DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

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ILikeStilettos
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DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

Post by ILikeStilettos »

The subtitle of this post is "from the drawing board to the customer". Kugeln is German for "balls".

I've long admired Lance's collection of Mickey Mouse eared knives, so I set out to make my own. Here's what I came up with:

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And here's how it was breathed into life by my partner, Duke. Note the ball on the end of the kick spring. This prevents it from pressing against the cutting edge and dulling it. It also creates what folks call a "double clicker". Most ball eared knives are around 9" long, but I like 13's. I decided to make this one 12", just to be different. As you can see it's a bottomless lockback. The blade and springs are 5/32" 1095, flat ground and definitely sharp and pointed. I'm sure someone has done this grind before, but I've never seen it until now. The up-swept point is a challenge to stow without peeking. It's wasp-waisted and fishtailed. The bolsters are NS with stainless balls. All other pins and liners are stainless. We used 1/16" stainless liners for strength and it's scaled in stabilized giraffe bone as you see it here. Duke said it was a real learning experience to build. That's diplomacy for explaining that it was a royal pain in the butt.

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It's straight and true, and opens with authority. Part of this comes from lightening the blade during grinding, a bit more from the copper phosphate washers at the pivot, but mostly is a result of the curve of the kicker and Duke putting a nice temper on it.

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Duke thought it would be appropriate on this one to make the pins flush and I totally agree. Note the 1/16" pin at the hinge of the lockback. I use whatever tricks I can to make best usage of available real estate. The pivot is 5/32" and all others are 3/32". It's overkill, but we want this one to last.

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I love the way the giraffe bone shades and varies. The stabilization process forces the color all the way through, but every slice is unique in character and grain.

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It sits centered and deep (about 3/16" by design) and there is room for it to move another 1/16" to insure that it catches the sear.

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Here's our logo:

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How we got here is a story in itself. Either I send Duke templates or he prints them himself on heavy stock in exact size. He has the same CAD system that I do and while he doesn't design with it, he knows how to print. I simply email him the file and if there are issues, we can adjust on the fly. He in effect has a template generator for every knife in our repertoire. He cuts these out and pastes them right on the raw material. Only the hole centers are shown, so he can center-punch them and drill accurately. He uses a double layer of material for the liners to produce two nearly identical ones at once. He paints around the perimeter with die marking chemical so that he knows exactly where to cut, but generally leaves a bit extra so that he can sand to exact size and take out the bandsaw markings. You'll note that the heel of the blade is coated with marker, but not drilled. We have found that it's better to determine where the sear hits the blade after we have everything test fitted and know exactly where the point is supposed to be. I don't know why he didn't drill the holes for the front scale pins. Note the holes in the two rounded part of the liner. These are locators for the actual balls which will be made and fitted later.

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Duke is a meticulous and methodical craftsman. In this early stage, he is fitting the blade to the lockback tab to insure the blade is in the right position and doesn't "banana". By mounting everything on a board with temporary pins, he can observe the blade through it's entire path. I am of the opinion that is the way most builders work, some even do it first with paper dolls. The step is unavoidable. However, since I am doing it in CAD, I can operate under magnification of 25X or more and plan everything so that Duke doesn't need to make big adjustments. As I work through the process virtually, I can react to any errors or changes in thought process on the fly. It's never too late the way I do it. If you are working in steel, it's much harder to start over to fix something.

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Here Duke is comparing to a 9" AKC to see if he can figure out an issue with the kickspring. You can tear apart someone else's knife and copy it, but these lockbacks have many subtleties. The geometry is simple once you understand it, but then the same could be said for the theory of relativity. The reason Duke is having problems is that I haven't taken everything into account in the design. What we are doing is a process, and while we are steadily improving, we aren't "there" yet.

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The blade blank gets temporarily mounted to a jig to facilitate Duke's grip while grinding. Since this was a new and untested design he made two of them. I'm pretty sure he tossed both and made a third one.

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The winner! Note, the top grind is just a hint and not even a real edge. It's more for aesthetics than function. The full thickness spine really enhances the strength of the blade.

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Now he does a test fit up with both liners and prepares to drill the front scale holes and mount the rocker and bolster.

