tr4252 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:14 pm
That lock mechanism looks interesting Killgar, you invent this?
What you've accomplished with your limited shop, as you describe it, is a testimony to your skill. I started the same way, and can appreciate what you have done with basic tools. My own shop has grown over the years to where it takes up about half my basememt. 2 CNC machines (one which I built), a small manual 3 axis mill, manual lathe, a coupleof band saws, new drill press (I wrecked the old one trying to use it as a milling machine), a welding rig, router table, jigs and fixtures too numerous to mention, etc... the list seems endless, and the majority of it to make knives. I guess I was pretty obsessed with it for a while there. Files, don't get me started, I have a few (hundred).
Then I met a woman who seems to think that living in a house converted into a knife factory wasn't really comfortable. (Odd, the last girlfriend didn't mind the graphic arts business that used to fill the house) That, plus the liability issue convinced me to look for more benign things to make, now that I had such a handy shop. Since then it's been model airplane parts, musical instrument parts and accessories, etc. I've enjoyed the work no matter what I'm building, and I think subconsiously I am doing what I've done throughout my career to hang on to my glory days a bit.
I wish I could share my little factory with you, it'd be interesting to see what you would come up with.
Tom
I appreciate the kind words Tom. And it sounds like you've got a great shop.
As for my "slide release", although I conceived of the idea out of my imagination, I don't know if I can claim that I invented it. I assume that someone else, at some time, had also come up with the idea. I've never seen it before, and I've searched, but I've never found another example, nor has anyone ever been able to point one out to me.
I've never been a fan of the swivel bolster, and the heads on the locks that I used were too small for pick locks. So on the "Rite Edge" auto I made a wrap-around thumb-press that I bolted directly to the lock (pics below). It works great, but it lacks "subtlety" and "refinement".
For my second 11" stiletto I was going all-out. So I wracked my brain for a lock release mechanism that was easy to operate, but subtle and refined in both appearance and function, and the "slide release" is what I came up with. I've only used it one other time, on a 9" Classic Frank Beltrame that I rebuilt (pics below). Filing the slot for the slide by hand, especially in steel is a piece of work.
For me, building switchblades is a "hot or cold" type of thing. In 2015-2016 I was doing them pretty much one after the other (the two 11" stilettos are from 2016), then I went cold and did nothing from the end of 2016 to the Fall of 2021, and I actually thought I was all done building switchblades. Then last year I got the itch again, and that led me to attempt my first Cold Steel Ti-Lite 6 conversion, which had been a dream of mine for several years. Since that success I've been running hot again. I actually just came in from my "shop" where I was working on my latest project.
When you mentioned "girlfriend" it reminded me of the woman I was with back in 2016. I'd spend hours trying to get a switchblade action dialed-in: no blade play, but with a strong opening. Taking it apart, making an adjustment, re-assembling, test, then taking it apart, making an adjustment, etc, etc, over and over again, for 2 hours, and I'd get frustrated, and be cursing, then I'd take a break, walk out into the living room and sit next to her on the couch exhausted, and she'd say- "I thought hobbies were supposed to be relaxing".
Fortunately for me now the knives I work on are a lot easier (Ti-Lite's), and that's just one of the many reasons why I like them, and why my passion for switchblades has been reignited.
One of my Frank Beltrames. Aluminum handles, flat button, stainless steel cover plate.