Durban Easter Knife show 2013

I attended the Durban Easter knife show, What an amazing experience. To have seen the top quality that the knife manufacturers produced, paying attention to every micro detail. I was absolutely excited,  intimidated, and inspired all at the same time. It really inspired me to strive in the future to produce an excellent quality of work, to pay attention to every single detail. I will post some pictures soon

Dangerous Weapons Bill

After attending the durban easter knife show, I've been doing some research on the "Dangerous Weapons Bill". I've been wanting find out the laws on carrying knives, since I'll be making them over the course of the next two year and hopefully for a very long time after.

Case hardening

Only after I had done the differential tempering process on my blade and spring, did I find out about case hardening. I wasn't sure what steel I had used for knife blade and spring, so I searched"How to harden and temper mild steel?" I came across this video and many articles on case hardening. I learned that gunsmiths use mild steel to machine parts, I thought to myself "Isn't mild steel to week for all the wear and tear a gun goes through?"then I learned what case hardening is.

Geometry of Pivot

Figure 1 is explaining the calculation for placement of the pivot.This calculation ensures that the spring is at a neutral position at rotation stages of the blade. Bill Vinnings calculations work like this; distances A, B and C should all be the same measurement from the pivot hole to ensure that spring in a neutral position at the different stages of rotation. Distance A should be 10% longer than distances B and C to ensure than the spine of the blade doesn’t extend past the spring in the fully opened position. After many hours of trying to draw designs and work out the mechanism on paper, I came across printed out templates on the internet. It dawned upon me to use Rhinoceros the CAD program to draw up designs, and work out the technical confusions!

Tempering chart guide

 This is a chart of the relevant colours for the various tempering stages. It also indicates the various tools and their requires temperings