The Liner-Lock Folder Part 1 of 4

by Jason Howell I will show you how I make my "knives of liner lock design". I thank several people for steering me in the right direction and save my scrap pile from getting any larger than it already was. Johnny Stout had a great liner lock class at his hammer in, and Craig Shelton gave me a one day rundown. Everything else is trial and error. Nothing compares to seeing it in person. There is a certain sequence of events that need to be adhered to to make things work. i.e... drill your bolsters before you tap your liners for them, don't drill for clearance on both liners, just one, etc... Make a design in manilla or cardboard. I use Mylar. You can find it at Hobby Lobby or Michaels... Look for clearances open and closed, stop pin placement, closed position. Move pivot till it is in the best position for everything to clear and close. I've heard of 60/40 formulas, calculations, etc..., but I just put the pivot a little below center. The mylar works great and you can move the knife open, closed, anywhere in between and allows you to correct unforseen problems before you invest the time as well as steel and Ti. Lay out your pattern on Ti. I use layout fluid/spray and a scribe on .050" 6al4v. I leave a little extra on the front of the liners and on the back of the blade. I like my blade to just get out of site under the bolster in the closed position. After heat treat, I can shave a little at a time till I get a good fit and lockup. You can always take a little more off, but you can't put it back.

Clamp liners together and rough to shape. For those that have ground Ti, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, here goes. Don't run your vacuum, wear a resp and an apron (stuff tends to catch afire, namely you and your clothes), use fresh belts, sharp bits, etc... Mark & centerpunch, your holes, then drill the pivot to 3/16", and ream to size. Any other drilling will be done with both liners clamped AND pivot pin in place.

Lay out stop pin. I use 1/8 hardened dowels from Rex, MSC, all the big knife suppliers... I leave the stop pin down from back of knife some to allow a little room for final shaping.

I picked up a tip from Art Washburn about stability and tolerence in a liner lock. Drill for a dowel between your first 2 spine screws (should be 1/16"). With just a little slop in your 0-80 screw holes or countersink, your knife will go together a little different every time. This dowel keeps things rigid and the knife will not twist on you. I am using a 1/8" pin on this knife, but have some 1/16 dowels on order for future applications. Note pivot pin and stop pin in place...

I'd like to mention something about the drill press... Don't assume it drills straight perpendicular holes or that your bits make round holes. I use cobalt bits and go through them regularly. Gotta have both. The spine is sandwhiched by the liners. On larger blades I use 3 screws along the spine, on smaller, 2. With my pivot, stop pin, and dowel in place and clamped, I can now drill my spine screw holes to 0-80 tap size. I use a #55.

While I'm here, I drill my bolster holes and scale holes.

I lay out and rough out my spine material(Devin's ladder in this case), drill a 1/8" hole where I want the stop pin, assemble with the stop pin, and clamp to liners.

I now drill my dowel hole through liners into my spine material.

I Install my dowel and drill my 0-80 tap size along the spine. Notice that all holes drilled are done with the pivot, stop pin, and dowel in place.

With my liners basicall laid out, I layout, scribe, and rough out my blade(again, Devin's).

I centerpunch my pivot hole in the blade. note: I usually use my mylar pattern and punch through it with my centerpunch. Whatever works for you.

Drill to 3/16"...

...then ream

Almost forgot to mention, but I feel it is pretty important. In between grinding, drilling, tapping sequences, I use a granite block and a sheet of 220g paper to keep the burrs knocked down.

I've heard of makers using glass, or any flat surface... I use a big chunk of granite also doubles for my leather working.

Now it's starting to come together. I test fit, checking for clearance around the stop pin, opened and closed orientation.

Here you see I'll need to trim a little off the bottom and back of the blade to clear the stop pin.

With that rough ground, you can see the blade opens and almost closes. After HT, I'll come back and final fit everything. Note the beige pad thing... That's cabinet/pantry liners, foamy stuff that really grips. I use this to keep stuff from rolling around my bench and keeps one knife's parts together.

Thought I'd pan out for my major equipment. Excuse the mess, I just moved and I'm just now getting everything set back up. Here's my Bader.

