Slipjoint Washers

[kc custom]

Without creating some kind of a flame war here, I make my slipjoints by relieving the inide of the liner on a milling machine so the spring and blade are
basically the same thickness. When washers are used is the blade thinner than the spring so the knife still looks tight on top? and still allow opening and closing without scratching the blade.
Ken.

 

[John L]

Si Senor...blade is thinner by 2 x washer thickness than spring.

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

I build my slip-joints just like my liner locks. I make the blade .011 thinner than the spring and put one .005 washer on either side. This gives me .0055 on either side of the blade and .0005 extra on either side of the spring so it does not rub on the liners. I also screw my knives together so I can take them apart anytime.

 

[Cubane]

Having tried both methods I prefer the relieve the liners method. For me without a surface grinder it is very difficult to take down the thickness of the blade to make space for the washers and still keep the tang with parallel faces. I can relieve the liners using a poor man tool I heard about. Drill a hole in some micarta for a pin and glue the pin in there and then glue some sand paper to the face of the micarta leaving the distance of the bit of the tang you want against the liners away from the pin hole. If you put the pin in your pivot hole and spin it around you can relieve the liners without a fancy milling machine.

For someone without a lot of expensive equipment that gives a pretty good result.

Alistair