I've been making knives for a while, it is awesome. Well I want to try a foldiing knife, starting with a liner lock. I have some 410 stainless that I have had for a while and I was wondering if it could be used for liners? It is .05 inches thick, is that too thin? If so, what is the norm? Where does everyone buy their titanium? Is that a better material? Would brass work? Nickel silver? Sorry to bombard you guys with questions. I can't wait to start on my first folder.

I use .050 410 ss for my slipjont nives and it works really well for them but it's not any good for liner locks because you need titanium for liner locks spring.

You can use stainless steel for a liner lock if you heat treat it to spring temper but, for that, 416 is better. Like Mr. Moore said though, titanium is by far the best choice. You can get titanium in small quantities from Sheffield's Knife Supply and most of the other knife supply houses. .050 is good for most knives but for a heavy use knife or a larger folder I like .062.

The other metals you mentioned are worthless for a lock. Basically, if it can't be hardened to spring hardness it won't do. Titanium is a natural spring and does not require heat treating....

couple of sources:
halpern titanium (http://halperntitanium.com/)
alpha knife supply (http://www.alphaknifesupply.com/) also has timascus

If your making a carbon steel blade instead of stainless you might want to think about 15n20. Its cheap,doesn't need heat treat, and works great.

Steve

thanks a lot guys, this forum is the greatest. I suppose I will buy some titanium for my first liner lock. I also want to do slip joints and lockbacks. I think I will use ATS-34 stainless for my blade. Ive never used 15n20; is it a good blade steel? Maybe I'll try some later on. I'll let you know how it comes out. Also thanks to Jason Howell for that liner lock tutorial. In fact thanks to everyone who did a tutorial they are all very helpful.

Is 15n20 available in sheets? Where? I'm not crazy about the wear characteristics of thin guage Ti as a locking bar and this seems to be a good alternative. No HT required? Do you just profile and drill to use?

Thanks, Phil

Any of the knife supply houses, admiral steel etc.. will have it. Yep all ya' do is profile and drill and it's good to go. If you put a good polish on it it won't rust as fast....that being said a little reasonable care and it doesn't rust at all. I got the idea from Ed Caffrey. good luck.

I imagine that, because its a hard steel, normal high speed drill bits can't be used, right? Something like carbide or cobalt bits perhaps.

If it hasn't been heat treated, it isn't hard. I like cobalt drill bits for titanium and just about everything else except hardened steel. They last a lot longer than HSS .,...

you can use HSS just run it slow........they won't last as long as the better bits but they work. You can find the better bits at msc or mcmaster carr or enco for less than a dollar more and they last 3-4 times as long. Steve