Difficulty:

The black art of folding knives. Creating a folding knife adds a level of complexity and precision to knife making. Learn about a few of the common mechanisms used locking and non locking folding knives before going onto making your own single blade slip joint folder.

The course will be run by knifemaker Alistair Phillps.

Friday night we will go over the various mechanisms used in folding knives before delving in depth into the working of a slip joint folding knife. Then we will choose a pattern and layout the parts and drill our pivot holes ready for fitting and grinding on Saturday.

Saturday begins with the shaping of our spring, followed by fitting the tang to the spring we have just made. Once the action of the knife is done we will grind the bevels of the blade and clean them up ready for Heat treatment. Heat Treatment is the last thing we do before calling it a day.

Sunday we will set the pre tension on our knives and assemble them for the first time and feel them in action. Then we will shape our handle and prepare and shape our handle scales ready for final assembly. At this point we can do any final adjustments to our spring tension for a nice walk and talk. The last thing we do before assembling our knives is to clean up the blade and then we will pin the knife together. After a final clean up of the pins and polishing the handle we are done.

You will enjoy it and have an amazing knife to show off.

• Cost - $600 (incl GST)
  
• Cost includes: Tuition, insurance, materials, use of tools, workshop consumables, safety gear, morning and afternoon tea, photo disk.
• Need to bring: Lunch, appropriate clothing and covered footwear
• Booking in advance is essential

For starting dates see the upcoming courses list on the side panel. Or if you have 2 or 3 buddies wanting to do it with you, contact us to arrange a weekend that suits.

Here is some photos from the courses to give you an idea of what happens.