A small sampling of my custom folding knives, to the low rider style pocket clips I invented basically before others took interest and copied some of them to where you see low rider or fold over style clips on about everything today and of course the 'Mini Ti Pry' Feb 2011 using menu right which is still available also. Thanks for stopping by
Someone emailed earlier asking if I had a how to on how to fold over a clip using some titanium or stainless and I only had written ones so I thought I'd show a simple way anyone can just do a couple if you want to play around. Just don't burn yourself. No long sleeves or if you do wear them have cuffs on them so it is not flapping around on you. Get the long hair tied back. Don't have anything flammable around that you might lay a hot clip on to burn the place up and stuff like that. Remember measure twice, bend once. Look and fold only when hot and if your timing gets messed up you can't hurt anything to heat it again. Start over if you need. Keep the scraps for learning until its so small you can't make it fold over anymore.
On many of the issues regarding factory clips I can save you some time getting too carried away unless you are a glutton for punishment like I was and like learning the hard way. I will caution again even though I put it in a bubble in the video, going thicker can sound nice but bending it is an art, and if you go too thick the factory screws won't grab and some manufactures cut things pretty dang close as you know. So sometimes just bumping the thickness .005 of an inch is all it takes to mean the screws no longer grab to tighten down. So unless you want to get into cutting and custom making your own screw lengths to fit you want to stick with as close to the factory equipment as possible.
Below is me on my day off but after getting this email I liked the idea and thought you know, I can probably help with that. So let me know how I did and if you try some hey bring em on over and show me. :-)
Shown here in these videos and as stated in the description if you click show more once you go to youtube I try to cover some of the questions I've had both in the past and recently regarding this subject. If you have questioned what it means when someone on a forum writes something about 'peening the lock' to adjust the lock or other such things about lock adjustments this may help clarify some of it.
As you know in an ideal world there are proper ways to do things and there are other ways to 'skin a cat' as the old saying goes. Cutlers both past and present day are aware of many ways to meet an end and this is but one way to adjust a liner lock. It is also possible for a skilled cutler to adjust the stop pin diameter to achieve the same results rather than peen the lock. In some cases where a knife never seen before is opened up after being disassembled you sometimes find that the lock has already been adjusted by peening. I've opened up knives bought new both by myself and customers that have had this adjustment done at the factory. So in the event that this is the case it may not be possible to continue with another attempt to correct it again the same way. In cases such as these adjusting the stop pin size can work but it also means adjusting the blade and how it sits at rest when in the closed position. If you increase the diameter of the stop pin which it rests on it may lift the blade so high that the detent ball no longer catches. To adjust for this one goes though much the same process as one does to make a slip joint back spring flush in both the opened and closed positions making baby step adjustments until the detent once again catches and/or the point of the blade is once again tucked safely between the liners instead of sticking out to catch something like fingers or pant pockets.
See the video for more. Now that I have a half way decent small camera for video I plan to try to do more of these for folks and some days I may have more time to devote to this than others so bear with me. I've been meaning to do this for a long time. See the video for more.
Ideally one would want to dawn rubber gloves and wear those throughout the process shown. Otherwise this works for anodizing if you have a power source. 9 volt batteries hooked up in series can also do this but I don't recommend doing it this way and if you do keep the batteries low in number. Three is as far as I'd suggest you try on that method and even then in the event a line crosses it can cause a battery or all of them to pop! Also, I should have noted in the video also that instead of using a Scotchbrite pad to take any surface oxidation off the metal parts Smoky Mt. Knife Works sells a little item called, "The RUST Eraser" that every knife nut should have. You can slice these blocks or erasers any thickness you like so these also work to clean up the back spring or other metal areas one has to take surface oxidation off of after you color the liners. These erasers can fit once you slice one so that it only requires a good swipe once or twice covering the entire area of the back spring width all in one neat sweep. This way you don't drift into the liners scratching the color off in places as you clean the other parts.
On a lot of the open build type folders being offered today in the industry such as, Benchmade and Emerson liner locks (some Emerson years had one side cheesy cheap stainless liner instead of the titanium but the lock side is titanium) this works great to anodize the liners without even having to take the knife apart. Of course it does nothing to change them inside or on the sides. So if you were to want to color the entire liner inside and out then you'd have to then disassemble the knife. Remember to seal the stainless steel detent ball in the lock and the non lock side on Emerson liners with a dab of nail polish and then remove it after dipping to color anodize. Failing to remember this step could result in a gritty feeling action due to oxidation on your stainless balls from anodizing.. You can also use duct tape if you don't dip too long and it works just fine in most all cases.
Watch the video if you asked about a low rider for the Skylline. Nuff said. Stay tuned............STR
Done
And finally some shots of a clip actually made start to finish for the Skyline folding knife by Kershaw. Thanks for looking. Click any pic to make it full size so you can scroll through.
STR
