Friction folder questions

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OkieCowboy

Well-Known Member
... in between a couple of other projects... I had a couple of scrap pieces of steel ..1095..one of them had a blade inside just dieing to be let out... so somehow I am on my way to building my first friction folder...I want a more modern design. .. (keep.in mind..I am kinda winging this..building as I go) so...what size pivot does o e normally need to start with? I was thinking maybe 3/16...am I way off base here? And length wise...do you cut to length? What about any standoff or anything? Same deal???

Also any concerns when sending these smaller folder blades off for heat treating?

Thanks so much for the advice..!!!
 
I have built one so take the advice for what it's worth.
I used a 3/16 pivot and 1/8 pivot for my stop pin. I did not use stand offs I just used a scrap piece of g10 for my back spacer. I did have to shorten all my hardware to fit. If I remember right I used 1/8" micarta for the handle, .010 nylon washers, 3/32 01 steel for the blade. So that left me with about .11375 for the blade and washers so I didn't have to sand the .125 g10 down to much for my back spacer. For the pivots I think I got 3/8 length pivots, which my total thickness with handle slabs, washers and blade came to .36375 so I had to shorten them plus I slightly counterbored my screw heads which I didn't not take into consideration til after the fact so I had to shorten the pivot barrel and screws again.

I hope that all makes sense

Like I said only one under my belt and I know there are alot of folder guys on here that can probably help more then me.
 
i have built a few, on the smaller knives i use 1/8" pivot, on the larger knives i would go with 3/16" pivot. I will use either 1/8" pivots or 1/8" round stock for stop pins on the smaller knives. on a larger knife you might want to use a hardened pivot or stop pin.
you are going to want to ream the holes for the pivot in the blade and in the handle materials to get a nice true hole. I use the bronze washers.
 
Thanks Justin.. that makes perfect sense...that's why I was asking before I was continuing on...


Aaron I get what you are saying about reaming the hole... I do have a question... is the bronze washer just personal preference? Or a mechanical or practical reason over nylon etc??
 
OkieCowboy said:
Thanks Justin.. that makes perfect sense...that's why I was asking before I was continuing on...


Aaron I get what you are saying about reaming the hole... I do have a question... is the bronze washer just personal preference? Or a mechanical or practical reason over nylon etc??
Click to expand...

Glad I can help, I know how you feel when I was looking to make mine the hardware was the one thing I could not find much info on when I searched.

Aaron might be able to answer the washer question better. I know I just bought some Phosphorus bronze washers for a framelock I'm going to build but that is only due to my research and seemed like what everyone was using.
Maybe someone with more experience can explain the different washers and what application each is best for?
 
The Phosphorus bronze washers are a good choice, i think they also come in nylon or Teflon. i have only used the phosphorus bronze, so i cannot comment on the others.
 
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