No lock on this one. I want it to be UK legal. I have had a go at making a huge tanto style folder with a spring lock. It all got a bit out of hand and was so heavy it could have been considered an offensive weapon without the blade even fitted! Shame because the blade lines came out so well. I’ll take a photo if I can find it.
The gas cylinder will be cut to size and then the ends will be squared off using a jig I made. A slot will be cut lengthways. Exactly like an Opinel bit without the locking ring. Just about as simple as a folder can get. Saying that, I did make a simple little Viking style knife, that was pretty simple too.
Doesn‘t sound like a great hobby does it? Using these is easy as the wife finds plenty whilst litter collecting. Thinking about it, I could do a cycling version using old tyre inflators.
Last friday, along with finishing the Axe, I made fresh tooling for canisters - the 3mm angle iron had deformed from my previous efforts, so I've stepped up to 6mm stainless with more reinforcing. Stainless is much harder than mild when hot, so these should hopefully last a lot longer...
2 hours to play. Lit the forge at 16.00, shut the door at 18.00.
I had a canister prepped, but have stepped it up to 40mm box with a thicker wall (2.5mm), as the last thin canister (30mm box with 1.5mm wall) collapsed too easily. 300 grams of 52100 6mm steel bearings, and more 1095 powder.
this shows how much it needs to be compressed, that's 40mm x 2.5mm box section;
Also made a start on a longer project. it will involve 60 of these craft blades; Amazon Link and 60 layers of 0.7mm spring steel.
I was cutting, cleaning and welding all of these whilst the canister was having a 30 min 'soak' at 1000+ degrees. This is what the starting 36 layers looks like (should have been 40, but I 'mislaid' 4...). the stainless cladding literally fell off as I was cutting
(and for Iwasgoodonce, no borax at all. Everything was cleaned, stacked, welded, and then sprayed with WD40. The first weld went well, so I didn't need any borax).
