Hello,
quick introduction. I am a french software engineer, lives near Boston, MA for the last 3 years and about a year ago I started to make knives. Although I was mostly interested in folders I started with fixed blades, made a couple then I went to folders.
I am mostly learning, I made 2 lockbacks both with their own issues and hopefully the next one will be better.
First one is a bit oversized in general and specially the handle vs the blade. I tried to hide some of that by making the scales cover only part of the liners
Second one is much smaller, in fact the size I wanted it to be, here is a WIP picture next to its big brother
And some finished pictures
That second one has more structural problems, the issue is that I have been using the same size stock for the spacer in the back, the lockbar and the blade, I also use some washers. On the large knife it is not such an issue because of how long the handle is, on the smaller one it was and I tried to compensate by thinning the blade with a file. However I didn't file the sides of the tang parallele enough so now if I tighten the pivot enough that there is not too much play, it becomes a bit hard to close it and the blade doesn't snap back in the close position.
I am adressing this in the next knife. I have ordered steel stock that is the exact thickness of the blade stock and the 2 washers. i intend to use it for both the spacer and the lock bar.
Another issue has been dealing with the kick. I filed too much of it so I switched to using a stop pin to prevent the blade from touching the locking bar instead of the intended way (the kick touching the bar).
All in all I am happy to have made those two but expect the next one to be better.
Finally. The only power tool I use is a drill press, all is done with hand files, hacksaw and sandpaper.
Any advice and critics are welcome