Stan Wilson Advisor III - a making of thread

PART XV

This how the scales get attached. The round part of the milled pocket on the back of the scale will drop over the discs.

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The scale will slide towards the back along the short side of the L until it meets the rear bolster.

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It will the slide forward along the long leg of the milled L until it meets the front bolster, tighten the screws down and its locked in place.

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The knife is assembled without the blade and the scales are sanded down to the liners.

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First shaping pass at 60 grit.

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6 grits later, this is a Trizact A-16 finish.

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Time to layout the lock cut. The lock angle on the blade has been roughed in, the blade, spine and lock side liner are assembled and
the lock is scribed into the liner, I like to use an X-acto knife for this.

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I drill a #60 hole at each end of the lock

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This is what I will use to cut the lock, a regular filing jig and a larger version that I made.

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Place a # 60 drill in each of the 2 holes drill for the lock and place the liner in the fixture.
I'll put the other liner in the fixture also to even out the clamping force.

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To be continued ...
 
PART XVI

Ready to cut, I'll set the speed on the mill to the slowest speed, 78 rpm

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With the mill on I will brig the saw down until it just touches the top of the fixture.

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Center and plunge cut the lock. I'll cut in until the saw hits the holes.

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The curvature of tyhe saw will leave the ends un cut on the backside of the lock.
I'll turn the fixture around and finish the cuts.

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Now that the long cut is made I set up the short cut. I'll place the filing jig on the liner about .010 off the line scribed for the short cut.
The closer this is lined up to the scribed line the less will need to be taken off the tang of the blade.

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Drop it in the fixture like this.

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Remove the filing jig and The scribed line is now .010 below the top of the fixture.

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Touch off the saw as before and make the second cut.

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Before I take the liner out of the fixture I will sand the face of the lock to 400 grit.

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I don't like to over cut with the saw so there is a little web I will cut out with a jewelers saw.

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To be continued ...
 
PART XVII

Flame the lock.

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Sand the lock cuts.

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Even though this side can never be seen unless the knife is disassembled I'll sand it anyways.

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Bend the lock.

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After the lock is bent I will dykem the tang of the blade and assemble the knife.
I scribe a line along the lock face onto the blade.

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The tang will get ground down to the line.

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This is my set up for fitting the lock. I made this years ago before I had a mill or surface grinder, it's just a block of steel with a couple of bolts
on the bottom to tilt it to the angle. There are an 1/8" and a 3/16" pivot pin at the front edge and a few holes for a stop pin to drop into.

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To be continued ...
 
This is probably the most detailed WIP Thread I have ever seen!
Exciting to follow Stan's artistry.

Thanks Stan and thanks Jochen for the in-progress presentation!

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
 
PART XVIII

The blade fits over a pivot pin and a stop pin keeps it from rotating, The tang is lined up with the platen and a bar is clamped to the work rest
to keep it in line. Grind a little off the tang and check the fit, minor adjustments can be made by tapping the guide bar lightly left or right.
This allows the blade to be removed from the block to check the fit and then placed back exactly in the same place.

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Almost there.

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This is where I want the lock to fit.

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I have marked the spine for grinding the tail fin.

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This is a Trizact A-16 finish

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Both sides of the fin have been ground and hand sanded to 1500 grit and the notches on the back bolsters have been ground in.

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Bolsters have been hand sanded to 1500 and the scales have been polished.

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To be continued ...
 
WOW!! what a great post! It is an amazing opportunity getting a glimpse of the process. I like how the pictures make it all look so easy but it really is quite a bit precision work. Thank You:D
 
WOW!! .... I like how the pictures make it all look so easy but it really is quite a bit precision work. :D

I think that displaying the complex process in such detail
only shows how complicated it is and how much technical
knowledge and capabilities are needed to create such a piece...
And this is before even mentioning the artistic-design talent of
the knifemaker which shines through all he way and cannot be
taken for granted... :)

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
 
Nice to see Stan's detailed process. It's an eye opener for sure, and a throughly enjoyable thread...:thumbup: Best, Rich
 
I think that displaying the complex process in such detail only shows how complicated it is and how much technical
knowledge and capabilities are needed to create such a piece...
And this is before even mentioning the artistic-design talent of
the knifemaker which shines through all the way and cannot be
taken for granted... :)

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

David, well said...my thoughts exactly:thumbup:

Marcel
 
PART XIX

I started grinding the blade, here is the initial grind at 60 grit. I covered the blade with Dykem and scribed a line around the front of the bolsters.
I want the grind line to come right to the scribed line.

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Here it is with a Trizact CF A-45 finish.

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Down to a Trizact A-16

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Hand sanded to 1500.

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The top grind is done and the blade has been dusted on the surface grinder.
I leave the blade a few thousands thicker than the final dimension prior to grinding.
I find that hand sanding tends to roll the grind lines slightly taking that last little bit off the flats with the surface grinder sharpens the grind lines a bit.

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This is the finish I get right off the surface grinder with a 46 grit stone. When I hand sand the flats I will start with 800 grit paper.

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Cutting a small notch in the blade with a carbide burr.

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Here is how it looks so far.

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To be continued ...
 
Extraordinary!! This WIP makes it perfectly understandable why Stan's knives are SO SMOOOOTH to open and close. I was amazed when I met him and had the opportunity to handle some knives.

Peter
 
PART XX

Here is how I do the hidden pivot assembly.

The step pivot is screwed down to the front liner, I have a register mark on the pivot and the liner. The pivot must be locked down and unable to rotate.
The register mark allows for proper alignment.

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I will assemble the knife without the bolsters using the proper sized washers, in this case .010
The screw head is marked where I will modify it.

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The pivot screw is inserted into an 1/8 pivot and clamped in a small hand vise.

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The sides of the screw head get ground off.

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The modified pivot screw is in place and the liner is marked for the slot.

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Milling the slot for the screw in the liner.

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This is how the slot should look.

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I will now heat treat both the pivot screws.

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The screws have been tempered to spring temper cleaned up and given a cold blue finish.
The knife is reassembled and the modified screw is installed with locktite, this screw cannot be allowed to rotate during future assembly or disassembly.

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To be continued ...
 
PART XXI

While the locktite is setting up I gave the back fin a little more curve as per the customers request.

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Now that the locktite is set the knife is disassembled and I will now show the assembly sequence.
This is best shown without the bolsters in place.

The spine is pinned on, pivot is screwed down on the front liner and a washer is in place.

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The blade is placed over the pivot and the second washer is in place.

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The slot in the lock side liner is lined up with the modified screw head.

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Then rotated clockwise until it is close to the register pin in the spine.

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The liner is gently lift up to clear the pin.

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Finish the rotation and the liner snaps down over the pin.

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Pivot assembly is done, on final assembly the bolsters would have been screwed on first hiding all this.

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To disassemble, unlock the knife and reverse the process.

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To be continued ...
 
This is a really great thread. I am enjoying it immensely! Bladeforums should vote for the best threads in a given period. This one would win, hands down.
 
It helps prevent the lock from sticking.

So it keeps the lock from sticking to the blade when it's locked up? What happens to the titanium that keeps it from sticking? Thanks for your time in answering what is probably a really elementary question, I just haven't seen the technique before in all of the tutorials I am learning from.
 
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