It's nice to be making knives again and the new grinder is making my life very happy. As I have mentioned before, I am making this knife in commemoration of my second son earning his eagle scout advancement. I thought it might be nice for him to receive one of his proud father's knives to hopefully keep as an heirloom to pass down to his own son some day. Besides, my oldest son got one of my knives when he earned his eagle, and his little brother would feel left out if he didn't get one too.
This build begins like all others, with a design printed off on paper. Cardstock is better than paper, but I was out at the time and didn't want to make a Walmart run. I design all my knives on CAD so that I can make sure everything works just right before I start building. With a folding knife, there are a lot of things that have to be tweaked just right in order for everything to work right. There is a significant amount of opportunity for something to go wrong in a folder design. The blade has to stop in the right open and closed positions, the lock and back spacer have to engage the tang in just the right locations, the blade edge has to stop before slamming into the back spacer when closed, and a hundred other things to consider. Designing on a computer offers the opportunity to mess around with the design, clearances, rotations, . . . without wasting any materials. This isn't to say that a computer is a must, in fact, I have designed several using paper cutouts, but a computer speeds things up and is more precise. This is the second time I have built this design with I call the Guardian. The first one turned out really great and I think this design fits the personality of my son. I hope he likes it.
I chose to use 440C for the blade. 440C is a classic stainless steel that produces a great blade with all the qualities that are necessary for a piece of cutlery. It holds a good edge, is fairly easy to grind, and polishes up nice and bright. I'll use 416 stainless steel for the bolsters and 6al4v titanium for the liners. I still haven't decided on scale material yet. I'm thinking some stabilized burl or maybe micarta.
This photo shows the blade that has been rough profiled at the top and the liners at the bottom. I tried a new technique with the liners. I'm always looking for better ways to do things and I picked up this idea from the internet. I used a couple dots of super glue between liners to hold them together as I profiled them and drilled all the holes. It worked really well, much better than messing around with clamps and the balancing act that ensues when trying to drill holes in the right locations. You might also be able to see that I actually have three liners glued together in the picture. The third will be used as a template for future knives of this design.
This is a shot of all the parts so far: the blade, two liners, back spacer, two front bolsters, and two rear bolsters. Doesn't look much like a knife yet at this point, but it will soon.
I tried the same technique with the super glue for the bolsters and it worked really well. It kept everything aligned while profiling and drilling. The glue pops off really easy by heating up the part with a propane torch for a few seconds and giving it a tap on the bench. I then take the dried glue off on the disk sander. A little acetone helps to clean all the glue off too.
Profiling the bolsters while attached to the liners takes care of three out of four sides, but leaves the inside curve that will butt up against the scales untouched. In order for right and left bolsters to match exactly, I pin the two matching bolsters together before contouring the inside radius. I didn't glue these together, I just relied on the pins to maintain the alignment.
Here's a photo of all the parts after they have been profiled, drilled, countersunk, and tapped. Lot's of holes, but each one is necessary.
The knife handle has been screwed together in the last pic into a single assembly. Now it's looking like a knife should. The blade has just been laid unattached inside the handle to get the overall look of the knife. I really like this design. It's kind of gentleman's style meets tactical. I still need to add the pivot assembly before I can check out all the mechanical workings of the knife. The blade is basically ready for heat treatment, but I think I will do some file work on the spine before it gets hardened to punch up the "Wow" factor. There's still a lot of work yet to accomplish, but so far, I'm pleased with the progress.
It sure feels good to have a knife project underway again. I've been experiencing knife-making withdrawals for the last few weeks as I have been focused on making my grinder. There is still a lot of work to be done, but the bones are now in place. I'm really looking forward to grinding the hollow grind in the blade with my new grinder. I have no doubt that it will be a huge step up from my wooden disks with sandpaper edges (go to my shop tour page to see what I mean). Hopefully next week I'll get a chance to finish the blade and continue working on the handle. The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning toward using a piece of stabilized maple burl that has been dyed red and black for the scales. I think my son would really like that.
Thanks for stopping by the Robinson Edge.
- Brandant Robinson
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