Last year Tony (Schradenut) emailed me with a concept for a knife he wanted me to build for him. He sent me the knife to use as the platform on which to build the custom. The build has gone on with a few changes, time out for my knee surgery, and life in general, for the better part of the year.
The knife started life as an Ulster TL-29 (made by Schrade with the Swinden Key system) and has been radically customized.
- The Ulster TL-29 for modification.
There is a ton of finish work, sanding and polishing on a build like this. As Glenn, MM, Bob, WB and everyone else who has had many production knives from this era apart, finish work on internal pieces was not a priority. The inside of the springs and liners were usually never highly finished. The springs in this knife were coated with a silver paint to help protect from rust and to make it look shiny at the bottom of the blade pocket. The paint helped hide the rough edge of the liner. It has no effect on the function of the knife, but it sure effects the looks. I spent a lot of time polishing unfinished edges on this knife. I figured if it was worth doing, it was worth doing right.
- This is what the spring looked like just removed from the knife.
- This is the spring with a trip to the Scotch Brite wheel to remove the paint.
- This is the spring after being polished on the inside. Shown with the blade and liners after the bolsters were soldiered on to the liners.
This is the rough edge of the kick after the Scotch Brite wheel and before sanding /polishing out the rough spots.
This is the Schrade Cut Co which is the same pattern that was used later for the Schrade Walden 2OT, the very first of the Schrade Walden Old Timer line. This is the knife I uses as a pattern for Tony’s knife.
- This was taken before I had completed the new bolsters.
This pic shows the grooving of the bolsters, a work in progress at this point.
- This is the process of cutting grooves in the bolsters.
This pic shows the bolster with all three grooves in it. The dark middle line is a groove that has been cut but not polished yet. The picture was taken on a scanner and the unpolished groove did weird things with the light and made the groove look like an ink line drawn on the bolster. The wood on the handles is Panamanian Cocobolo.
Tony wanted the knife patterned after the 2OT, but he wanted it to be an easy opener and for the liner lock to be moved from the screwdriver blade to the spear blade. This is where I cut the easy open notch.
Now it is time to cut the bevel Tony wanted on the end of the bolster as opposed to the pinch bolster of the 2OT. To cut the bevel at a semi-consistent angle I had to design, & make a filing jig. That took me a couple days to design and build it. I used cedar door shims as wedges to hold the side of the knife fast in the jig so it would not move.
After hours of polishing the knife was finally ready to be assembled permanently!
I will add the final pictures in the next post.
