WIP-weekend

[Hengelo_77]

The kids playing in the garden and me enjoying the sun like this.
Not every drawing becomes a knife. Slipjoints have many details interacting with eachother. I find pivot placement one of the most difficult parts.
Just a mm up or down and the point won't fit the handle of the edge will hit the spring.
I like where this one is going but it's not there yet. She could be a bit skinnier and I may lose the top bumb at the butt end.
I hope you had a sunny sunday as well

 

[Hengelo_77]

I got another three almost ready for HT.
At the moment I prefer to have temporary paper micarta scales before I make the final ones, they help me see the final knife. Working with just the metal liners would do the same but this material is cheap and it works easely. I prefer to fine tune everything like this and then copy it in metal.

A leaf spear, a zulu spear and a wharncliffe.

 

[Hengelo_77]

The three from the last post are off for HT. I saved this one for when I had no other knives on the work bench to distract me.
The more I work on this one the more I like the Tony Bose pattern wharncliffe trapper. I'm realy looking forewards to EDC-ing this one!
But also start a new one minus all the improvement points I'm learning from this one.
Enjoying the process
How do you like this marble wood?

 

[Hengelo_77]

I had some setbacks with slipjoints. One of the hardest things for me is making the pivot disappear. It happened a few times in a row that after peening I ground the heads off and it looked good. But after sanding higher and higher the pivor re-appeared. And that gives you such a feeling of loosing!
You've invested a lot of time to get to that point and it all just goes down the drain! So I set all slipjoints aside for a while.

I have a few days off work and yesterday I took this one apart and made new scales for it. I realy was nervous when I got to the peeining part again but it worked and I'm happy again!
I used simple linerless paperstone scales because I wanted to keep it simple and try out that material.
Paperstone is recycled paper with natural resin. The blade is stainless RWL34 and it runs on two bronce washers.
It's nice and light and should make a nice EDC I think.
What do you think?

 

[glennbad]

Each build gets better and better!

 

[ea42]

Beautiful wood on that two blader, looks a lot like camelthorn.

Eric

 

[Hengelo_77]

Nobody said it would be easy and the thing with knife making is that makers usualy only show what came out well and not how many attempts it took to get there.
For me it works best to put something aside for a while if things go behhhhh.
The warncliffe trapper is the same as shown in post #23.
Long story short, making a stainless pivot disappear is a chalange and it had me remake the scales.
I learned a lot and came across many improofment points for the next one but I think it will make a good shop knife.
The scales are vintage red bakelite, and I like the colour.
What do you guys think of that material?

The single blade wharncliffe has vintage paper micarta scales. The blade has a very thin edge, 0,1mm / 4thou. I'm courious to see how that holds up in use.

 

[Brian_in_indiana]

What a cool thread, I'm enjoying seeing your drawings come to life. Are you thinking of selling these at some point? Or is this a hobby project for you?

 

[Hengelo_77]

What a cool thread, I'm enjoying seeing your drawings come to life. Are you thinking of selling these at some point? Or is this a hobby project for you?

Thank you for the compliments.
It is hobby at the moment but I'll consider offering them for sale when I feel the quality allows it

 

[Brian_in_indiana]

I've shown this one in post #11 and #13 with carbon fibre scales.
I've lost count how many times I started over but I just couldn't get it right. Sometimes you just have to let it rest for a while.
I started over and decided to go a completle different way. I had some white(ish) paper micarta and decided on proper barlow bolsters.
It has a 2 11/32" blade and is 3 5/32 overall.

Jigged paper micarta, hidden middle pin, domed back pin and dovetailed bolsters.
I'm learning how to make these sliojoints, I decided to have some fun

If you ever do one of these with a wharncliffe and smooth white micarta..... We should talk..

 

[Hengelo_77]

Not yet weekend but I had an extra day in the workshop.
I'm content with this one.
I decided a re-count and this is my 16th slipjoint if you only count the ones I finished.
I'll carry this one with a little due pride

 

[Hengelo_77]

Vacation is like a loooong weekend, right?
A bit over a year ago I bought an old pantograph milling machine. They stopped making those about 40 years ago, these days it is all CNC.
You can do light milling on it like nail pulls, some engraving like numbering blades but you can also copy images and make them smaller.
So you can make and inlay shields and you can use all different kinds of materials.
At the moment I am just practicing and enjoying myself.
The brown shields are paper micarta in wood and the bottom two are bakelite in paper micarta.
I may try green bakelite in yellow or white material
So how do you guys like non-steel shields?

 

[afishhunter]

how do you guys like non-steel shields?

I like.

