The blade in the image below has some unfinished heat-treatment marks on it (like I said, it's 95% finished):

The most obvious place to start with this knife is the scales - machined from Grade 5 Titanium.

The CNC milling machine I'm using is a Kitamura. This name might not mean a lot to you - but it is genuinely one of the best machines available. It is a very high-end Japanese-made machine (if you were to compare this machine to a car, then you'd be thinking something like a Porshe or Lamborghini).

Get this:

On some parts of the Magnatron™ knife I'm making adjustments on the Kitamura down to around 0.002mm or even 0.001mm (that's around 0.00004"!).

The quality of the machine matters! ...because this directly affects the precision and tolerances of YOUR knife.

The final quality of the surface finish is a LOT better on the Kitamura (as opposed to our other prototyping cnc milling machine).

Let's get into the 'dirty details' of how the scales of the Magnatron™ knife are made...

First of all the blanks are water-jet cut and then it's time for CNC-machining:

It's crazy really...

Just a second ago I was talking about how precise the machining of the Magnatron™ knife is - and now I'm just about to talk about all the hand-finishing work required.

I'd love to be able to say the Magnatron™ knife comes straight off the CNC machine and is immediately assembled - but that would be a lie.

If I'm famous for just one thing, then it might be the surface finishing of the various titanium products I've produced over the years.

The final finish is a BIG thing for me (it always has been) ...and the Magnatron™ knife is no different.

Once the scales come off the CNC machine it's time to roll-up-my-sleeves and get to work hand-sanding (again, with this Magnatron™ knife, all done by me). The scales are then put through our tried-and-tested tumbling process.

Here's what the end result looks like (the scale on the right is fresh off the cnc ...and the scale on the left is after hand-finishing and tumbling):

I've said it before and I'll say it again:

The pocket-clip is like having "X-Ray Vision" as to how the rest of the knife is made.

If someone slaps a generic pocket-clip on a knife ...then it's best not to get your hopes up.

But if someone goes all-out and cnc-machines the hell out the pocket-clip ...AND goes as far as to hide the screws so they're not visible ...then you're probably into something damn good.

Yes, I have machined the hell out of the pocket-clip (and hidden the screws too).

Here's how the pocket-clip is made:

I'm still working on the final finishing process of the blade - so I'll show just the machining here.

I'm using Nitro-V as the steel on this knife because I have experience with this particular stainless steel (we made around 200 friction folder knives with it over this last year). This steel has worked very well on these other knives.

As with the rest of the knife the blade gets a boat-load of hand-finishing. In fact, the blade gets a LOT more hand-finishing than the rest of the knife.

The heat-treating is done in-house using out dedicated knife oven (I like to have 100% control of the heat-treating process because it's so critical to the performance of the blade):

I'll do a bit of a run-down now of the hardware I'm going to be using on the Magnatron™ knife.

If you're not into these details and happy to trust that what I'm using is the best for the job ...then just skip this section.

Here's what I'm using:

-- Grade 5 Titanium Pivots(These are 1/4" and so fairly large for a knife of this size. I did this on purpose because I felt it would help make the knife more stable when opening and closing)

-- Grade 5 Titanium 2-56 Screws(I'm using these screws on the back-spacer, pocket-clip and lockbar-insert)

-- 2mm Ceramic Detent Ball(This is press-fit into the lock-bar insert and are Silicon Nitride SI3N4 coated)

-- 9-Ball Ceramic Caged Bearings(These are 1/4" to match the Pivots and are Silicon Nitride SI3N4 coated)

All the above components are imported directly from the USA. The titanium parts are made on Swiss-style lathes and so the quality does not get better!

I do some additional surface finishing on the Titanium hardware to match with the rest of the knife.

I'll be honest with you here:

While the Magnatron™ knife is 95% finished ...the Backspacer is the only component that I've not made yet.

The reason for this is that it's a fairly simple part (compared to the rest of the knife) and felt I didn't need to spend time prototyping it because there is nothing to "test" as such on it.

The Backspacer just needs to hit the right tolerances - which I will ensure while I am CNC machining it.

Because this is a framelock knife, then we're using part of the titanium scale to "lock up" the blade when it opens.

I feel the best solution to this is having a lockbar insert. These will be made from stainless steel and hardened in-house using the same over we use to heat-treat the blades.

These are fiddly little parts to make - but the result is well worth it for sure:

The blade is 2.9" (around 74mm) long.

A more common size for a framelock/flipper knife like this would be nearer the 3.5" - but I purposely wanted to make a knife a little more compact.

The overall length when open is 7.25" (around 184mm).

The length when closed is 4.25" (around 108mm).

Because I'm making the Magnatron™ knife entirely in-house as well as personally making it myself ...I can only make a few at a time.

A few days ago I offered the first 10 (serial numbers #1 to #10) and they sold out in a few hours.

I'm opening 10 more slots for serial numbers #11 to #20 RIGHT NOW.

The Magnatron™ is 95% finished.

I'm making a few last tweaks to it right now as I start the first few builds (for some of the lucky few who managed to get in on serial numbers #1 to #10).

If you order right now, then I'm going to be shipping your Magnatron™ to you in July 2021.