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Duke turned the balls from stainless on a mini-lathe. Note that we opted for a cylinder with beveled edges. It's easier to turn than a sphere and we both liked the look of it. If I know Duke, he has a bag of them set aside in case we ever want to do this again.

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This shows one of the bolsters soldered in place with the balls. Duke used high temperature solder on the balls and low temperature solder on the bolster so he wouldn't break the balls loose when he soldered the bolster. The other bolster is to the right. By pre-drilling the clearance holes for the balls, the blank slips right between, then you solder everything together and shape the rest of the bolster.

OK, I am also going to reveal one of our secret methods. Note the sturdy rocker to the right, made from 5/32" stainless. Duke has already mounted the return spring and a small stainless tube, then milled out a notch for the rocker to slip into. This allows us to put the rocker pivot extremely low and is easier than pinned brackets, d-stamps, etc. The pivot hole in the rocker is right on the edge, but it's still very strong since the rocker is 5/32" thick.

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We were plagued by lots of issues on this build. I had planned to use a new acrylic and aluminum matrix product commonly called "snakeskin". It comes in a variety of great colors and I have several pieces (none of which Duke wants to ever darken his door again!) I have seen in made up into some stunning fixed blade handles.

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The problems started when Duke cut the profile. In some areas, especially where the matrix merely bordered on the acrylic and didn't actually enclose it, the acrylic fell out in chunks.

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He asked if I wanted him to attempt gluing the pieces back in, but that seemed to be a lost cause. So I sent him some nice giraffe bone, the ones you see on the knife now. Unfortunately, those had some cracks and now big big pieces fell out. We both concluded that this was a freak occurrence and some super glue might make an acceptable repair. I also didn't want to impose on him to make yet another set of scales.

So now the knife is together, and works for me. It's beautiful and since it's a prototype there are things we would do better next time. I give Duke an 8.5 for execution but a solid 10 for difficulty of the performance. Come visit me if you ever want to see it in person, but you'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead fingers to have it for yourself.

Thanks for reading my novel. Thus endeth the sermon for the evening.
Dave Sause
oldandfat@cox.net
(405) 694-3690

"And you're telling me this because, somehow, I look like I give a shit?"

"Let a smile be your umbrella and you're gonna get your dumb ass wet."
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DonC
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Re: DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

Post by DonC »

Thanks for the write-up and photos of the build process. Duke and you can be justifiably proud of a striking collaboration.
Well done.
DonC
sammy the blade
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Re: DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

Post by sammy the blade »

Mos' impressive!
2024 candidate for president
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Jackalope
Posts: 878
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2004 3:13 am

Re: DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

Post by Jackalope »

I am not a fan of the knobs or the handle material but all in all I do like the knife. Good work.
Fishtail Picklock
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Location: Forest Grove, OR

Re: DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

Post by Fishtail Picklock »

OUT-FREAKING-STANDING! Love the materials and construction. A true work of art. I know my project is on the back burner but this gives me hope.
Fishtail Picklock
gravknife
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Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:34 pm

Re: DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

Post by gravknife »

Beautiful knife Dave

I had never bumped into these type of ball /mouse ear bolsters ,but saw a nice example in nir89 s collection here recently ,
I think that snake acrylic was a fantastic .choice ..it's just a shame it doesn't lend itself well to shaping as its definitely different and would look great on any knife.

I really like that blade shape.
I have seen the shape or something very similar before on German WW1 trench knives .Their purpose to penetrate British great coats on trench raids and they were supposedly good at it.

I actually like the giraffe bone as it has some nice inclusions and goes well with the overall shape and design of the knife.

It's great to see the story of the difficulties encountered and the actual build process in pictures as it makes me appreciate even more the difficulties faced during the construction of many of these switchblades designs,even the basics we may take for granted.

Thanks for taking the time to do these posts ....as I don't mangle it gives me an inside look at mechanics and just how much work goes into actually bringing a knife to all its finished glory.


I hope your well Dave
Keep them coming

gravknife
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ILikeStilettos
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Re: DoubleD Knives presents "The Kugeln"

Post by ILikeStilettos »

Duke and I are basking in your compliments.
Dave Sause
oldandfat@cox.net
(405) 694-3690

"And you're telling me this because, somehow, I look like I give a shit?"

"Let a smile be your umbrella and you're gonna get your dumb ass wet."
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