A couple hard use Tacticals

BenR.T.

BenR.T.

Tanto grinder & High performance blade peddler
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Apr 18, 2011
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I was feeling kinda Tactical these week, so I made a couple of my favorite models. The bigger one is my B.D.U. Scout and the chubby one is my ED Tac Bowie. I gave them kind of a retro military feel with OD Green G10 and red liners. The pins are carbon fiber. They have a blued/stonewashed finish and I also blued the tang all the way around.

All comments are welcome, thanks for looking!













 
Great looking work Ben! I've been playing around with different finishes/patinas lately looking for something that I really like and those are actually pretty cool:) Probably a stupid question, but did you blue them(hot blue, cold blue?) first and then stone-wash them? Just a little curious about the process. Thanks and keep up the good work!
 
MRuthJr said:
Great looking work Ben! I've been playing around with different finishes/patinas lately looking for something that I really like and those are actually pretty cool:) Probably a stupid question, but did you blue them(hot blue, cold blue?) first and then stone-wash them? Just a little curious about the process. Thanks and keep up the good work!
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Thanks Michael. I actually sand blasted these first, probably not necessary, but the cold blue goes on far more even on a blasted finish. I then tumbled them in a vibratory tumbler for only about 10min. The longer you tumble them, the lighter colored they will be, to a degree. I also squirt a little bit of "Must for rust" in the tumbling media, it helps with keeping the steel nice and dark.
They definitely aren't anything fancy, just a hard use knife that can handle a little bit of everything.

And thanks Erik!
 
Thanks for the reply Ben, it's much appreciated! It definitely looks awesome on that style of knife. Do you have any experience with this type of finish as far as performance goes on larger blades like a camp knife/chopper? I'm wondering if the sandblasted and tumbled finish would create any type of drag in whatever material is being cut. I would think that a polished or fine belt-finished blade would probably slide through easier, but I'm pretty tired of dealing with rust build-up whenever I forget to oil them. Forced patinas are looking better and better by the minute! Seems kind of silly for me to purchase a tumbler just to experiment...especially if any of our forumites already have the expertise:D
 
You can't really even tell that it was blasted after it has been tumbled. It has a nice smooth feel to the blade. I really like doing the blued finish as often as I can on carbon steel. Not only does it help inhibit rust, I think it has a nice look to it as well.

And you can "hand tumble" them in a piece of PVC pipe, if you just want to check it out. That is how I did the first few knives with this finish. It only takes a few minutes, and is a good workout. :)
 
Thanks Ben...I'll give it a shot and put a big blade through the paces! Can't hurt to try right?:D
 
Purely from an asthetics standpoint, not having owned or used one of your knives, it looks like the leading and trailing edges on the scales could use some rounding off, such that when a tight grip was used, the sharp corners would dig in to the hand. Also, on the larger Scount model, it looks from the picture that the scales don't follow the lines on the handle tang at the rear.

I like the looks of both models, and it is definitely better than I could do any day of the week. This is just my opinion, and not to be taken as harsh critique.
 
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They look great! Althiugh personally I advocate a guard on any hard use knife bc in hard use accidents are more likely so I want my index finger protected from the blade.
 
I like what you're doing here, Ben. I appreciate you sharing info about the finishing process. And I think that "tactical" is entirely appropriate with these, in the true sense of the word and not what it's come to be misused to describe. :)
 
Thanks for the comments and input guys. These handle really are quite comfortable and all of the sharp edges are rounded of and smooth in hand.

The texture on the handles is probably more aggressive than the every day user needs. But, most military and other tactical operators are wearing gloves and the extra grip is very functional in those situations. I have have even had requests by military personal to leave the handle as sharp and aggresive as possible, because he would be wearing gloves, and that offers the best grip on the knife.

I hate using the word "tactical" because I think it is severely overused to describe just about everything. However, I feel these knives and my other "tactical" knives fit the term well.

Thanks again for the input, it is always welcome!

Ben
 
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