Couple of slip joint WIP

This attention to detail is one of the reasons I like knifemakers so much. Ryan, you're over the top and it's going to show so well! This is great.

If I weren't about to go to work, I'd just crack a cold one open right now. But I better not. :D
 
ddavelarsen said:
If I weren't about to go to work, I'd just crack a cold one open right now. But I better not. :D
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Good call :D

Well not much to report tonight. Worked on sanding the pearl some more and got bolsters shaped for the second knife. This weekend I'll post pics of both knives together.
 
Ok I've been fitting pearl, and getting ready to relieve the liners. I'll show what I started doing as far as releiving the liners.
I use my etcher, to do this I need a pattern.
First I take my knife liner to 600 grit, this will be the final grit for the inside of the liner. I didn't make it perfect because I have to touch it up a little later on.
From here I measure to where I have a surface area for the blade to ride on. It has just a little bit of relief on the top. This way the scratches on the tang do not show when the knife is opened.
knives820.jpg

Next using a piece of liner material that has the holes drilled in it (spring holes and pivot hole) I transfer the mark over.
knives821.jpg

Next I place the blade on the good liner and line up the pivot holes. I measure over to the the start of the bevel.
knives822.jpg

I then transfer that mark over to the scrap liner.
knives823.jpg

next step is to place the spring on the scrap liner/pattern.
knives825.jpg

I scribed a line over the spring to show where the spring sets when the knife is assembled
knives826.jpg

Next I blacked out the area that will be removed. The single black line drawn is just a reference point I made for the bottom of the spring.
knives827.jpg

Next I've included a couple of rough drawings to show what not to do. I said to remove the solid black area, but watch out of the sharp corners. The middle chicken scratch is showing the sharp corners, the chicken scratch on the far right is how I will actually cut it out with a dremel. No sharp corners all rounded.
knives828.jpg


I have to admit I let time get past me on this. Throughout making these knives I've been working on one or two others in case I messed one of these up. I got to a point and set them aside, but while I was waiting on the second set of pearl to come in I got them to the point of having bolsters as well. I planned on having all day to get the etched relief done on both knives, but it didn't happen. Work took longer than expected so I'm a little behind on where I planned on being this weekend.

Tomorrow I'll will show the cut pattern and what I do to transfer it over to the good liner.
 
Ok got a liner etched. I came up with etching with the etcher for a couple of reasons. I don't have a milling machine, and I like not having scratches on the tang. I had to come up with something. Also at the time I couldn't find any bronze washers less than .01" thick. Since then I've gotten some so I will be using those instead of etching. I've tried a dremel and metal scrapers and never got the results I wanted.
Last night I left off with the pattern drawn out. Now it's time to remove the area we want etched. I used a bandsaw, grinder, needle files, and dremel. When I got it to the shape I wanted I used 220 and 600 grit to remove burs and polish the edge.
knives830.jpg

knives833.jpg

Got it close but not quiet there yet in these next pictures.
knives838.jpg

Got it where I want it in the the next picture. Notice there are no sharp corners. They are rounded off. This allows the etcher to do a more even job. When I left sharp corners it didn't etch the corner as even as everywhere else. This gives a little more room for the etcher pad to make contact.
knives841.jpg

Next I lay black electrical tape on the good liner. Also notice I cut out the end pin and the pivot pin using a sharp xacto knife.
knives842.jpg

Next lay the pattern on top of the good liner. I used the end pin and pivot pins to line them up.
knives843.jpg

I used a sharp xacto knife to cut the black tape. It left this on the good liner
knives844.jpg

My next step was to etch it. A couple of things here, I cover the pivot hole back up with tape so it doesn't get out of round, and I also measure using micrometers to get a base measurement of the thickness. I want to know how much I etch. I check it periodically.
Here it is with a black gunk build up. I have to clean this off with super fine steel wool everytime I want to measure.
knives845.jpg

Here it is with the tape removed.
knives847.jpg

I used windex and the steel wool and here it is after the fact. I removed an even .006".
knives849.jpg


One thing I have to watch is etching for too long. It burns up fuses which I did tonight. I have to get some more over the next day or two.
 
Looks great. I have been wondering on a good way to clean up the recessed bit after milling but I guess with etching you don't have that problem.
 
Cubane said:
Looks great. I have been wondering on a good way to clean up the recessed bit after milling but I guess with etching you don't have that problem.
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I guess you could use a dremel, but the finish left from the etcher doesn't bother me. I actually like the two tone look, it's not easy to see once assembled but still there.
 
hi ryan, when you fit your pearl to your bolsters you need to use a 220grit lapping compound and swing the pearl back and forth until you get a perfect fit. Also, allways sand your pearl flat on the backside first that way when you finish lapping it will fit perfect. hope this helps.
 
Ryan,
Its pretty amazing that you came up with that process for the liners, thats what Ive been waiting to see. That is very interesting, keep it up cant wait to see this one finished.

Sean
 
I think I'm going to have to go the mill route, as I don't have an etcher (or spot welder; you guys have all the good stuff). But it looks like just a bit of relief is all that's really needed.

Ryan, given you're using washers do you really need to relieve the liners? Just curious. Naturally I'm also curious where you found them. Is their center hole 3/16 to go around the bushing?

Great thread man, you're doing a fantastic job of showing all the detail. Thanks.
 
Thanks guys. I misspoke there, I'm not using washers on this knife. I'm just using the bushing and relieved liners. I'm tring the washers on another knife without the relief. The washers have a 3/32" hole in them. Mike Miller gave me these washers, I will have to look again to see what the company name is on the bag.
 
Rusty,

Ahh, That was my mistake. I was thinking 3/16's. They do have Phosphor Bronze sheet though so a fella coulds make his own custom washers in .005 .010 or .015

Sorry, I'm like a walking usaknifemakers catalog, LOL. Spend so much time spending all the money I got and dreaming of future purchases that I practically have what Tracy carries memorized.

-Josh
 
Looks like it's going to be this weekend before I get the right fuses for the etcher. In the mean time I decided to try some washers on the other slip joints and possibly have them ready for the Wannenmacher show.

By the way the washers were from Seastroms.
 
Good luck at the show Ryan!

All my new tools came yesterday, so I'm about to review this honkin long thread to see what to do next - that's right, this morning. :D
 
Me too Sean! :D I'm far enough along to need bushings...which of course I forgot to order since they'll have to come from another source. :rolleyes: Wouldn't it be nice to be able to buy everything we need at competitive prices from one place? :D Anyway, I'll have bushings soon.

I did start on my rise/fall indicator. Have you ever tried drawing a circle with an Etch-a-Sketch? That's what it's like for me trying to mill a circle for the dial indicator to set in. :D I never could draw worth a dang.
 
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