#5 shows where I have drilled the rocker bar pivot hole and drilled one hole only through the spring and liner. Here is where it starts getting tricky. I can do some things such as rough timing now. Some will have to be done after heat treating and tempering the blade such as drilling that last hole. When the tempering is done then I mark off very well where it is laying now in the closed position. Then I will remove everything but the spring that is marked out, then I will swing upward about 20 thousands of an inch and drill that last hole. That should give us enough spring.

#6

#6 shows where the last hole will be. I just wanted to show about what the guts look like when the it is  a loose open postion. I can hold pressure with my finger right where the stone is laying to provide enough action to make sure it is going to operate smooth or not.

#7

#7 is showing the postive stop. This is a stop measure to make sure it goes no futher down and hits the spring. Not all folders have this in a lock back. When I set the timing up on this I file forward to make the tip drop, I file and stone downwards to make the rocker bar fall into a level position with the back of the bolsters in the closed postion, this has to be timed with the bar being flush with the bolsters in the open postion. This is important as you can see and feel 3 thousands of an inch, you gotta keep filing and stoning until it is exact.
If you will look at the photo again. The lug on the bottom of the rocker is what the "cam" or rounded portion of the blade of the blade runs against. I stone and polish this so it is as smooth as possible. You also have to stone and polish a tiny radius so it "breaks over" smooth. I stone the cam or the rounded portion of the back of the blade as well.
 
#8

Number 8 shows where I have relieved the surrounding area of the pivot. I am sure there are better ways to do this but this is the way I do. I relieve it so that it gives a smoother action and less drag. The drag also causes the sides of the liner contacting the visable parts of the blades ricasso area to scratch up. The relief is done in as many ways as there are makers. Some hand scrape it,some mill it, some use washers in that area. Just depends upon who makes it and how they make it, as long as it has some relief and it is sturdy it should not make much difference. I prefer to use my exisiting materials.

#9

In #9 I have put it together so I can see how much my rocker bar lays above my bolster. I will grind/sand this down till I have cleaned up the bolsters and the rocker bar is flush.

#10

I now have the rocker bar flush in the open postion and not in focus with the camera it appears.

#11

In #11 is shows how much the rocker bar is raised above the bolster in the closed positon. This is where the timing of the postive stop comes into play. I never do this work on a Milling machine. I hand file all of my parts then stone that finish then polish that finish. This way I can get it to fit but it do take a lot of time. Remember when doing that timing, forward drops the blade and downward drops the rocker bar and you have to do them together as each will effect the other.  I am sure there are better ways and I am slow. I dont have a surface grinder, I go back and forth on a piece of sand paper on a marble block till I get what I want. I know it is slow and I could do it much faster.

#12

Though
#12  photo does not show it  but I have the timing down to where the rocker bar is flush in both open and closed postion. I an ready to "freshen" out the pocket to where your finger does not holler calf rope every time you try to open it. I do this by hand also. Once I am done with this step, the next step is to choose the handle material and lay it out.

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#13

My coloring is off with this photo so you will have to pardon me. I will try and get a realistic color the next shot.
In  #13 photo I have contoured the bolsters so that the major work of doing that is done with the handle scales not attached. Doing it like that cuts down on the heat that would migrate to the ivory causing more chance of cracking. Easy does it with ivory. You should always let ivory settle for a year or more. I have had this piece of ivory for over 6 years. I have also dovetailed the ivory to match the dovetail in the bolsters.
The next step will be to attach the ivory to the liners, grind pretty dang close to finish. At that point I will do in and sand the blade and put a convex grind on the edge and etch the blade. That process will take a bit of doings so I will be sure and shoot the doings of that. You have to be careful when you are etching folder blades. It requires Maybelline Red fingernail polish.

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#14

#14 shows the masking of the running gear. You have to mask off and keep from etching any of the contact parts, this insures a smooth running movement or else you would be bumping on the highs and lows of the etch. You have to make sure the pivot hole is masked so it rolls smooth, the lock slots and postive stop or you just lost your orginial fit, the sides so that it has constant contact with the liner portion. I sent several out that was totally etched as it did not dawn on me for awhile that non etched parts run smoother. Convex ground. I like convex grinds cause they cut better for me. I do my folders the same way as the large fixed blades cause it works.

