All About Pocket Knives

Nice looking knives guys!
I got a package at the post office today too.

Wayne sent me a beautiful trapper, nicely file worked on the springs and spine of the blades, with grooved bolsters and beautiful wood handles.
I am not sure what the wood is, but if I had to guess I would say Koa, possibly stabilized Koa.
The Fit & Finish on this knife is superior to anything I have seen from a factory in many years. outstanding F&F!

I am very pleased, the knife is beautiful!

How did I do with my guess about the wood Wayne?


OOPs, guess I should post the pics before I hit submit!

Dale the wood is stabilized maple. I had several pieces of this wood that looked like this. An unusual reddish color with a marblized look to it. I neglected to take any pictures of the finished knife but will post some pics of the process.

Wow! Thats purty! Nice work Wayne! You got one heck of a knife there Dale!

Randy

nice stuff fellas, looks like everyone is making out good on this one

Here are some in progress pictures of the mod I did.

I started out with 2 spay blades and 3 liners from some trapper conversions I did. First pic.

I re-profiled one of the spay blades to change it to a clip and added a new short pull and swedges. I add the nail nick using a cut off wheel in a foredom rotary tool. Third pic.

Silver soldered bolsters to two of the liners. Third pic.

The black lines between the bolsters and handles are black vulcanized fiber.

The handle slabs that were cut from the wood block were sanded flat and then glued and pinned to the liners.

The pre-drilled holes in the liners serve as guides for the drilling of the pivot pins in the bolsters and center and end pins for the frame. It is always good to have a solid piece of wood behind the handle material to keep from breaking out material as the drill bit passes through.

The rounded parts of the ivy file work is done free hand with a rotary stone that is chucked up in the drill press. The small thorn indents in the file work are done with a cutoff wheel in a foredom rotary tool.

After all the parts are ready for assembly the knife was put together with nickle silver pins. Pins are peened and then sanded off smooth. I always epoxy the pins (other than the pivot pins) before inserting and peening them.

Wow, some really excellent craftsmanship being displayed here. Where to start. ...

Randy picked a nice piece to work on. Those Germans sure can make good steel, the half stops must be like icing on the cake. I'm especially impressed by the hand jigged covers, and admire anyone with the patience and skill to do so. Excellent job!!!

Wayne, you mod is just superb, looks high and tight in every way, no details left to chance. I was eyeing the black spacers, just adds to the overall package. And the filework, amazing stuff. Something I just haven't had the patience for yet. The maple does have an excellent color and pattern to it.

Great stuff, everyone!

I looked pretty closely at Randy's knife and couldn't tell if the liners were integral with the bolsters. No visible seam. Well they are integral. Randy mills the from one piece of aluminum. Talk about sturdy!

Spot on Wayne! Here is a pic of the milling rig to show how it works. I don't have many tools and the ones I have are low quality. I modify them the best I can and try get everything to perform multiple functions. some day I'll get some good machinery. You can see here that there are two aluminum slabs in a machinist vice. This vice moves in both the x and y axis. Its bolted to a drill press. The cutting is done with an end mill bit. Not a precision set up but gets the job done. A little file work one both pieces to clean them up and there are ready for scales!

Randy

Most excellent, even better when it is done with less than optimal equipment!


I didn't take any WIP pics of my project, just before and after.

Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention....wasn't aware Wayne was doing such quality work. Well done to all of you. I should have got in on this, just to disappoint someone, lol

This little gem from orvet showed up yesterday. Enjoy!

That looks cool. Kind of a hybrid capped barlow pattern.

Lot's of original design ideas with these knives, great stuff!

Looks like it would be up to any task. I recognize the Xelite blade but what are the handle, liner and bolster materials?

nickel bolsters, ebony handles, brass liners