Thong holes - how?

[plain ol Bill]

I have a design worked up that has a thong hole in it. I plan to use 1/4" stainless tubing thru the liners, spacer and scales. I want this to be a standard liner lock design you can take down. How do I put the tubing through a take down design and still lock it into place?

[Ray Rogers]

Off the top of my head I can think of two possibilities. One would be to use a set screw to hold the liner if the knife's design will allow for that.

A better way might be to press the thong liner into one of the handle liners like I do for my blade stop bars. The matching hole on the other liner and the spacer would be drilled for a clearance fit....

[oldgrinder]

Originally posted by plain ol Bill
I have a design worked up that has a thong hole in it. I plan to use 1/4" stainless tubing thru the liners, spacer and scales. I want this to be a standard liner lock design you can take down. How do I put the tubing through a take down design and still lock it into place?

Bill,
I put my thong hole in my folder this way...I fully assembled the folder and drill my 3/16" thong hole all the way through the folder.(no tubing)works great.

Oldgrinder

[stoneman]

You could try using a stepped thong hole, by finding a slightly larger tube, that the first one will fit into and soldering it in place, that way it won't fall out and help with the strength.
(Caution - Never tried this, it just came off the top of my head, It just made me think of stepped stop pins some makers use.)

[SharpByCoop]

Here's another solution: drill the holes through the finished scales and liners to a smaller size, like .230", and then turn down the ends that slip through them to this size. Leave the middle area between the liners at .250" and it should be neatly sandwiched between them.

Never did it, but seems like a good solution. I like Ray's as an easy one as well.

Coop

[george tichbour]

I made one a while back with a thong hole by extending the backspacer past the end of the handle and drilled the extended backspacer for a thong. Not a regular thong hole but effective.