All About Pocket Knives

Going by the old adage “A picture is worth 1000 words,” I decided to make this tutorial mostly about pictures. There are about 18 pictures total so in the first post I will post pictures of the Foredom drill press.
This is not a tutorial about inlaying shields but about some of the tools that I use when I inlay them.

The first four pictures show the drill press laying on my workbench with fuse from front and rear, and both sides.

These are really out of sequence but the next three pictures are the three different types of Foredom handpieces I have.
I use the #30 the most, in fact I have two of them and those are most always on both of my Foredom’s unless I’m using one of the other handpieces for a specific purpose.

The #44T grips the shaft of the bur through the use of collets, it comes with three sizes, the largest is ¼", the middle is 1/8” and the smallest collet is 3/32”. I have used this quite effectively with all three sizes, but I normally leave it set up with one of the small burs I used for cleaning up a shield inlay, such as the one I have and it now.

The #50 Foredom handpiece is the reciprocating handpiece, which is used frequently by jewelers to texture metals like gold. I use this handpiece infrequently but I use it when I have difficulty peening a handle pin for whatever reason. Obviously this is done when the knife is apart and a handle pin just does not seem to want to peen down on the inside. You can’t leave it domed because it will usually rub the tang so I it has to be flattened. If I am using brittle handle material such as used bone I will gently use the reciprocating handpiece to peen down the handle pins without having to hammer on a pin in a fragile handle.


Pictures 8, 9 & 10 show the Foredom drill press set up ready to use with the #44T handpiece. In the next post I will show a sample knife, grabbed off my workbench, in the contour vise I usually use when inlaying shields.

These first two pictures show and Imperial Easy Open Jack locked into my Knifemakers Contour Vise and ready for a shield to be inlaid. Ironically this pattern made for the US military World War II generally never had a shield!

The next two pictures show the instructions for the Knifemakers Contour Vise, which my wife purchased for me about 14 years ago when I started repairing knives. They were in the Jantz supply catalog last time I looked but I couldn’t find them online, but then again I always preferred their paper catalogs to their online catalog. If you going to be doing a lot of shields especially if you have problems holding your hand steady I highly recommend this Knifemakers Contour Vise. It is highly adjustable and conforms to almost any pocketknife.

I’ll post these up and y’all can ask questions and I’ll try to answer them the best I can. Keep in mind my way may not be the best way; it may not be the fastest way; it may not even be the right way; but it is My way, and subject to change without notice. One of the absolutely marvelous parts of AAPK and the knife mechanics forums is that there are a lot of good ideas exchanged here and I have on more than one occasion completely changed a process that I was using in favor of a new methodology posted by someone in the forums!

Great stuff Dale! I like your setups, especially that contour vise.

Thanks Glenn, the contour vise is quite useful in allowing me to hold a knife securely will writing on it.
I believe it was $80 new. My wife bought it for me when I started working on knives.

That contour vise is pretty slick! I see they’re still available at grs.com for $107 (https://www.grs.com/product/003-622-kni ... tour-vise/).
I don’t have an immediate use for one but I kind of feel like I should buy one anyway.
Thanks for posting this info!

Dale great setup for sure. I also love the contour vice. Believe it or not when I inlet a shield I do it free hand holding the knife with a dremel 4000. Lol it takes me longer for sure. I believe I will look into getting a contour vice. Maybe I can use my foot injury for some sympathy from my wife to help persuade her to let me get this super cool tool for my shop. Thanks for sharing Dale. I always enjoy your posts.

Thanks for showing, picked up a knife vise, at Jantz, for 89.95. Wouldn't have known about it, without your help.
Would love to see you work with your stuff!!!!!

Doc B wrote:Thanks for showing, picked up a knife vise, at Jantz, for 89.95. Wouldn't have known about it, without your help.
Would love to see you work with your stuff!!!!!

Thanks Doc! That’s considerably cheaper!

I am glad the info was useful to you guys.
I didn't use the contour vise for probably 3 years after I got it. It was something I had to grow into. Once my skills advanced I needed the vise, but inlaying shields is about all I use it for.
I think I could use it to file bolsters, in fact I am thinking about doing that on an upcoming project...

I am getting ready to post a rehandle and I took lots off pics until I started to put it together, then I ran short on time and skipped most of the picture taking for the reassembly. How much for my post in the next couple days on a Buck 301 rehandle.