Tutorials:
Day-Ops Folder Kit



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Day-Ops

Special Note: Although the Day-Ops Kit is no longer available, I decided to keep this tutorial since the construction and assembly is so typical of today's knife kits and gives you an excellent idea how these are put together.

The Day-Ops is from   Linville Knife and Tool. Looking like so many of the high tech knives out today  that seem to all have "Ops" in their name ( example: Special Ops, etc. ), this is a little more of an everyday carry size. Hence the name Day-Ops.  The blade is a nice piece of AUS-8 steel ( they could have used a lot cheaper steels!) nicely ground. A few minutes of work will give you a knife worth three times what you just paid. 7 1/4" overall length with a 3" blade.

 
Here's what you get in the kit when it arrives : an excellent brad blast finished blade, a matched set of G10 scales, the liners with integral lock (the spot welded bolsters, already attached, are a nice touch), the clip and all of the hardware. 
This is the hinge pin assembly which screw to each other from the outside of the liners trapping the blade between. They fit into a nicely recessed space on the bolsters.
Slip the teflon washers over the hinge pins on each side before proceeding with the assembly. These give the blade a very smooth feeling in operation. 
Align the two sides making sure the hinge pins engage and tighten up the assembly with your torx screwdriver. Don't woory yet about getting it too tight.
I use a Dremel bit with a conical head to countersink or bevel the holes that the screws will fit into so they'll sit flush. Caution: one side of the liners is threaded, the other is simply drilled. Make sure you don't countersink the wrong side or you won't leave any threads for the screw to grip/
I use a fine pair of point nose pliers to position the back spacer and then hold the liners tight together to hold this in position while I drive the screws through. 
Tighten the screws in the back spacers. Note: only the right hand set of liners is threaded for the screw to go into. When satisfied that everything is in place correctly, go ahead and tighten everything up.
Attach the scales with your torx srewdriver and the included screws. At this point, you'll really get to appreciate the precision CNC made scales and how well they fit. I would be tempted to use a little bit of epoxy here also.
The clip is attached with three more torx screws. I normally don't like clips on a small knife, but it seemed to leek really good on the Day-Ops
Done. Elapsed time, less than an hour. I didn't use epoxy because I plan on taking the scales off, using the G10 scales as a pattern and making new new scales out of some kind of fancy burl Wow, that's going to look good. I'll post a picture when I'm done.
Actually, knifemaker Gary Silvers beat me to it. Get a load of the gorgeous treatment he gave his Day-Ops. Scales are a maple burl. Isn't that a knife you'd be proud to carry?