I may try green bakelite in yellow or white material

Another nice combo: Bright Red shield in Bright Yellow. (or reversed)

Green in Red or Red in Green would be "good" for a Christmas Carry?

 

[Hengelo_77]

I've been finishing some scandies lately but I also started these slipjoints.
There is a lot to learn but I have the feeling that I am getting somewhere.
The long nailpulls may be a bit high but they function comfortably and with the bevels ground in they'll look different.
The nailnick isn't perfect either but I'm making progress.

I enjoy learning how to make these.

 

[afishhunter]

What do you think?

Please forgive my asking.
Have you considered using brass or blued steel pivot pins, to get an "eye" look?

 

[Hengelo_77]

Please forgive my asking.
Have you considered using brass or blued steel pivot pins, to get an "eye" look?

I have done a steel pin is a bronce shadow disk on a knife.
I like how they look if the pin is in the centre of the disk. But to do that the whole disk is closer to the bottom of the handle then the spine, you can't have the disk or eye centered or you'll end up with a very wide handle and narrow blade. I hope thes makes sence.
If you look at the bottom scale you can see that the hole for the pin isn't in the center of the disk.

 

[CorporalChaos]

Nice work. Hoping to have a workshop of my own someday where I can tinker with making slip joints.

Can you show us some of the equipment/tooling you use?

 

[Hengelo_77]

Nice work. Hoping to have a workshop of my own someday where I can tinker with making slip joints.

Can you show us some of the equipment/tooling you use?

Here are a few pics.
Before I made my first slipjoint I was intimidated by all the machines and tools used by some makers. They are nice to have but you don't need a lot to get started. Part of the chalange is working out how to do things with what you have available. A lot can be done with hand tools.
I have the luck that I can order flat ground steel to my specifications.
I order my blade steel in 2mm and spring steel in 2.2mm. I also have bronce washers in 0.1mm made to my specifications. This way I don't need to relieve the liners.
I have a nice workshop and a good grinder. I grind sitting down. I also have a pantograph machine that has multiple uses.
Inlay shields, mark/number blades and I use it for nail pulls/nicks.

I don't have a disksander, this is how I keep the sides straight

And after using up a Dremel I got a Foredom. A very handy machine.

And you need sandpaper. Lots of sandpaper. Never buy cheap sandpaper, it doesn't work.
Also sandingstones (edm) are very handy for steel pre and post HT

I used a 1:50 reamer before. Today I used this 1:100 for the first time. I think I prefer this one but I messed up the knife somewhere else.

This is what I use for an anvil at the moment. It is all about using what you have.
I'd like to get a real cutlers stiddy, a small slip joint makers anvil but I haven't seen them for sale yet. (If you have one please let me know)

Since there is a washer on either side and the spring is that much wider as the blade it is something else to mind when peening the pivot.
I use a thin piece of 0.1mm bronce wrapped around the spine to keep the blade centered.

And the pantograph. She may be older then I am.

So if tou think about making a slipjoint, just go for it.
There is good info on youtube to get you started, there are a few books and *this* is where the makers help eachother on this forum.
I hope this helps, or at least people enjoy this bit of background.

 

[afishhunter]

If you look at the bottom scale you can see that the hole for the pin isn't in the center of the disk.

which made it more looking forward eye-like, to me.
Very sorry. I'll "Shhhhhh!!!!" and go away.

 

[Hengelo_77]

If you want to learn how mo make slipjoints you have to willing to write off hours and hours of work. You can do everyting right but find out that one small detail should have been different. That means back to squire one! (if you are lucky you end up with another shop knife)
And things can also go wrong without you understanding why. Now that is frustrating!

After a while I was able to let the pivot disappear in a shadow disk or bolster. And then out of nowhere they started to come back. All that work and this little ugly 3mm circle keeps looking at you!
I tried different techniques, different tools, but nothing helped!
It ended up being the pin stock. I have 3mm holes and 3mm pin stock is not exactly 3mm.
The stock that showed up in the bolsters is 2.94mm. I now have 2.97mm and I'm back in the game!!!
0.03mm ~ 12/1000" (twice the thickness of a human hair)
You guys can't imagin how relieved I am!

I got some work back from HT. The first one is about getting back in it, and have a new self made knife to EDC without the pivot showing.
Might as well have some fun.
Here in Euro-land some coins are made of nordic gold. And if the coin stays shiny, how about a shied?
I use 2mm ~5/64" steel and I managed to engrave the kind of steel I use. How dou you guys like that?
It also has a nail pull on either side. I like to pince a knife open and double nail pulls give a bit more grip and I like the looks of it.

Three more slipjoints back from HT to finish and a new EDC that I can show with a litte pride.
Slipjoint nr.19, RWL34 steel and WW2 rag micarta.