I've been meaning to get around to making more folders for a while, but never seem to find the time to do so. Then I had a student ask to make one and I had to think on my feet, fly by the seat of my pants and various other clichés about basically making it up as I went along! 
So the tail end of last week I knocked up the 3 prototypes, just to work out the best way to teach the forging part and to find a few pitfalls in the handle fitting before I looked like a right 'male chicken' on the course!
In fairness I did know that he wanted to make a folder before he arrived on monday. Originally it was a VERY simple friction folder with a forged blade that would fold into a simple bit of wood and have a curl on the end of the tang to make it pretty when closed, oh and a straight forward drop point/tanto blade.
then the blade shape evolved into something a bit more kukri-esq. (more tricky forging, especially with a small folder blade)
no probs
then the tang should have a bottle opener incorporated into it sorted
Forging was day 1, and to his credit Anthony was very good and we got the blades forged out very swiftly and were able to get on with making the pattern for the handle including the positioning of pivot and stop pins We had a slight warpage issue during the hardening that had it been a fixed blade would've been fine, but these had to be STRAIGHT in order to work! That was fixed without much drama and the resulting blade was pretty much as straight as you will get a forged bar to be
(Anthony forging out the tang ready to be coiled up and chiselled into a bottle opener)
Onto the simple wooden handle, which was now to have brass liners to make it a bit stronger :]
and the spacer at the back (behind where the tang will rest) is now to have file work.
I didn't have any spacer material quite the right thickness, so we've now got a spacer made from a layer of brass and two thin layers of copper.
(and rasping out the handle scales based on the plywood pattern)
With a little fiddling about with pins and the many bits of sheet metal we managed to get the knife assembled and the mechanism working well
(peening the pivot pin and setting the resistance in the pivot)
I wasn't sure how this course would work out with me teaching somebody to make a type of knife that I'm still quite unfamiliar with, but it went well in the end. The added complexities that were requested were a nice challenge for me and I'm glad that Anthony pushed me a little, also that he had faith in me from the start! We both learnt a lot about making friction folders and now that I've got it a bit more sussed, I think I'll be making more (though not necessarily with recurved/bulbous blades, bottle openers, brass liners and three layer spacers )
so the knives at the end of two very intense days!
Well done Anthony!
So the tail end of last week I knocked up the 3 prototypes, just to work out the best way to teach the forging part and to find a few pitfalls in the handle fitting before I looked like a right 'male chicken' on the course!In fairness I did know that he wanted to make a folder before he arrived on monday. Originally it was a VERY simple friction folder with a forged blade that would fold into a simple bit of wood and have a curl on the end of the tang to make it pretty when closed, oh and a straight forward drop point/tanto blade.
then the blade shape evolved into something a bit more kukri-esq. (more tricky forging, especially with a small folder blade)
no probs then the tang should have a bottle opener incorporated into it
sorted Forging was day 1, and to his credit Anthony was very good and we got the blades forged out very swiftly and were able to get on with making the pattern for the handle including the positioning of pivot and stop pins
We had a slight warpage issue during the hardening that had it been a fixed blade would've been fine, but these had to be STRAIGHT in order to work! That was fixed without much drama and the resulting blade was pretty much as straight as you will get a forged bar to be
(Anthony forging out the tang ready to be coiled up and chiselled into a bottle opener)
Onto the simple wooden handle, which was now to have brass liners to make it a bit stronger :]
and the spacer at the back (behind where the tang will rest) is now to have file work.
I didn't have any spacer material quite the right thickness, so we've now got a spacer made from a layer of brass and two thin layers of copper.
(and rasping out the handle scales based on the plywood pattern)
With a little fiddling about with pins and the many bits of sheet metal we managed to get the knife assembled and the mechanism working well
(peening the pivot pin and setting the resistance in the pivot)
I wasn't sure how this course would work out with me teaching somebody to make a type of knife that I'm still quite unfamiliar with, but it went well in the end. The added complexities that were requested were a nice challenge for me and I'm glad that Anthony pushed me a little, also that he had faith in me from the start! We both learnt a lot about making friction folders and now that I've got it a bit more sussed, I think I'll be making more (though not necessarily with recurved/bulbous blades, bottle openers, brass liners and three layer spacers
)so the knives at the end of two very intense days!
Well done Anthony!
