The Crease

[SteelMyHeart85420]

Seems I've read/ seen the question asked before, and an answer given. I must be aquiring geezerdom, cause I disremember the purpose of the lengthwise crease between the bolsters on traditional pocketknife liners. Just strength/ stiffening? Someone wanna rattle the marbles loose, help me remember?

[jerryd6818]

I have to confess my ignorance. I have no idea what your talking about. Would it be possible to provide a picture?

[gsmith7158]

I have to confess my ignorance. I have no idea what your talking about. Would it be possible to provide a picture?

I agree. For a moment I thought maybe it was a word puzzle. Went way over my head.

[Beavertail]

What They said

[orvet]

It opens the pocket just a bit at the top so the blades don't hit the liner.
I will post a picture on a bit.

[whitebuffalo58]

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... ilit=liner


WB

[thefarside]

A photo of the crease. Hopefully Dale's picture will be a little better.

[jerryd6818]

Well, I'm going to need a picture. I read Rob's thread, looked at several knives and didn't see anything that looked even remotely like a "crease".
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Even after Jim posting a picture, I don't recall ever seeing anything like that. Is that only on old knives or certain patterns?

[btrwtr]

This die pressed crease is added for strength. It is much harder to bend the liner with this added.

[tongueriver]

Learned something! I had noticed this phenomenon and thought it was a defect.

[just bob]

I've taken hundreds of knives apart and observed that some knives have this crease and others do not. I always thought it was due to the expansion / contraction of the handle material. Would have never guess it was designed that way. Thanks for posting.

[peanut740]

It is to keep the blades from rubbing the liners.I don't think it is done on all patterns.

[btrwtr]

The knives I have seen this on always had the depression pointed inward toward the cavity. Given this I don't see how it would afford the blades more space to keep from rubbing, in fact quite the opposite. I've always thought it to be a structural strengthening method. The liners will lay perfectly flat against the handle material at the edges and bolsters. The recess created will be between the handle material and the liner.

[Sharpnshinyknives]

The knives I have seen this on always had the depression pointed inward toward the cavity. Given this I don't see how it would afford the blades more space to keep from rubbing, in fact quite the opposite. I've always thought it to be a structural strengthening method. The liners will lay perfectly flat against the handle material at the edges and bolsters. The recess created will be between the handle material and the liner.

Most likely a crease in metal is for strength. That’s why the bed of a pick up truck is constructed of bent and creased metal and not flat sheet metal.
SSk

[SteelMyHeart85420]

Yeah, shoulda posted a picture with that....Thanks for the responses, gents

[FRJ]

I knew what SteelMyHeart85420 meant because I have read about it some time back and it must have been on this forum because I don't do knife lingo no where else.

[KnifeSlinger#81]

Well as they say, you learn something new every day.

[OLDE CUTLER]

Here is a Case 6254 that I have apart now. You can see how the liner follows the straight edge down from the top of the picture, from the spring side (rocker pin hole visible) and flairs out away from the straight edge at the bottom (arrow). I always thought it served the dual purpose of stiffening the liner and opening up a little more space in the blade well so in case the blades are not perfectly aligned, they would not rub on the liners. On the shell handle conversions I have done, when I make the new liners I have never put this crease in them and it doesn't seem to be an issue.

[Miller Bro's]

It's called a dish or dishing, it was done long ago with the peel end of a special Cutler's hammer, they also made a hand die, much later a machine dished out the scales (liners).

The purpose was to create a dish shaped hollow in the scale so the handle material would lay flat and tight to the scales.

[SteelMyHeart85420]

I can see the (secondary) benefit of stamping to ensure scales are laying flat at edges of liners, but as was stated earlier, two machined surfaces shouldn't need too much help with that...I'm going with the stiffening that the crease/ crimp would provide, unless there are better answers still out there

[Miller Bro's]

...I'm going with the stiffening that the crease/ crimp would provide, unless there are better answers still out there

Ok, I hope you find a better answer.

[ScoutKnives]

Miller Bro’s is correct , it was done to hold / keep the liners snug to the handles . While installing handle pins this would insure a spring type connection to both handle and liner .

[orvet]

There is a video on YouTube that shows Trevor Ablett making this crease on a liner when assembling a knife. He doesn't call it a crease he calls it "dishing." He is showing Grace Horn how to make knives the old-fashioned way. There are actually three videos and they are quite informative. However I cannot understand what Trevor is explaining to Grace about the reason for the dishing. He tells her a you have to put the dishing in but I cannot understand the rest of what he says.
This occurs in the first video (there are three) at about 1:30 in the first video.
https://youtu.be/oE9ZR1ixP6w
Maybe someone with better hearing who understands Trevor's accent better than I do can translate for me. It seemed to me that his explanation to her involved the wooden handle somehow, but I could not really tell why.

They are on YouTube or they are also on the video link here on AAPK. They are on page 3 and page 2 of the video pages.
See the video link at the top of each page next to the FAQ icon.

[SteelMyHeart85420]

The "doming" hand motion he made, and a reference to a gap, makes me think the reason does lie with keeping the scales flat. Fascinating design feature Wonder which knives I have without a "dishing", and how the scales lie on those...reason to pull a few out and look!