9" disc and a buffer (sees little use)

Drill presses and HT oven in the background.

Tap the spine holes on one liner to 0-80. I found some stuff at Rex supply called "Mike-O-Cut". Seemed to work pretty good. I have used 3-in-1 oil, or Tap Magic.

Drill the other liner and the spine with a #52, 0-80 clearance hole size.

The Liner-Lock Folder Part 2 of 4

by Jason Howell Assemble liners and spine with 2 of your 0-80 flathead screws. Leave one to countersink.

You want your flatheads countersunk and flush with the liners. I use a 1/4", 82 countersink for this chore. I chamfer until the screw is just flush. I do each hole one at a time assembled because with .040 liners, and most times with .050, I'll end up slightly chamfering into the spine.

Note countersink, ready to install this screw.

Done and just flush.

Next 2 are done the same way.

I grind the ends of the screws flush with the liner, then flip and hit head side to make sure screws are flush.

While everything is assembled, I get the spine a little closer to liner dimensions.

You'll find yourself at the disc grinder a lot. I'm just killing the burrs.

Stop pin, dowel and screws are all flush; spine is about where I want it.

Disassembling the knife...

Kill burrs.

Here are most of the parts laid out.

I measure the thickness of the spine and work from there. It's .135 blade thickness + (2) washer thickness = spine thickness. Since they are from the same barstock, I'll need to take material off the blade. Finished blade thickness should be .105.

Both washers together are .030.

Finished blade thickness should be .105, taking just .030 material off the blade. This is where the guys with a surface grinder have an advantage. Take measurements all along the blade to make sure you are keeping an even takedown. I took this blade down to .115, the remaining .010 taken off after heat treat. Reason for leaving a little is to remove any "kinks" made during heat treat.

I made this little jig out of .050 Ti, 3 holes in it, each tapped for 0-80, 1-72, and 2-56. Here I have screwed in one of the pivot pins. They are too long and hit each other inside the pin, so I need to knock some off. This will hold it for me. It's also handy later in the process.

Grinding it close on the Bader... and bump on the disc sander.

Install pivot pin and the screw you just ground. Use both washers and blade for this assembly.

Notice pivot pin length now.

Grind pivot pin close on the bader, then...

...finish flush on the disc sander, pressing in at pivot.

Disassembling the knife.

Laying out grind plunge and thumbob location. Trace front of bolster.

Layout in open position.

The Liner-Lock Folder Part 3 of 4

by Jason Howell Make sure thumbob passes corner of bolster.

Scribe parallel lines along the edge.

Grind about a 45 on the edge prior to heat treat.

I use an acid brush and a bottle. Saw it somewhere.

Drilling thumbob hole into blade with a #44, 2-56 clearance size.

This one's getting a SS thumbob from TKS. These come with a buttonhead screw (don't know why), so I replaced it with a flathead. I'll have to countersink the blade. Make sure you get the right side. At this point, your knife can be right handed or a lefty. I'll show you how to dress up the thumbob later.

Countersink the thumbob hole(get the appropriate side!). The 2-56 gets the 82 just like the 0-80 did.

Making sure the flathead is almost flush. I like to leave it a little high so I have some to grind flush to get a nice finish/polish on the screw.

Finish the inside of the spine out to 400 grit before heat treat.

Layout any filework.

Filework under way.

Just making sure everything is done before heat treat... filework, touchmark, thumbob hole, countersink, lead in grind...

... almost forgot. Set disk sander table to 10 and grind the lockup area. It's easy to get the right/left thing fouled up here. the old saying, "measure twice, cut once" should come to mind.

With everything done that needs to be done before heat treat, I coat the spine and blade with Turco and let it dry while I heat up the oven.

Blade and spine going in.

After heat treat it is time to take out any kinks in the blade. This is where a surface grinder really shines. Unfortunately, I used my Bader on the platen and my disc grinder. Blade is shown here after grinding flat again. I'll be grinding the blade next.

I know, strange place for this, but I said I'd try and get a shot of it. I was laying out another folder and had the stuff out, so I thought I'd show the pattern material I use. Works great and I centerpunch through the mylar.

