason after I install the scales I loose the flat parrell that I had before. I have tried super clue, peining, epoxy slow cure as well as fast cure, I have clamped everything to a flat bar of steel while the exopy/clue cures. Am I the only person that has this issue? I normally use my disc grinder to make everything flat after I have attached the bolster and scales and I normally grind my relief away trying to flaten everything. Any sugestions? I have attached everything a then milled the relief but thats not a real good way since I have to clamp the handle material down while milling and sometimes that doesnt work with bone. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Sounds a little "heavy Handed" if you're grinding your mill relief away. I have heard of other people
having similar trouble. Try only hand lapping the inside the liner after you cut the mill relief, and my best
luck on the glue has been with the planer blade/flat surface with thick CA and don't use kicker.
I've got 3 variable discs and can't hold dead flat on any of them like I can with hand lapping. Hope this helps.
Ken.
 
Good info Ken,

22H2,

A couple of questions, what material are your liners, how deep are you milling your reliefs and do you have a cap bolster(bolster on both ends of the knife)?

When I first started building slipjoints I had a similar problem as your having. One of the biggest culprits IMHO is fitting the scales too tight between the bolsters. Any scale material is going to expand and contract at a different rate than the liner/bolsters. I used CA glue the same as Ken Coats does now, but I have better results using Gorilla Glue. I can not speak to why this is but I know my scale/frame/bolster assemblies are flatter after gluing now then before. Keep in mind the glue is really only to facilitate the build. I rely on proper peening/spinning of the pins to hold everything together, same as the master cutlers did 100 years ago. I do think the glue has a added benifit of sealing the inside of the scales from moisture. I also will mill my reliefs .008 to .009 deep. This gives me plenty of depth to work with when I flatten.

Good luck on your builds!
 
thanks for the replies, I mill my reliefs .08 to .09 as well I use 416 ss for liners and I flaten everything before and after glueing (scales, liners, bolsters,) and then I assemble the to liners together and look for gaps If I see any light between the two I flaten until it is gone. I will try the gorrilla glue I havent done that yet but I would really like to master this lol it seems so simple but it really causes me a lot issues and I'm sure it is some little something that i'm not aware of, some have went together without any issues.
 
22h2 said:
I have attached everything a then milled the relief but thats not a real good way since I have to clamp the handle material down while milling and sometimes that doesnt work with bone. any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I also did want to add this about milling reliefs after the scales are attached. There was a WIP thread a few years ago by a maker I do not remember. He built a jig to hold the assembly inverted with a cutout and was able to mill his reliefs even if the frame assembly had rough textured stag or bone. Maybe someone will remember this thread?

You may also want to check out this WIP I did a while back. I think there maybe some information you can use in your builds.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Ken-Erickson-whittler?highlight=slipjoint+wip
 
Why not just use washers?
I don't understand reliefs and washers- they make the blades less stable-just to prevent "swish" marks.
The marks are expected on folding knives.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Why not just use washers?
I don't understand reliefs and washers- they make the blades less stable-just to prevent "swish" marks.
The marks are expected on folding knives.
Click to expand...

Bill,

The reason that I do not use washers, and I assume most other makers is that the blade thickness would have to be thinner than the backspring. I have seen knives with washers and and do not like this difference in thickness when the blade is in the open position. My customers demand that the knife does not have the tangs marked from opening and closing. If you look at the way I mill my reliefs you can see that the surface the tang rides on is maybe 10 to 15 percent less than if I had not relieved. And certainly no less than if I had used washers.

IMGP0873_edited-1.jpg

IMGP3976_edited-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
I build slip-joints and make my blade .010 smaller than the spring and use 1 .005 washer on each side to make up the difference. No wear marks and no milling.
 
Ken,
I see what you're doing now.
For some reason, I was assuming you were milling away the entire liner, leaving only the raised portion.
 
Ken, thanks for posting the WIP great work you have no idea how that helps us new makers thanks again.
 
22h2 said:
Ken, thanks for posting the WIP great work you have no idea how that helps us new makers thanks again.
Click to expand...

Anytime! Do not be afraid of PM'ing me if you want with any questions. Just remember, and I have stressed this many times, that the way I do things may or may not work out for you and the style of your knives. There are many ways to skin a cat.
 
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