Constructing: nail nicks

This is one of those little jobs that makes all the difference to your knife if you can make it look tidy!

• you will need a 'slitting disc' that can be clamped in a pillar drill - they are quite brittle so Grace reinforces hers by gluing it to a perspex disc:

• mark out with masking tape the length you want your nail nick
• put a block underneath to rest your blade on, setting the height of the disc so it is the distance you want the nick to be from the edge of the blade
• then gently work the blade backwards and forwards making sure it remains in contact with the block - you can see Grace doing it here:

Constructing: heat treating the spring

Heat treatment involves bringing the steel to an accurate temperature and holding it for a certain amount of time to make it less brittle. Most professional knife makers pay a specialist to do this for them.

Here Jeff Durber demonstrates a less accurate but more accessible method using a blow torch:

Constructing: soldering bolsters

Lead solder is available through any DIY or plumbers’ suppliers. If the join is good, it can be near-invisible; the trouble comes because it can be used to fill gaps so people get sloppy, rely on the solder, and it looks bad.

• the surfaces have to be flat (even really coarse grit works) and have no oxide, but they don't have to be particularly clean; if you touch them with your fingers, it won't fail
• leave 5mm or so extra length on the liner beyond the bolster because it's the easiest place to remove afterwards
• apply the flux to the two surfaces and hold them together with mole grips or similar
• place a small length of solder on the bit of liner that you've left too long; snuggle it up to the bolster, making sure it is sitting on flux:

• heat it all up and watch for the silvery glint to appear on the other side of the bolster to show it has run right through
• wait for it to cool or cool it in water!
• remove the liner protruding beyond the bolster and clean up any surplus solder on the other side that might stop your scale material fitting closely to the bolster or liner

Constructing: pinning scale to liner

It is important that pins holding the scale material to the liner do not protrude at all inside the knife or they might catch on the blade - make sure the rivet completely fills the countersink and grind away any surplus material flat to the liner.

• push the scale material firmly against the bolster and drill through both the scale material and the liner
• put a countersink on the inside of the liner - the opposite side to the bolster
• file one end of the pin completely flat, push it through the hole so this flat is flush with the scale material, snip off on the other side as close to the liner as possible - this will leave a small piece sticking out which will have a point on where it was cut
• supporting the pin underneath, gently file off this point then rivet over the top of the pin by hammering around the edge of the pin - don’t work this side too much or the rivet will be too big to fit in the countersink:

• turn the piece over, tap the scale material down so the pin goes into the countersink underneath, then rivet over the piece sticking out by hammering around the edge of the pin

• clean up the surface of the liner to remove any protruding pin then check the rivet is still secure
• if it is not secure try again with a new pin; this time work the liner side less, so the rivet will fit in the countersink

Constructing: riveting knife together

When you snip off the pins a point is left behind that will make riveting more difficult, so always file the end of the pin flat before you start to hammer

• file one end of the pin flat, push it through the knife until it is flush with the surface then snip off the other end as close as possible
• supporting the other side on a flat surface, file off the point then start to rivet it over, turn and rivet a little the other side, then turn again and rivet the other side again - keep turning and riveting until the pin feels secure
• the pivot pin needs a long, tapered countersink to hold it secure - start by tapping directly in the middle of the pin to spread it into the countersink lower down before working around the edge to fill the test of the hole - pause frequently to open and shut the knife to make sure the rivet does not get so tight it pinches the blade between the liners
• the middle and end pins are under less pressure so just need mushrooming over by tapping around the edges