Folder finished!

Well, the holidays have slowed me down some, and now the temperatures have dropped and slowed me down some more :) 

I finally got out and put the final touches on a folder for a customer today...

This afternoon's work

Ok, the blade is in the kiln for heat treating, so I can work on the scales for the knife. The following pictures show the profiling of the micarta to the shape of the liners, then thinning the micarta down to around 1/8".

More from the weekend

I clamp on a file guide to the blade to make sure the plunge grinds are even on both sides of the blade. Then, I grind in the initial bevels for heat treating. By putting the start of the bevels on while the steel isn't hardened, it doesn't eat up belts as quickly with a sharp edge. The remainder of the grinding will be done after the blade has been hardened.

From the weekend

I ground the lock bar interface on the tang of the knife at just over 7 degrees. Different makers use different angles, but find something that works and work with it. Here I'm setting the angle of the work rest to use as a guide.

Backspacer and stop pin

I've started work on the backspacer, which is going to be made of green canvas micarta. I have the holes drilled and the outside rough-ground to shape.

Next I drill and team a hole for the stop pin, and then start testing the closed fit up against the pin, I use a round file to file away a space for the pin to fit into the blade when in the closed position.

Finally, it's beginning to resemble a knife!

More work...

In the first picture, I've already milled the relief for the liner lock bar and I'm beginning to cut out the lock bar.

After it is cut, I screw the two liners together and finish the liner profiling. More pictures of that later.

Now we'll take the blade blank and put it on a sheet of sandpaper lying on a very flat surface.

Start putting even pressure on the blade and move in figure '8's. We need it to be very flat. I need a surface grinder!

Profiling and tapping

In the first picture I have already drilled and reamed the hole for the pivot in the blade, and I've started profiling the blade on the belt grinder.

In the next picture, I'm tapping one of several holes in one of the liners.