Couple of slip joint WIP

Ryan Minchew

Ryan Minchew

Well-Known Member
Before I managed to catch myself on fire Ken Hurst contacted me about building him a slip joint after he saw this one I posted. He's been an extremely patient man while I heal up from the burns and finish up other knives I had in the works.
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The pictures show fine silver nail pull studs (?), on the knife for Mr. Hurst they will be gold, the bolster will be bigger, and the handle (crossing fingers) will be blacklip pearl. I have the pearl sitting on the bench and it makes me nervous just looking at it. I've got some pictures loaded up and have more I'll add in a few days, and get caught up to the point I am actually at. My work schedule has kept me from getting these loaded. I have made VERY few folders so my methods are probably a bit different from others.

Laying out the pattern
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I cut out several to have several to send to Paul Bos.

Here I have just cut out blade and spring together. It helps me to do it this way for drilling holes.
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Next I squared up the drill press so that my holes will be perpindicular and straight. Hopefully :eek:.
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Here I am drilling all the holes with a 3/32" bit. The pivot hole will actually be 3/16" for the phosphorus bronze bushing I use. But the 3/32" is a pilot.
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Reaming the holes with a 3/32" reamer using tapping fluid.
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I can't find my picture of it, but I took the pivot hole to 3/16" walking it up slowly with several reamers. It is still a bit undersize for the bushing I have for this knife. I will use a barrell lap. I also have some of it being profiled and can't find them, but here is the knife with the back notch cut out. I will show how to do that next.

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To cut the back notch out here are the steps I went through.

I removed the paper pattern and use dye chem to dye the tang.
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In this next picture you can see that the bottom wasn't completely flat across, using my grinder I got it close.
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Next using a granite plate, sandpaper, and a square I got it polished up and square to the sides of the tang.
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This shows the bottom square to the sides. The highlighted piece of metal on top is the kick.
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Once the bottom is square and where I want it in relation the bottom of the blade I base the rest of my measurements off of it. I will try to get them posted tonight or the next couple of days. Thanks
 
Cool thread Ryan. Its interesting to see how people do things in their shops. Cant wait to see more.
 
Glad to see you back at work Ryan ---- be careful this time. So glad to see that folder is coming along, I'm really excited to see what you come up with. Please remember NOT to send the spring off for heat treating until after I inlay gold into it. Thanks for the pic's and please keep us posted.
 
Great WIP, Ryan! I gotta ask, though....how in the HECK did you set yourself on fire?!?! Gotta be careful up there!

--nathan
 
Looking good Ryan, keep us posted when you can. Take care of yourself.

I agree with Bruce, it is nice to see how other makers work. yea!

Craig
 
Thanks guys. I like WIP myself, but I"m kinda nervous doing one. I'm sure some slip joint makers are looking at what I do and crynging lol.

Nathan I managed to catch a 1 gallon can of acetone on fire. The lid was on it and it was close to exploding in the garage and before it did I grabbed it and ran out with it. I was extremely upset with myself, my wife and kid were asleep in the back room and it was me being complacent that caused it. I had to go for debriedment for a few weeks. I've never felt pain like I felt everyday while scrubbing it after keeping it in bleach water. The dr said for the first 3 days I would have 4 skin grafts 1 on my wrist, 1 on my elbow, 1 on my palm, and 1 on a knuckle. By day 4 he was happy and I ended up without any grafts. After physical therapy I do know now that the PT in front of your name does not stand for Physical Therapist, it stands for Pain and Torture lol. Hadn't talked to you about the new job, I hope it's going great and you're getting what you wanted out of it.

