Antler Folding Knife

[fischereco2]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share a little folding knife I made. Not sure how historically accurate something like this really is, I know that modern french knives with this style of locking device have quite a long history. I've seen reference to some ring pull knives in the 18th century, but not with an antler tine handle. Still, I think they make a cool little knife to keep in the pocket while trekking.

This one is definitely kind of a prototype for me. It works well enough, but the blade is difficult to open, and I cracked the tip of the antler fitting the spring on the back. In the future I will make my blade slot a little wider, and use slightly thinner spring steel so fitting the spring on the spine isn't so difficult. The blade is nice and sharp though, made out of forged 1084 steel. I went for an English penny knife style shape. I'm sure this blade will serve me well despite its flaws and I'm planning on making a few improved ones.

 

[nwtradegun]

xcellent, very correct to the 17 and 18 hundreds

 

[KLWeaver]

Looks awesome, bet you could sell those on trade blankets for a pretty penny

 

[Obi-Wan Cannoli]

I really like how much additional character that the antler gives the knife.

As far as cracking the tip off, I will have to quote Bob Ross: "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents." :wink:

 

[SgtErv]

Nice work :hatsoff:

 

[crockett]

I've made similar knives and since you plan to make some more I'll sort of review some aspects. There is a similar knife in Newmann's Swords & Blades of the American Revolution and also in Hanson's Fur Trade Cutlery Sketch Book. There are examples in Russell's Firearms Traps and Tools BUT I've come to discount a lot of the information in the Russell books. I checked out the documentation and a lot is not correct such as the Kansas Monument artifacts.
Now....I haven't found much original information so if anyone has anything please chime in.
These knives are still being made and a huge amount were made in the 1920's and often are incorrectly dated to earlier times. In the American Colonial Era rather than "wings" that fold down over the sides, what I found was illustrations where the spring had a prong in back that fit in the handle and then a screw about mid-length to hold the spring to the handle. Russell has the "wings" as pre-1840 but I never found out when their use first appeared. The curl you have is pc to the best of my knowledge. The modern version has a stepped up spine in front of the spring- to stop further rotation upward but on the originals there was simply a tab on the tang/spine that fit into a slot in the spring- like you have done. I believe on a few originals there might have been a second pin through the handle, above the blade rivet, and this second pin stopped upward rotation. The procedure was to test fit the tab/slot, carefully filing bit by bit until the blade locked into the slot- that created a solid, no wobble lock up.
I spoke to a variety of museum curators because Russell said such knives were common. I never found a curator who knew much. One called the spring a "dorsal" spring to differentiate it from a back spring- seems logical. Horn or wood appears to have been the usual handle material and the style was made in many European Countries but apparently always called a "Spanish Lock Knife". The Sheffield Knife Book has old 1850 era ads of Sheffield cutlers who sold "Spanish Lock Knives".
I think almost all had washers placed over the blade rivet prior to peen hammering the rivet. The washer gave a greater bearing surface. I found that unfortunately the blades can get hard to move with time- I thought they may loosen up so I peen hammered too much. Get just enough pressure to keep the blade from flopping around when closed. If you design the tang correctly you can actually get the pressure of the spring to keep the blade in a closed position.
I am now trying my hand at "regular" spring back folders and they are harder to make. The Spanish lock knives IMHO are really great knives and can be real workhorse knives in many respects.
I wish I had more data but as I said, on documented, pre-1840 examples, I've so far found very little. Nice to know someone else is interested in Spanish Lock Knives. Wyeth issued some to his mountain men (1834).

 

[fischereco2]

Thanks for the information. That's really helpful. I made the same mistake as far as overpeening...it's weird, when I was fitting everything together the blade was flopping all over the place, so I added some very thin copper washers on either side of the blade, and it was still pretty loose, and when I peened the pin in the blade opened very easily still. I was kind of disappointed by how easily it opened, but after a day or two it became nearly impossible to open, like everything tightened up. I'm not sure what would cause that, it's not like I did anything to alter the antler. Maybe temperature? Moisture? In the future I think I'll err on the side of loose, and do what you suggested which is making the tang in such a way that it rests against the spring when closed to prevent freely opening.

As far as the wings, I figured that is a more recent development. I see them on a lot of modern knives, but it seemed like an easy style to try for a first attempt. I might try some of the earlier examples you mentioned next. These are definitely fun little projects and there is something really satisfying about hearing that positive 'click' and getting the blade to lock up nice and snug.

Thanks again.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Outstanding! If you are still having difficulty opening the blade, maybe it would be possible to file some grooves on the spine of the blade for a thumbnail? Obviously this would have to be before heat treating, bit perhaps a suggestion for the future.

 

[MSW]

nice looking knife - I really like the color!

 

[crockett]

On the springback types I'm now building, I over did the first one and to loosen it up I drove a wedge in the slot VERY SLOWLY and that loosened it up okay- this was before I filed off the excess material on the ends of the blade rivet. I never did it on the other type (friction folder, penny, Spanish Lock) because I figured it would split the handle- which I think is a real possibility. If it becomes unbearable I think the easiest fix would be to file off the rivet end and punch it out and put in a new rivet but so far it isn't that bad.
I've done a few friction folders and on the first one the slot ended up being too wide for the blade so I did the same thing- I put some very thin sheet metal on either side of the slot with the tang in between. I sort of figure back at the time, if the same problem occurred, it would have been the most likely fix so in my mind it is pc. Maybe we should categorize things PC-documented and PC-apparent.
Once you get your fill of the Spanish Lock Knives move on to the spring backs- doing pc types. Once again there is a lot of information I could not find such as how bolsters got attached to liners. I drilled a shallow hole on the inside of the bolster and staked a pin. Not much room to operate but it worked fine.
Why all the trouble with folders? I made about every style of fixed blade pre-1840 knife I could think of and just wanted to move on to a new area. It's the last frontier on muzzle loading, re-enacting. Not many folks have really gotten into the folders.