How I build a custom knife

[Blade]

Hello,

I will cover the steps that I go through to build a custom knife in the following pics.

The first few pics show how I lay out my parts, If I don't have a steel pattern I will use a printout or copy of a cad drawing or a hand drawn picture. I cut and spray glue the drawing to the material, in this case .125 titanium. The process to make the blade is the same as the handles or scales, I already had this blade made and heat treated, so that process will have to be shown in a future post.

[Blade]

The next pics show how I clean up the blade on the disc sander to remove the burs left by the saw. Then I mark the holes with a punch and drill with a 1-72 tap drill.

[Blade]

I drill the front side first or in this case the back because this will be a left handed knife which means that it is set up with the lock to be pushed by the left hand thumb so it is on the right hand scale. Then using small vice grips I clamp the two scales together and drill the second one using the first as a pattern. While I was drilling the second scale I broke the drill, the second pic shows the tool that I used to remove the broken piece which you can see in the third pic .

[Blade]

The next step is to tap the holes on the lock side scale, I use a tapmatic for this step but hand tapping works just as well just use a guide and you wont have any problems. Then I clearance drill and countersink the holes in the front for flathead screws.

[Blade]

Alright, it's getting late so I will show the next few steps and then cal it quits for now.

After the countersinks are done I screw the two scales together, then I drill and ream the for a 7/32 pivot pin which is the pin that the blade swings on. After that hole is done I place a try pin in it to hold the two halves steady and drill and ream the stop pin hole for either a 9/64 or 5/32 pin. The stop pin is what the blade opens and closes against.

[fluxcored]

Wow! Very informative and I like the pics detailing each step. Can't wait to see the rest.

[Rob.Wilson]

Nice one Blade   

Looking forward to seeing some more ,,,,,,,,,, very interesting 


Do you sell the knifes you make ?


Rob 

[Divided he ad]

Blade,


I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued.... I'm waiting to see about the spring. Always wondered how, what material and how to get it working properly?

Just one of those things, I've had a penknives since I was a kid. Always useful. Just current muppets over here are making it difficult to own a penknife without getting looked down upon for doing so? (different topic all together!    )


Still, looking forward to a good description of that bit 




Ralph.

[Blade]

Hi Rob,
Yes I make the knives to sell. It started as a hobby and turned into a business. A big plus is it allows me to get all the tools

Hi Ralph,
If the pic or link works here is how the lock will work, this knife doesn't use a spring on the tang of the blade it uses a lock cut out of the liner or scale.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1126.snc4/148833_130774430309047_100001294710363_172305_2318228_n.jpg

[Blade]

I will show how to set up the lock and cut it and how to make the lock face, which is where the lock contacts the blade when I get to that step. The fit is very important to the function of the lock, if the two parts are out of alignment you will either have a lock that slips or a lock that sticks so bad you can't unlock it.

[Divided he ad]

Aww... No spring 


No matter.... I'll be watching to see how this is done too.... Everything that someone else crafts is teaching material 

I'll not promise to remember it all....(don't have to, it's on 'ere)  But I'll recall some detail someday when I'm stuck doing something     







Ralph.

[Blade]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued.... I'm waiting to see about the spring. Always wondered how, what material and how to get it working properly?

[/quote]

I can answer this question for you even though this knife doesn't use a spring. On most slipjopint knives with a spring the material is usually the same as the blade and you just heat treat it to a slightly lower hardness than the blade. The way that you adjust the tension is by removing material from the spring on the inside of the knife. The shape of the end or tang of the blade also plays a role in how the blade opens and closes, there are points that work like cams to make the blade "walk and talk" which is the snap right when it is full opened or closed. I attached a very basic drawing that I found on the web. 

[Brass_Machine]

Oh I love this. Very interesting... Like seeing the process. Can't wait for it to be finished.

Tell me about that drill press?

Eric

[Blade]

The drill press is  a turret made by Burgmaster, by pushing backwards on the handle you can switch to the next drill bit, there are 6 chucks. The head moves clockwise so I have my drill bits in order starting with an 0-80 tap drill then 1-72 and 2-56 drills. I also have two countersinks for 0-80 and 1-72 screws. I have three of them two are model 0-b and one is a model 1-d, the 0-b's are 1/4" capacity and the 1-d is 1/2" capacity. They are great machines for knifemaking because I don't have to change bits all of the time between different sizes.

[Blade]

OK, here are some more photos. The next pictures show how I profile the handles on the flat platten on my belt grinder. This is done on an 80 grit ceramic belt and I grind close to my marks but leave a bit for finishing with the finer belts. The third picture show the profiled parts.

