Barlow locking liner project for anyone to join

[Frank Niro]

Hi Don.
I'm super pleased you like the mammoth ivory. Of course it's about 20,000 years old. It came a place near White Horse which is not far from Alaska. I did get those pieces from a miner who lives near me in the winter. I wrote up a small article on working with ivory. It is in this forum. I describe drying "stabilizing" and sealing cracks etc. Don, you can try to leave most of the outside on by sizing it down from the bottom, or of course you can remove the top to suit. the pieces you have will of course smell a little like plastic when working on them because of having absorbed the Min Wax Wood hardener . I figured they would work well on one of your fine looking folders, Don. I'm sure pleased I had something done "my way" I could send you in return for your information sheets. Frank

[Don Robinson]

Come on guys, let's see some action here.

Show and tell time for you barlow builders.

[Don Robinson]

Jeff Prater asked me to upload his WIP.

Here it is, Jeff. Looks good.

Now tell us all about it.

P.S. If you want to email me more pictures, I'll be glad to upload them for you.

[Don Robinson]

Atta boy, now we're cookin' again!

[JeffreyPrater]

Thanks Don

I couldnt get the picture to load.

I am using 410 SS for the liners so all my holes must
be drilled & tapped before I heat treat.
The Blade is ats 34. I will heat treat them myself. I air harden the
410 and bake at 500 deg for a spring temper.
This gives you the chance that heat warpage can misalign the
detent, or cause other problems. Ti has an obvious advantage.


The only thing left is to drill the detent hole before heat treating.
The handles are bone.

I made two mistakes:
I forgot to drill and ream the blade pivot hole to 3/16
I drilled and reamed to 1/8 and I dont think I have the room
now to make it larger. I will see if the backspacer can support
the pivot joint enough.
I drilled the extra bolster hole on the wrong side, I pinned the hole up
and drilled the right side.

It has been a learning experience, this is a small liner lock and I really
love the pattern.
It is a challenge because the small size leaves little room for error.

Jeff Prater

[Don Robinson]

Jeff, you might want to consider leaving the bushing out, since you only have a 1/8 hole in the blade.

I'd just use the 1/8" pivot pin for the pivot. After the blade is hardened, it'll work OK without galling.

Two similar metals will gall against other due to friction, but if one is hard, it should be OK.

Millions of slip joint folders have been bullt that way. In fact all the old barlows have a hard blade and soft pivot pin.

Use a drop of lock tite on the pivot screws to keep them from spinning and loosening.

Put a little drop on the screws and let it dry overnight before assembly.

Thanks, Jeff, for posting your WIP.

Anybody else?

[Frank Niro]

Hi Jeff.
The finished parts look great!! I'll bet you have a fine looking folder there. Did you say you heat treated the S.S. bolsters. If you did forget about doing that on the next one. 416 is great without heat treating it when used for decoration. Right Don? Frank

[JeffreyPrater]

Thanks,
I used Nickel silver for the bolsters, my liners and blade are tempering now.
I am going to omit the bushing and the use loctite on all the screws during the last assembly.

Oops, I knew I forgot something!
I forgot to heat treat the back spacer, oh well I'll do it tomorrow.
I will send some pics to Don as soon as I get it all together, I couldnt get them posted.

Jeff Prater

[Frank Niro]

Hi all.
Where I came from on the 416, I don't know. I sure wasn't trying to confuse the issue. Sorry abot that. Frank

[Don Robinson]

Frank, you posted that about the 416 at 12:23 A.M.

What were you drinking?

[Frank Niro]

Hi Don.
Didn't take you long to figure that one! Frank

[Don Robinson]

Frank, I'm building inventory for the Central Texas Knife Show in July.

Part of that will be a few hunters and camp knives.

Whatcha think about using that mammoth ivory on one? I think it'd be a shame to cut it up into little pieces for a folder.

Then again, it's worth too much for a using hunter. I'd have to raise the price. It might be fitting for a large bowie, but I don't like to make guards for bowies.

Maybe a new larger folder? :confused: :confused:

I may make a good sized flipper folder for the show, but I wouldn't put the ivory on something like that.

Somebody chime in here and advise me what to use the mammoth ivory for. :cool:

In the meantime, you guys get to work on your barlows.

Brian, how are you doing with yours?

[Don Robinson]

On the other hand, maybe I'll make a kind of fancy straight knife for the ivory with shiney bolsters and have the bolsters engraved????

[Frank Niro]

Don,
You sound like the kid in the candy shop who can have one of something but just can't make up his mind because there are too many choices. I figure I have it tough picking what I will use and almost never do I use anything but pearl or ivory, but then I only make folders. I know those scales will look good on a straight knife as well as a folder. There's all the help I'm going to give you on choice of knives. Frank

[Don Robinson]

Frank,

So it comes down to a large folder or a straight knife.

I've contacted Sandy Morrisey about making a sheath for a straight knife, and am leaning that way right now. He does beautiful work.

On the other hand, I need a couple of larger folders for the show.

Man, you've got my poor old mind in a dither about which new knife to put the ivory on.

:confused:

By the way, of interest to this thread, I got a phone call from a collector yesterday. He wants a grand daddy barlow with an abalone handle.

Can do!

I think I'll change my name to "The barlow man". :cool: