Modified Production Knives (traditional only)

jsdistin said:
Maybe too much work for what essentially look like cheap advertising knives but whatever, the kids like them.
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I think you did an excellent job with those. They look better than professional. Lucky kids! Those will be something they will treasure all their lives (if they don't lose them, like I did most of my stuff as a kid)
 
Might be the wrong forum, but for all you guys and gals that have re-assembled a folder, how do you keep from having gaps between the spring and liners? Just keep peening till it tightens up? I kind of hate to just beat the bejabbers out of it, but I can't think of any other way to close the gaps during peening.... total noob question, I know, but.... I'm a total noob at this.

I'm almost finished with turning a two blade barlow into a single blade, but there are a couple of "gappy" areas. This one started out as a delrin handled two blade with a spear main, so I just "un-assembled" it. I went back with bloodwood, and I'm almost done with the finish. I just want to learn from my mistakes, and I haven't seen a "rebuild a slipjoint 101" post...
 
hornetguy hornetguy I don’t consider myself an expert by any stretch and if anyone else has any other ways of doing it or suggestions I’d like to hear them as well. I think having gaps depends on a few things but the biggest is probably what knife you start with, if it has gaps I think there’s almost a hundred percent chance the finished product will as well, especially if it’s due to pin placement or something. What I do to minimize the gaps is to take it apart as carefully as possible, this way I’m hopefully not introducing any gaps. Once it’s apart I flatten them out if there is a need to and then rough sand to get rid of any high spots or burrs. I then spend a lot of time placing the liners together looking for any bends or where they might separate from each other and looking at general flatness and I use pliers to bend and shape them flat, this is probably the most important part because after this it’s very difficult to make any major changes, I spend days doing this placing them together looking for light passing in between and bending as needed. I then glue and pin the covers on and give them their general shape. Then after the covers are glued and pinned on the liners should be pretty flat but the pins need to be sanded down where the liners were peined on. This is the last part with the liners and I make sure to have a very flat surface to sand them on and I hand sand them varying the directions and orientation to make sure they’re not being sanded more on one side or anything again placing the liners together often to make sure everything is level. After this is done I give the spring a quick light sanding just to remove any burrs or anything there. They then fit together as well as they are going to, but I generally don’t expect perfection, I’ve had many GECs that are better but I’ve also had many that are worse. Hope this helps a little, it’s difficult to describe a physical process in words. I’ll try to post some pictures but I don’t think I’m working on anything now.
 
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jsdistin said:
I was going to give making a folder from scratch a shot again but I ordered some 1095 that was too thick by accident. I figured if life gives you lemons, make something to cut them up with, so I decided to give fixed blades a shot. Thanks Rose and Thistle Custom Rose and Thistle Custom for the wood for the handle.
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Edit: I know it’s not a modified production knife, I forget sometimes and just post everything here.
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Who cares? I'm sure some tiresome pedant is not going to pounce on you here....:D That looks a great knife for a whole range of tasks, kitchen too:cool::thumbsup:
 
jsdistin said:
hornetguy hornetguy I don’t consider myself an expert by any stretch and if anyone else has any other ways of doing it or suggestions I’d like to hear them as well. I think having gaps depends on a few things but the biggest is probably what knife you start with, if it has gaps I think there’s almost a hundred percent chance the finished product will as well, especially if it’s due to pin placement or something. What I do to minimize the gaps is to take it apart as carefully as possible, this way I’m hopefully not introducing any gaps. Once it’s apart I flatten them out if there is a need to and then rough sand to get rid of any high spots or burrs. I then spend a lot of time placing the liners together looking for any bends or where they might separate from each other and looking at general flatness and I use pliers to bend and shape them flat, this is probably the most important part because after this it’s very difficult to make any major changes, I spend days doing this placing them together looking for light passing in between and bending as needed. I then glue and pin the covers on and give them their general shape. Then after the covers are glued and pinned on the liners should be pretty flat but the pins need to be sanded down where the liners were peined on. This is the last part with the liners and I make sure to have a very flat surface to sand them on and I hand sand them varying the directions and orientation to make sure they’re not being sanded more on one side or anything again placing the liners together often to make sure everything is level. After this is done I give the spring a quick light sanding just to remove any burrs or anything there. They then fit together as well as they are going to, but I generally don’t expect perfection, I’ve had many GECs that are better but I’ve also had many that are worse. Hope this helps a little, it’s difficult to describe a physical process in words. I’ll try to post some pictures but I don’t think I’m working on anything now.
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Great.... many thanks for this. I was working with an old, semi beat up Kutmaster that had a slight curvature to it before disassembly. I did hammer the liners a little to try to flatten them, perhaps I didn't carry it far enough. I also sanded everything down, without reducing the thickness to any degree... just tried to sort of level off the high spots. I'm ok with how my first attempt turned out, but I'd like to learn how to do it "better".... that continuous improvement kind of thing...:)
 
hornetguy said:
Great.... many thanks for this. I was working with an old, semi beat up Kutmaster that had a slight curvature to it before disassembly. I did hammer the liners a little to try to flatten them, perhaps I didn't carry it far enough. I also sanded everything down, without reducing the thickness to any degree... just tried to sort of level off the high spots. I'm ok with how my first attempt turned out, but I'd like to learn how to do it "better".... that continuous improvement kind of thing...:)
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Sometimes, especially on the older ones it just is what it is. This is a Dwight Devine camp knife in great condition but both springs were slightly bowed so I couldn’t get them together even where the middle pin is which should be the closest together the options were to sand down the springs, bend them, or let it be what it is. The latter seemed the only reasonable option. I’ve also once flattened liners on one of my first ones not realizing they were slightly bowed and they were noticeably thicker in the middle “to me at least” so I definitely don’t recommend sanding the liners very much at all, most of the straightening should be done at the very beginning and the sanding of the liners should really only be getting rid of any hammer or file marks and even those I leave a few of, figuring less is more. 9D8D3F7E-D3EE-4679-BAAA-6EF5A05D5B19.jpeg
 
I have another one that I bought with the intention of removing a blade, and when I got it, I found the center liner to have a distinct "kink" in it. It's enough that when the main blade is open, it looks like it might not be able to close because of the center liner. I'll take pics this evening.
I didn't remember to take any "before" pics of the Kutmaster. I'll try to get "after" pics of it, as well, to show the gaps.
 
hornetguy said:
I have another one that I bought with the intention of removing a blade, and when I got it, I found the center liner to have a distinct "kink" in it. It's enough that when the main blade is open, it looks like it might not be able to close because of the center liner. I'll take pics this evening.
I didn't remember to take any "before" pics of the Kutmaster. I'll try to get "after" pics of it, as well, to show the gaps.
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I may not understand exactly what you’re saying, but if you delete one of the blades, the middle liner with the kink in it will be eliminated as well.
 
Sacto said:
I may not understand exactly what you’re saying, but if you delete one of the blades, the middle liner with the kink in it will be eliminated as well.
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Yes, that is the plan. I was just surprised how "kinky" it was. I'm beginning to wonder if the liners and springs might not be bent, which kinked the middle liner....I cannot imagine anything else that would kink it this badly.
I imagine I will find out as soon as I explode it... :)
 
Not the greatest pic quality, but here is my first attempt at a rebuild. I'm still doing a little tweaking to the kick, to lower the blade tip a bit, smooth up the bolsters a bit, and will likely put another coat of oil on the scales, but this is it... formerly a two blade Kutmaster barlow with delrin scales.

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hornetguy said:
Not the greatest pic quality, but here is my first attempt at a rebuild. I'm still doing a little tweaking to the kick, to lower the blade tip a bit, smooth up the bolsters a bit, and will likely put another coat of oil on the scales, but this is it... formerly a two blade Kutmaster barlow with delrin scales.

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:cool: :thumbsup: :) :thumbsup:
 
hornetguy said:
Not the greatest pic quality, but here is my first attempt at a rebuild. I'm still doing a little tweaking to the kick, to lower the blade tip a bit, smooth up the bolsters a bit, and will likely put another coat of oil on the scales, but this is it... formerly a two blade Kutmaster barlow with delrin scales.

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Looks pretty good to me, I think the only way someone can reasonably expect no gaps is if it is a straight recover on a knife that didn’t have gaps to begin with. Once you start changing blades around or making other changes it becomes much less likely that everything will fit together correctly. They are essentially hand made after all, with each one being slightly different than the next. And if you look closely enough even the best ones come with gaps from the factory, my suggestion is to look closely enough to get it as good as it will get and then stop looking.
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jsdistin said:
Looks pretty good to me, I think the only way someone can reasonably expect no gaps is if it is a straight recover on a knife that didn’t have gaps to begin with. Once you start changing blades around or making other changes it becomes much less likely that everything will fit together correctly. They are essentially hand made after all, with each one being slightly different than the next. And if you look closely enough even the best ones come with gaps from the factory, my suggestion is to look closely enough to get it as good as it will get and then stop looking.
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I like the way you think.... :thumbsup:
you're probably like me, though... those little imperfections seem to jump out at me, even though other folks probably would never notice...

I will probably have even more fun with the next one.... the "kinky" one....
 
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