Category: How To

Knife 56 – Forged Hunter (broke cold forging)

I forged Fully Forged Hunting Knife that I broke from another tine as shown in knife 36. I sound up breaking it. I knew I was not finished forging it but I ran out of time, so I just left it sitting on the anvil. The next day I only had a few minutes in the shop. I picked up the knife and noticed a slight warp. Sure, I should have known better but my experience working with mild steel sort of kicked in and I gave it a couple good whacks with the hammer. Boom! A duh moment.

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Knife 51 & 52 Friction Folders

It was time to try my hand at making a Friction Folder. A friction folder is a folding knife that doesn’t use a lock or springs. It uses the handle’s friction against the tang to stay open. The design has an extended tang. This allows the user’s hand to keep the blade from folding shut.

When making a Friction Folder it’s best to make a prototype out of heavy paper or thin wood pieces. This allows you to get the pin locations close enough so it can be tuned in final fitting.

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Knife 46 – 4” Hunter – EDC – Dyed Wood Framed Tang – Stabilizing Scales

At this point I decided I wanted to stabilize the wood I used for handles. Stabilizing Scales (and handles) helps eliminate the possibility of the handle going bad because of moisture causing expansion or contraction if it dries out. It minimizes or eliminates warping, cracking and other issues that can occur with wood when used under extreme circumstances. It also would allow me to use some spalted wood that wouldn’t normally be a good handle.

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