The explorer project is about a folding knife made in cooperation with a known flemish artist and custom knifemaker Antoine Van Loocke. Antoine always designed knives at the highest quality. Most of his work is based on fixed knives, pieces of art and utility knives built from high tech materials. Last year Antoine had the idea to make a folder based on his fixed knife “D’fender” and asked me to make a linerlock folder. After a very short time we could manage the design to start making the very first prototype. A design based on simplicity with a minimum of parts, in other words: ergonomic fit, efficient and built for the heavy work. This folder is based on the prehistoric silex knife we all known. A backup knife ment to be used in the outdoors, ready for survival situation. The ideal folder for people who wish to be prepared. We decided to go for the best materials like CPM-S30V steel, 6AL4V titanium liners, composite G10 handle an inox 300 parts. S30V is an martensite stainless steel with a well balanced chemical composition.The crucible metallurgy proces makes a very homogeneous steel with the excellent combination in strenght, toughness and corrosion resistance. CPM S30 steel offers substantial improvement over other high hardness steel. Titanium maximizes the ratio strength to weight and makes the handle completely corrosion resistent. G10, a glassfiber composite, is excellent material to be used in a tactical folder like the explorer. It’s lightweigth, strong and gives a good grip. It’s very stable in all weather conditions. Some details about the design : The blade has a convex grind to maximize the cutting power and minimize the effort the keep it sharp. A convex grind is also very strong and follows the structure of the silex knife. It gives a durable cutting edge with less effort to keep it sharp.
The G10 is oval shaped in a special jigg to get a special asymmetric shape. The unequal thickness of the G10 scales between the pivot and the back of the handle enables extra grip. The pivot is been custom made by CNC and can be fine tuned with a custom tool. Only two small screws are visible in the G10 handle. The stopping pin is at the inside of the blade. A milled slot in the blade follows the diameter of the stopping pin and minimizes deformation of the steel at the place of contact. No potential lost of outside parts! The knife has a flipper. It protects the hand in any condition and allows one hand operation of the blade. The area between the liners is open, the spacer is kept tot the minimum. This open structure helps to keep the inside clean. The titanium and blade have a sandblast finish. At this moment a mid tech production run of the explorer in framelock version looks very popular. The framelock version enables the use of less parts in order to enhance his simplicity, maximize the strenght and security.
Filip De Coene for Custom Bladeworks