Now for more on the tutorial. I know there are more ways to do this and I"m sure easier. Some of what I'm doing is probably double doing, but it doesn't take me much time and gives me a peace of mind that things are squaring up the way I like.
At this point I'm working on squaring the tang up. I set my protractor to 90° and made the back square to the bottom of the tang. I did measure and put the line further back giving myself some work room on the half stop.
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From here I ground to the line. I also lapped it on the granite plate.
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I added the a line on top and it is the same distance from the top of the pivot hole as the bottom is from the bottom of the pivot hole.
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I took the measurement from the last picture and that's the length of the top line plus a .002".
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I then drew a line perpindicular to this for the run up.
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You'll notice a second line on the back square and it is angled down 3°. The angled line is the one I will actually cut to.
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I used my carbide file guide and was able to get the results I wanted.
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Ryan, holy crap, my friend!! A gallon can of acetone blew up on you?!? Thank God your family was safe and that you weren't hurt worse than you were. I've done wound care, but burns are the toughest. You'll never forget the screams you hear coming from the burn unit. I don't miss wound care at all. Hey, the new job is going very well. I'm really enjoying teaching this profession, and the fact that I'm looking forward to going to work again testifies that I'm where I need to be. I do miss the patient care, but the studen interaction helps make up for it.

Anyway...back on topic. Great tutorial so far. I will have to save this one when it's all said and done. Heal up well. I'm glad you didn't have to have grafts. The donor sites are just as painful as the burns for a while.

--Nathan
 
It didn't quiet blow up on me. It was burning when I picked it up and that's what got me, when I threw it out in the yard it knocked the lid off and relieved the pressure. It had just swelled up a whole bunch. My boss asked "Well did ya learn anything from it?" My response "Nope I KNEW better."

Glad to hear you're enjoying the new job. Makes going into work a whole lot easier.

Squaring the spring, alot of the same methods are used as squareing the tang. Sandpaper, granite block, and patience. First I sand and polish the bottom of the spring flat.
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Next I do a fit to the knife to see what I need to remove, or hope I didn't remove too much. .
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I also grind some on the top of the spring if it's too thick.
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Here's a tip I picked up from Frank Niro (thanks!) on squaring up the grinder. I get it close by using a square against the platen and tool rest. I suppose in theory it's square, but I've never been able to grind something square by putting it on the tool rest and placing it up against the platen. The tip was to use a nut and grind on it and make adjustments until you are grinding one of the faces off all at once instead of too much at the top or too much at the bottom.

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Ryan, now I know why every time I think I'm going to try building a slip joint, I don't. :D I'm always amazed that people can make these things work, and I'm watching this with real enjoyment. This is a great WIP thread and when it's all said and done I'm sure going to keep it too. Thanks for your effort!

Nathan, my wife's a nurse and she talks about missing the patient care too. People like me are always glad there are folks out there willing to take care of us when we're hurting. My hat's off to you too.
 
Alright I lost, then thought i found, the made sure I lost the pivot honing pictures, but I'll get more to add to this. I'm doing 3 knives at the same time. One in case I screw up and 2 for Mr. Hurst to work his magic on.

Mr Larsen, thanks for the encouragement, but i don't know if I'm helping anyone or making a fool of myself.

For now I'll be fitting the spring first off i used a dremel and the grinder and got the curves of the spring cleaned up
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In this next picture you can see where I layed out my pivot hole while the blade was in the open position and next I drill it out. At this point I don't worry about the wood being dead flat, all I am doing here is working on getting the spring the correct length and close on half stop, open, and closed positions BEFORE heat treat.
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drilled with blade in place
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I mess with the spring and get it to where it doesn't hit in the closed position.
Once I have the spring where I want it I pulled the blade up to clear the spring
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Next I make a mark where the spring needs to be cut, also I set the angle at 90 to the spine of the spring. I've heard to use anywhere from 0 to 3° at this point. Sometimes I play with it to get it to be flat accross the spine to the spring.
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Next I lay it out open to check. I get it layed out open and butted up and I drill the end hole on the spring.
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Clamp the spring drill it and check it, here it is drilled out and closed

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One thing I try to avoid during all this is what makers told me was refered to as a broke back
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Ryan, some time between the last post and this one I'd decided I'm going to take a shot at building a slip joint. So this is of even greater interest to me now; it's no longer for general intellectual interest, but for saving me grief! Not to add any pressure or anything. :D

Honestly, this is very helpful. Thanks.
 
Awesome Thread Ryan. I got to spend a few days with Don Robinson from Brownsville and he tried to help me build a liner lock. It is still unfinished and it is not going to be very pretty. It is not Don's fault its just that I am a knuckle head.
 
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