Hey All,
Today marks the fifth day of construction on the Moon framelock build. With the gutting of the blade channel complete, the side profile of the knife could be milled along with the initial rough roundover of the handle, which is all done via CNC. Here's some photographs of the handle starting to take on its final shape:
Notice the pivot hole and blade stop holes are already cut. These are recesses for the heads of the screws. Unlike most makers, I use a kind of shoulder bolt for both my pivots and stop pins. Most knives on the market today use pins held in by pockets in the frame or held in place by small machine screws. By using bolts that thread into the frame, I'm able to increase the strength of the pivot assembly by almost three fold over friction held and stop pins.
After profiling around the shape of the handle with a 1 inch carbide mill, you can now start to see the rough outline of the handle. Note the blade/flipper channel towards the pivot side of the knife and the small, barely visible lanyard hole on the top of the knife near the butt.
With rough profiling done, it's time to start the edge roundover. Using a 3/32nds roundover mill I can CNC round the bolster area. This keeps the knife nice and comfortable in the pocket and in the hand, insuring there are no sharp edges where there shouldn't be. The rest of the handle will be rounded over once the handle side bevels are milled at their proper 1.8 degree angle to mate perfectly with the existing roundover on the bolster.
More to come...
-Will