[Blade]

The next step is to make a couple of washers out of black toughened nylon. I use a couple of different cutters to punch out the washers. Then I place the two washers on the sides of the blade and measure to determine the thickness of the stop pin center section and the backspacer or standoffs which are held between the scales by the three screws.

The last two pics show 3/16" 416 stainless in the lathe being turned for a stop pin. On this type of knife I use a shouldered or stepped stop pin because there is nothing to retain the pin.

[Blade]

The next photos show the knife assembled to check where it needs adjustment, as you can see in photo 24 the blade doesn't open far enough so I took it to the grinder to remove a little material. Photo 27 shows the result, the amount of material that you remove can quickly change the position of the blade so you have to be careful not to remove too much, I am also using an 80 grit belt so I need to leave a bit for finishing.

Photos 28 and 29 show the same procedure as I adjust the knife for the closed position.

Well it is late so these will be the last photos for the night.

Thanks for all of the interest, please keep any questions coming.

[Divided he ad]

Thank you for the Drawing... Suppose if I hadn't been so busy (or idle?) I could have found similar myself?   


It is a very nice set-up you have there, as Eric pointed out... The drill/s are cool 


Very good of you to provide so many pic's, I might one day give something of this sort a try.... It'll be a one off I assure you. I'm not really into the production run kind of stuff. Makes my hobby seem more like a job! 




I note you haven't got the Quote thing down yet.

Just as a bit of help, if it has you perplexed.

The way I do it is :-



Start a reply as you always do.

Scroll down to the bit I want to quote. (it's usually in the few posts listed in the topic summary below. )

I highlight the phrase I wish to use, using the left mouse button and dragging the cursor across the words.

Then I right click on the highlighted box and click on copy.

I then return to the reply box above and right click in the position I want the text and click paste

Then drag the cursor across the text to highlight it and then click the quote box (second in from the right in the lower set of boxes, looks like a speech bubble with 3 lines in it)

Once it has put the [ quote ] things either side of your selected words (this bit's important) click the left mouse button anywhere on the screen. If you touch ANY key it will erase the highlighted area! 


Hope that's not too complicatedly written?  Once you have done it once or twice it's quick and easy 




Alternatively, just write [ quote ] and then everything after it is in a quote box, till you write [ /quote ] .... Just remove the spaces I've put in between the word quote and the [ thingamajigs!



Oh yer.... Always click the Preview button too, good to check what you're about to post!








Ralph. 

[johnbaz]

Hi Ralph

Have a look here, it the (british) home of custom knife making

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/forum.php



John


EDIT- DOH!!!!- sorry, i forgot to say, Very nice work Blade that's a smashing linerlock


.

[Rob.Wilson]

Great stuff Blade 

Enjoying the thread 


Rob 

[Divided he ad]

John,

Nice site... Although I'm sure it has all the details I want, it's huge and would take hours finding out the details I seek.... and I'm feeling a bit over worked and possibly lazy 
 
Not to mention my literature induced narcolepsy        


I think my time is best spent asking our new resident expert for now 




Ralph.

[Blade]

I think my time is best spent asking our new resident expert for now 




Ralph.

Cool! I have been on forums forever but I don't think I have seen the quote set up like that before. Hope I have it worked out now. Thanks for the help!


Thanks to everyone who has checked out my thread, I will be adding some more soon.

[Divided he ad]

Thanks to everyone who has checked out my thread, I will be adding some more soon.

Looking forward to it 



I've been on very few forums, mainly cause I really like the people on this one 






Ralph.

[Blade]

Time for a little update.

In the first pic I am removing some material from the inside of the handle, it was a little too wide at that section and I didn't like the way it looked. I am using a horizontal grinder to do this step, this is a machine that I built out of some spare grinding wheels that I had.

The second pic shows my setup for cutting the standoffs which are the spacers that go between the handle scales, these pieces are cut to the same thickness as the blade and the washers combined, so in this case they are .165 and I need three of them. They are cut by using a bit in the tailstock as a stop for the 3/16" titanium, I then butt the parting tool against my stop and advance it .215 which is the thickness of my standoffs plus the thickness of my parting tool. Then I just part off and check my part, if it is off I adjust for the difference and then just advance the material into the stop again and cut the rest of the parts. By doing it this way I never have to move my parting tool. In the next picture I am center drilling my parts and the final pic shows a drill chuck I use to finish drilling them all the way through. This chuck has a base on it so that I can stand it up on the drillpress.

[Blade]

Two more pics for the night.

The next picture shows the liners assembled with the standoffs, these parts have to be all the same dimension or you will have a problem with the blade being off center and hitting the sides or binding and not opening and closing smoothly.

The other picture is of some little boxes i make on the mill for handling parts as I am working on them, the two compartment box is nice when you are polishing screws or some other repetetive steps because as you finish a part you just transfer it to the opposite side.