Surface grinder, mill, or lathe?

[Travis Fry]

Jason,


That's what I pretty much do now with sandpaper and a surface plate, but it leaves a visible gap between the blade tang and the liners when the knife is open. Besides that, washers are PITA. If you're ok with the gap, then there's no need to relieve. I suppose if you extend the spring all the way to the front edge of the bolsters, this isn't much of a problem. Just from looking at the pictures on his website, this looks to be what Don Hanson III does.

For my part, I'll eventually get both the mill and the surface grinder (and the lathe too, for that matter). I'm very interested to hear what you come up with, especially for the SG, because i'm similarly constrained by space.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Travis, I've been thinking about a possible solution to that question.

I THINK you could surface grind the spring and blade to the same thickness with your bushing in the blade so that it is also the same thickness as the blade/spring
Then you could grind the blade down another .005 on each side to compensate for .005 washers. You would end up with a blade plus two washers being the same thickness as the bushying and spring. That would give a good tight fit with no blade play and clearance to pivot.

If that is the case then you really wouldn't need a mill as long as your drill press is squared.

I've been thinking about this for a while and would love for someone to correct me if I am wrong so I can move on to think about something else.

Jason,


That's what I pretty much do now with sandpaper and a surface plate, but it leaves a visible gap between the blade tang and the liners when the knife is open. Besides that, washers are PITA. If you're ok with the gap, then there's no need to relieve. I suppose if you extend the spring all the way to the front edge of the bolsters, this isn't much of a problem. Just from looking at the pictures on his website, this looks to be what Don Hanson III does.

For my part, I'll eventually get both the mill and the surface grinder (and the lathe too, for that matter). I'm very interested to hear what you come up with, especially for the SG, because i'm similarly constrained by space.

That's what I do, .005" bronze washer on either side of blade. Blade ground .010" thinner than spring. Easier and faster than milling the liners. Been doing them this way for 15+ years.

I do the same with liner locks, but use .010" washers.

 

[Jason Magruder]

I believe in the Lake/Centofonte book they show how to relieve the liners with chisels and scrapers. It's not that hard to scrape away a couple thousandths of pretty much anything that you'd use for a folder frame.

Actually, an endmill in a drill press should do a fine job of relieving liners too. There are many many ways to skin this cat.

 

[Don Hanson III]

I've done it all and much prefer the washers. Clean, easy and fast...