12 Inlay Flipper Folder - "Marbled" CF & Ladder "Moku-Ti" --- WIP

[Cory Martin Imaging]

12 Inlay Flipper Folder - FINISHED IMAGE ADDED (page 2)

Here's a work in progress of a flipper folder that a customer recently placed with me, and it's my most ambitious design yet.

It has a total of 12 inlays!

Lot's of cnc machining, hand fitting and sanding so far, but I think it's going to be pretty nice when it's all done. Here's where I'm at so far...

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Blade rough cut, between liners...no filler bar yet.

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Lock cut into liner, milled out the pocket in the back to lighten up the spring tension.

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Filler bar is made up of 3 pieces...the 2 end pieces are Titanium...

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Blade is beveled...This is 320 layers of "Reverse" San Mai Damascus.
Outer layer is 52100 with a heavy layer of Nickel between it and the Twist Damascus core steel.

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Now for the fun part! The sides are "Marbled" Carbon Fiber with Ladder pattern "Moku-Ti" (sourced from Chad Nichols).
The pocket clip side is shown in the top piece, and you notice the rear Moku-Ti inlay is shorter and more rounded...that's to accommodate the 3-D pocket clip...

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Here's the pocket clip. Same ladder pattern Moku-Ti, milled away at the base to make it 3-D.
The holes line up perfectly with the pockets below that are milled into the rear Moku-Ti inlay

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Here's the 3rd piece of the back bar.
It's a 1/8" rod I turned down to fit into reamed holes in the 2 pieces of Titanium.
It's made of the same ladder Moku-Ti as everything else so it should be pretty cool looking when it's all colored up.
You will also notice the steel washers around the pivot joint...that's to help prevent the bearings from wearing a groove in the Titanium liners over time and creating side-to-side blade wiggle.

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Here's the Marbled Carbon Fiber inlays in the rear Moku-Ti inlay sections.
They are 1-72 threads and the screws are flat heads that are set into the carbon fiber, holding the Moku-Ti in place.
Each one had to be cut out, glued to a round rod, ground to shape, hand sanded for final fitting, then put in the hole, drilled and tapped.
They are about 0.060" thick, and there's 8 of them, so to say it was tedious is an under-statement!

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I will post more as I get further along on the knife, but in the mean time, please let me know your thoughts & opinions.

I accept any and all feedback, positive or negative.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Calvin Robinson]

Hey that's pretty cool Cory. I like the way you milled the relief in the lock bar do that it can't be seen from the belly of the handle.

 

[Self Made Knives]

Awesome, love in progress pics. Can't wait for more.

 

[BrandantR]

Nothing negative from me. That thing's going to be SWEET!!! I look forward to seeing the finished piece.

 

[PMARTINKNIVES]

Ah Haa, so that's why all my materials keep disappearing! Here I thought I had shop trolls messing with my head.
Nice job, it's good to see your time and efforts along the way!

Peter

 

[wall e]

Wow am always amazed at what is possible. That is going to be a beautiful knife.

 

[Cory Martin Imaging]

Made some more progress on this knife...

Here's the carbon fiber rough cut on the liners.

I also got the pocket clip mounted...

Here's the carbon fiber ground down to the profile of liners...

That's all for tonight...

More to follow soon.

Thanks for viewing.

 

[kevin - the professor]

Excellent knife. That is so far on the other end of the knifemaking spectrum from what I do, I didn't even recognize some of the steps, even when you were explaining with captions. Looks like solid craftsmanship, though!

 

[Frank Niro]

Wonderful styling and work ! It will be a terrific finished folder!
Frank

 

[Cory Martin Imaging]

Been a while since I updated this, but the knife is now complete and before I post the final composite image of it, I wanted to show the remaining work in progress images.

While trying to bend up the 1st pocket clip, it cracked near the edges so I had to make a new one. Instead of trying to bend the front down, I machined in a hook instead.

Nice and simple Moku-Ti thumbstud...you can see a little bit of green compound in the threads of the thumb stud...more on what a night mare that stuff is to clean up in a little bit...

Got the rod of Moku-Ti polished up and colored.

Here's all of the pieces all polished up and ready for final clean up before anodizing.

Not how much green buffing compound there is in all the inner corners...

Better close up of how much stuff there is to clean up...tedious to say the least.

Here it is after cleaning.

Trial assembly after everything is all cleaned up...

Everything was sanded down to 2,000 grit before buffing to achieve that mirror like shine!

Close up of the holes looking at the inlays below.

Hard to tell from this image, but I put a swedge grind on the spine of the blade, and then I flattened off the tip of it to create a flat plane.

With the knife open and locked, when looking from the spine down, or from the belly up, you're able to see the cut marks made during the lock cutting process...
An extra couple of minutes of sanding smooths out the rough cut marks and shines up nice after anodizing.

Speaking of anodizing, here's the liners and back bar pieces after anodizing...this picture coloring is not the best...the liners are a dark blue with hardly any purple like this image shows in some spots.

Got the Moku-Ti colored up next...It's amazing how this material works by simply adding heat.

I will post the final composite image after I take it later this week and get it processed.

Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Kris]

Wow super nice.

 

[Cory Martin Imaging]

Here's the knife all finished up.

(click image for hi-res version)

 

[PMARTINKNIVES]

Beautiful knife! You did a hell of a job on this one, walks and talks like it should, great action and lockup. You have learned well weed hopper.