I've been tied up in other projects over the last couple of weeks, but this weekend I did manage to log in a few hours in the shop. The Pride Auto is now mechanically complete! Here are some progress pics of the build.
Here's the blade all wrapped up in stainless foil, ready to be heat treated. The button will also get heat treated in the same way.
As the blade and button are being heat treated, I focused my attention on the remaining parts of the handle. The rear bolsters will be made from 416 ss, just like the front bolsters, and the scales will be made from lightning strike carbon fiber.
Here are the handles with the new parts attached. Everything is over sized and will be ground down to fit the profile of the handle.
And here are the handles after being profiled.
The torsion springs that I purchased for this knife were wound in the opposite direction from what I needed to fit this design. I did some looking online and didn't find anything that would work. So, I decided to make my own. I purchased some spring-tempered music wire to make the spring with.
Here's the little jig that I made on my lathe to wind my torsion spring. I had to play around with the diameter of the mandrel in order to get the proper diameter of the finished spring. When all was said and done, this thing worked out great.
The spring fits perfectly into the spring pocket. I had to make a couple of springs before I got it right, but the spool of wire has around 90 feet, so I have plenty of wire to play with.
And here's the mechanically complete knife with the handle profile ground in.
And finally, here's a short video, shot with my pitiful phone, showing the action of the automatic knife. It fires great, the button locks in both the open and closed positions. I couldn't be happier with my first attempt. Next week I hope to get the bevels ground into the blade and the handle shaped. I hope you'll check back soon.
- Brandant Robinson