Rough out bolsters...

Here I am drilling out relief for pivot pin screw. I hide my pivot then screw bolsters on with 0-80 button head screws.

Setting my depth for my countesink. This is .050, so I am sure to have plenty of bolster material left over after shaping.

Drilling counterink for pivot screw relief.

Countersink done to clear pivot. I do this on both bolsters.

I drill the back bolster hole to #56, 0-80 pilot.

I drill my other bolster off my first one, aligning the back of the bolsters.

I tap this screwhole to 0-80 and install the back bolster screw.

The Liner-Lock Folder Part 4 of 4

by Jason Howell Drilling out front hole to #56.

Now drilling bolster to 0-80 clearance size, #52.

I install and rough grind my bolsters.

Bolsters have been fit, tapped and installed. Scales have been rough fit and ready to final fit.

Scales are final fit, ready to drill holes. One shot here.

Match drilling scales with #56 while clamped to liners.

Drilling scales through with a #52 drill, or 0-80 clearance size.

Countersinking scales with a #32 drill to desired depth.

Ok... Notice a change in handle material here? Shows how quick you can lose a $100 set of scales. Disc sander grabbed one of the other ones and tried to pass it by the rest. Still haven't found all of it. Fit another set of mammoth and backed up a few steps...

Tapping scale screw holes.

Screws need to be ground flush.

Grinding screws flush against liners.

Rough grinding scales to liner profile. Careful not to overheat.

Bolsters and scales installed and rough fit/ground.

<Switching Gears> I spray layout on my blade and mark for grinding.

Here I'm ready to grind my blade. Notice layout.

Hollow grinding the blade. All my work here is done hard, remember.

Blade ground. Hardened steel grinds like a dream. I think those that have not tried it will like it.

Making sure everything opens and closes...

Blade needs to tuck inside knife. I'll take a little off the bottom of the blade.

Getting bottom of blade ground to where tip just tucks into liners.

Getting everything even.

Blade now tucks all the way and is working the way it needs to.

Laying out lock. Scribe your lock with blade full against stop pin, then extend lock down blade. I go at least 2" to 2-1/2".

Using a dremel and a reinforced cutoff wheel, I cut along the scribed lockbar line.

I now cut "almost" through to the dremeled cut, leaving a little attached for now.

I'm drilling detent hole in blade in top corner of lockbar. I'm using a 1/16" ball on this blade, so I drill 1 or 2 # sizes under. Now I cut through the lockbar the rest of the way.

I clamp a jig to set lock away from rest of liner. Now I can handwork without marring it.

Filing lock.

Sanding lock to 400 grit or so.

Knife is opening and locking up.

Knife is almost together. Opening and closing. Lockup looks good, just a bit short. I'll final fit till it "just" locks at 100%.

Here, I have chucked a 2-56 screw and SS thumbob in my lathe. This is an easy way to dress up a box stock thumbob. I turn these down and add filework or cabachons, etc...

Thumbob on knife. Cab installed.

Now I'm going to do my detent ball. With the spine and stop pin installed, pull the blade closed.

Pulling the blade tightly closed, I drill through the hole in my lock to mark the blade for the divot.

Using a 3/32" solid carbide spade drill, I drill the mark I made through the liner. This is where the detent ball will "suck into" when the blade is closed.

Although I didn't get a shot of it, I now bend my lock until it would just pass the other side of the blade. Any further will just put more pressure on the blade than is necessary. I use a piece of micarta with a gentle curve in it for shaping my lock. Thanks to Johnny Stout for the idea. I assemble the knife using loctite and finish just like any other knife. A couple of shots of the finished knife.

I hope you have enjoyed the rundown. It was an experience I'll not soon forget. I am by no means an "experienced" maker of liner locks. I have burned up my share of material to contribute to my scrap pile. I have picked up plenty from other makers but have had to figure some stuff out on my own. My post feels rather long winded, but somehow incomplete as I could not cover "everything" here. I hope this trend continues here as I learn something new every day. Take care.