Folding Knife Designs

On these pages you will learn a simple method for designing a liner lock folding knife. There are many different methods that can be used to design a folding knife, some complicated, some simple, and they all work fine. The method shown here is a simple, low tech method that requires no special tools or previous knowledge of folding knives. All of the folding knives shown on my website were designed using this method.

After the design is complete, we will build a working prototype. Most of the processes used to build the prototype will also work to build a real knife. Building the prototype allows you to test your design quickly and develop permanent patterns to use in building the real knife later.

If you are ready to build a folding knife, then I have to assume you have already built some fixed blade knives and maybe even some folder kits. The only tools necessary to work through this tutorial are a belt sander, bandsaw, and a drill press with a cross sliding vise. Other tools could be substituted but these are what I used in this project. Since you should already know how to use these tools, I do not plan to explain their use in detail.