There are various other things to consider to be able to finish your knife:
Nail nicks: these make the knife easier to open by giving you something to catch hold of on the edge of the blade
- on some folding knives only a little of the blade protrudes from the handle so you need a nick near the edge of the blade to help you pull it open, there is help on how to make one here
- not every blade will need one - Grace's knife pictured in the header of this page has a soft opening action and plenty to catch hold of so has no nail nick
Scales: the scale material needs to be rigid enough to support the pressure caused by the knife opening and shutting.
- Traditionally, there would be two thin brass liners with bolsters soldered on - at least at the pivot end for strength, but often at both ends - with wood, horn or mother of pearl in between:
- The scale material would originally have been simply pinned to the liner with a rivet, then more firmly fixed with the other rivets that hold the knife together - nowadays you can use glue too!
- The liners could simply be cut from metal thick enough to support the knife alone:
- Thick liners could be entirely covered with scale material:
- If you have access to a milling machine the liners can be cut from even thicker steel and the central section milled out for scale material:
Pins: the knife is held together with pins; the one at the pivot needs to be particularly robust to withstand the blade’s rotation. The centre pin is subject to strong outward pressure as the spring flexes.
- Traditionally the pins which were just pieces of rod cut a little longer than the knife and the ends riveted:
- A more expensive solution, which gives you the ability to take the knife apart again easily, is to use fine nuts and bolts or threaded tube and small screws, although these will impact on the overall look of the knife:
Walk & talk: before finally fixing the pins review again how it looks and how it opens and closes; this fine tuning makes all the difference to the look and feel of a knife.
- Check the blade is in line with the back of the handle
- Check the spring is flat to the handle when both open and shut.
- Check the blade opens and shuts smoothly
- Check the blade point is inside the handle
Development: to start again from scratch each time is not advisable unless you’ve had a complete disaster - if you make the same design three or four times over it will get better and better with each one as you overcome problems - then you’ll be ready to start on a new design.