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#15

In #15 photo I show the finished etched blade, still traces of the resist on it that I gotta clean off. I was in a hurry to get this photo done and posted so I can go back to work on the handles. This is a 7 piece basket weave. Each of those little 7 piece weaves started out as 2 inch squares. I have just shrank them in the welding processes until they are this size. You can see where they are woven. This pattern takes awhile to do. The next step is to finish sanding the handles to the liners or at least really really close. Then I will drill the pin holes through the handle scales, slide some dummy pins in and finish sand and polish it all with dummy pins.
At that time then I will make up the real pins, peen them to fit it all up. Then make the thumb bob to open it with. I will show a photo of that as well. Oh yeah, when you drill through the handle materials for the pin holes you have to do that upside down. By that I mean with the handle material not being flat and true on the outside the only true surface you have is the liners. For this I made an alumium bracket that I can clamp the liners to it from the bottom side and with slots that matches my hole patterns I can then drill through using my liner holes as my guide. The big boys may do it different and probally better, this is just the way I do it.
As yall can see by now, making folders is not an easy task for me, it takes me much longer to do one of these than a hunter but a smith has to keep stretching himself.

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#16

This is a three parter photograph of the rocker bar engraving. Probally none of them are in focus well enough. Thats why there are three so it can be more frusterating to see, "what in the heck he is doing to that folding knife".
The thickness of the rocker bar is 3/32 inch or .093 thousands of an inch. Therefore the engraving running the length of the rocker bar is only 1/32 inch wide or about .035 wide. In that thickness I made about 10 cuts wide so you can see the "running wheat" pattern. On the side of the rocker bar where the thumb presses to lock and unlock I did a little scratching as well. Now I got to go rest my eyes.

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#17

This one shows some of the progress on the engraving. I have been working on it two full days now. Sometimes you have to think ahead on this stuff. I put a stainless pin in the bolster and got to thinking then how am I going to engrave it. At that point I took it out and put in a nickle silver pin so that I could use it as the center of a flower. For the gold work in case some of you who are just joining us let me explain briefly how I inlay the gold wire.
On this one I took a chisel ground at 90 degrees and cut a groove where I wanted to gold to go. Then I have another chisel that is ground so that I can go straight down in the bottom of the groove that I cut, when I do this the tool kicks inside giving me a dovetail. The draw back with this is that the dovetail tool is only .010 thousands of an inch wide. Therefore give these instructions you ought to be able to measure the length of the wires and divide by .010 with a .002 or so underlap so that you make sure you get constant dovetailing and then you should come up with how many times I have to do this to get constant dovetails. I figured it up and came up with the figure of a whole butt load of times. Once you get it dovetailed then you hammer in the gold itself, stone off the tops, then go in and cut a narrow groove that will be filled with lacquer on both sides of the gold wire to make it "pop" when you  look at it.
I like to have messed up on this piece as I cut the shading in a bit early not thinking. Between the stoning and bit of sanding I have removed some of my shading so I will have to go in and recut on the big flower. arrg. You can also see in this photo where I have only cut portion of the way around on both sides of the gold so you can see what it does do to it when you set it up like this. Cutting the small groove around the scroll as well as any other places can also give you lots of trouble. If you go inward just a few thousands too much your chisel will dig right into the gold and you got a mess. The only thing to do then is recut and re-inlay the spot. I have done that. Ubet. Lots of time but I like it.

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#18

The engraving is finished on this one side. The only thing I am pondering is should I go back and checker the center of the large flower. Yall have an opinion let me know.
At this point I start relieving the off sides engraving and do the shading like this one has. From there, which will be tomorrow at this point I will begin making the thumbbob. The only reason I bought the tiny lathe I have is for making screws, thumbbobs on my folders. I swear to goodness I dont know why I torture myself with making this on rare occasions. I would be better suited to go study with a folder guy for a week and see if I could apply that new knowledge so I could make them more efficent. However I have so many irons in the fire there are other things I would rather do at this time.
I will post up the thumb bob attatchment when finished.

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