Recommendation? Folding Knife Tutorials

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Nicegy525

Joined
Nov 28, 2011
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I have perused the depths of Youtube and found plenty of how to's for making a fixed blade. Fixed blades arent as practical for EDC on my world and I would love to learn how to make some folding knives.

I have no idea where to get hardware, how to design and build, what tools might be required apart from traditional fixed blade making.

I have made several fixed blades myself and taken some basic instruction in forging and bladesmithing.

Can anyone point me to some resources for me to research?
 
Ekim Knives has a great series on making folders. I did it the backwards way and made folders before making my first fixed blade. It’s all about planning and setup and getting things flat and parallel. I’d learn a basic cad program and draw a bunch of designs to figure out the geometry of how folders work.
 
I just started making folding knives about a month ago. I started with friction folders because they are pretty simple and a great way to get into folders. I made my first thinking that would be the only one I made before moving on to lock back knives. Honestly, I have really enjoyed making these knives. I also enjoy carrying and using them way more than I was expecting. I am just going to stick with friction folders until I get tired of making them. Anyway, there are several build-a-longs on YouTube that I found that were helpful. I get pivots, screws and stop pins from USA Knife Maker and Alpha Knife Supply.
 
I'll second the Ekim Knives tutorial. It's long and I believe broken down into 15 "episodes" but he does a great job of describing the process, tools, and design for making folders.
 
This thread was great, has downloadable plans: Slipjoint Tutorials and Advice

Good books:
Slipjoints My Way - Don Robinson
Slip-joint Folder Designing and Building - Steve Culver
The Lockback Knife: From first Design to Completed Folding - Stefan Fronteddu

Free Videos:
Andrew Riley's series on slipjoints

Videos for Purchase:
Chris Crawford's site - Chris has several tutorials of his methods and those of others. I bought the Luke Swenson slipjoint video and the Allen Elishewitz basic tactical folder video. Both are excellent, I'm sure I'll buy more from Chris's site. He as some on different types of automatic knives as well.

Chris also lists a treasure trove of resources on his site here.
 
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First decide what kind folding knife you want to make, slipjoint, liner lock, back lock, other.
Then search on that.
I find youtube etc handy but prefer a paper book as a basis
 
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I make linerlocks, but also started with friction folders. First look at the series from USA knifemaker - simple to understand and lots of info. Then look at the whole series from Ekim knives, which goes a bit more in depth. Finally, read the book from Bob Terzuola as recommended above.

For resources, I can help if you are in Europe, otherwise someone else will.
 
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