Thoughts on some ideas for a project?

J

jason41987

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May 9, 2012
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I have a few ideas for a homemade knife project and I was looking for some thoughts on some of the ideas I had for that.

First idea is to make a penny knife. A small piece of steel tubing, slotted, pressed (and perhaps epoxied) over the turned down handle, pinned in blade. Like an Opinel but no lock.

The second idea would be closer to that of a Sodbuster crossed with the Opinel. Metal liners, wood scales, with a couple washers to add friction, like you'd get in an Opinel from the wood. So it'd be a friction folder in the style of a Sodbuster vs a slip joint.

My third idea is to make a Sodbuster type with my own idea for a slip joint which instead of having a pivoting piece of metal powered by a spring, it'd be one piece, probably 5160 pinned to the liners on the back, and in the middle, and forward of the middle pivot the material would be thinned out (like the portion of a frame lock), all given a spring temper and have a one-piece slip joint.

I am leaning towards something similar, so leaning towards one of the first two ideas for a custom folder. The blade for either of those could be made from modifying a fixed blade with enough of a tang to make a pivot.
 
The first two sound like a form of friction folder.
I'm not following your one piece sodbuster idea. Can you sketch it out and post the drawing?
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
The first two sound like a form of friction folder.
I'm not following your one piece sodbuster idea. Can you sketch it out and post the drawing?
Click to expand...

Wait, don't Sodbusters have a spring that applies tension to the back spacer, or does that piece itself flex? I don't have a Sodbuster so I just assumed from seeing them that there was a spring. I guess they don't so the third idea would just be a Sodbuster

And yeah, the first two types would be friction folders I guess, since they'd be held open and closed by friction with the handle. I think I would prefer that setup because if the blade does move during use, there's less risk of it closing on your fingers.
 
As far as I know, the sodbuster is more of a blade shape. The knife is a standard slip joint … with a back spring. The spring applies tension to the tang of the pivoted blade to hold it in the open or closed position. The backspring on a slip joint is pinned at the non-pivot end and roughly in the middle. The spring is often reduced in thickness between the center pin and the tang to adjust the tension.

I would suggest you make a standard friction folder. You could go for a "Mountain Man" type folder where a stag crown or other piece is used for the frame and the blade is forged with an extended tang. Some are super simple, and some have an external backspring and ring pull to open and close.There are several low cost books on making these type knives. The books, "Little Uglies", and "Antler and Iron" come to mind.
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That is just a thin brass escutcheon plate, but I do see what you mean about it looking like a diamond shape turning tool insert.
 
What is this "ring pull" you speak of? Is that some kind of a manual lock? I'd be interested in some ideas for simple, manual locks too.
 
The ring or lever on the spine is used to lift the backspring so the blade can fold shut. The spring also applies pressure on the blade tang when closed to hold the blade in the shut position. This is an improvement on the simpler friction folders with nothing but the pivot friction to hold the blade shut, and the extended tang keeping it in place when open.

Do a search on "Friction Folders" and "Mountain Man Folders", or buy one of those books. They explain it well. You will find this style called a "Blacksmith Knife", or "Folding Blacksmith Knife" in some countries and in old smithing books.

Forged In Fire did an episode recently where they had to make this type knife.
 
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