A small blade customization and how I did it. Picture heavy :)

[Sergeua]

Hello folks,

I've been wanting to straighten the spine on my Spyderco Mantra for quite some time.
I could appreciate the design as is, but spyderco and aesthetics is such a personal thing I just couldn't get used to it. In my mind the mantra builds on a Delica platform, that has a straight spine, and also carrying my PM2 I'm just used to this particular style of spyderco.

I've never done any mods to knives before besides changing scales, so I had to contemplate for a while on how I am going to do it. Finally this weekend I went ahead and accomplished it and personally couldn't be happier. I am a visual person so I went ahead and took some pictures of the progress to share here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Decided I am going to use a grinder and bought a 60 grit ceramic disk. It was pretty similar in price to everything else I saw and I wanted something that could take on the M4.
I thought ceramic spyderco rods so it just clicked. These small individual segments of the disc are somewhat like a beltsander.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My setup looked like this utilizing all the clamps I have. Safety first. This proved to be a sturdy throughout the whole procedure.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried it on a CS knife that I like to abuse. The way the grinder is oriented makes the sparks fly away from me and the pivot. Also, the clamp created an unintentional spark guard

This grinder was missing a couple parts like the inner flange . I couldn't find it so I used 2 outer flanges. It works out with this kind of a disc.

Proof of concept was established to me at this point so I went back to the drawing board.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I used gorilla tape and placed in on the blade to have a visual reference.

then when I was happy I marked it with a marker.

Took off the tape and put another tape with straight edge to provide me with a straight line visual.

It was going to be so much slimmer in the pocket now

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then I just went to town.

This tape survived numerous dips into the water to keep things cool. It was also easy to inspect the progress, just had to flip the knife and look at the opposite side. I ground it more after this picture was taken, almost to the tape, with a bit of silver still showing. This M4 steel didn't throw any sparks compared to AUS8 and took a lot longer. I wasn't rushing it and made sure it wasn't getting hot.

Came out pretty straight from the grinder. I tried to use the corner of the grinder at some point and that was a mistake, as I did touch the underside of the blade and it left a small mark.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next day the perfectionist in me decided to make it as straight as possible.
So I ground it a bit on a diamond plate from china. It's probably 400 grit

I did a bit of work on that drop towards the tip also and finished things off with 800grit sandpaper.

I like the little drop at the end that was created. My thought was if I don't like it I can always take away more material. It has grown on me, a true delica successor should have one

Next is a video in case my pictures don't do it justice. Shows how patina becomes obvious in certain light also.

Thank you all for your interest hope you enjoyed it.

 

[Surfingringo]

Very nice. I straightened mine a bit with sand paper and elbow grease but I've been meaning to take it to the grinder and give it the full treatment. I make a lot of puncture cuts and like my tips very pointy so I will go flat all the way to the tip on mine. Yours came out really nice. Good work!

 

[Riz!]

Thats how they should have made the knife in the first place! Looks way better

 

[Murphjd25]

Looks nice! You did a great job!

 

[Mick_1KRR]

Nice work, i'm really not a fan of the humps or leaf shape, i've done the exact same thing on many knives. Straight spine is much nicer to me, probably why i love the Police and Military so much, did the same to my Pacific Salts. Enjoy it.

 

[jazzz]

Nice job. I ground the flipper off mine.

 

[Wowbagger]

Never would have crossed my mind to grind the spine straight.
Hmmmm

What I wanted to say was be really cool about clamping your motor on the grinder like that.
The C clamp is concentrating force in one spot. Would be a really good idea to put a stout hunk of wood or thick aluminum bar on the side of the motor to spread out the force / surface area. Maybe even two clamps.
Reason being the side of the motor can get bowed in and cause the armature to contact the magnets / stationary coils (stator) and or restrict the cooling air flow. The armature / rotating magnets could get worn away in spots and MAYBE get out of balance and wreck your bearings.
Maybe I'm over reacting. Food for thought.

Thanks for the thread !
Great stuff !

 

[Sergeua]

Thanks for your input guys. I like to scoop stuff off the cutting board, turn the knife upside-down, so i like it with a straight spine. It's a feature I miss when I pickup another knife that doesn't sport the hole.

I clamped the grinder in that particular spot with c-clamp because it had these flats on both sides there. I see what you saying Wowbagger your probably right. In my defense the thing just sits there and spins. I am not really applying too much pressure to it. I would turn it off from time to let it relax. The ceramic disk is in a really good shape like completely untouched brand new. Can be returned np. I'm keeping it.

 

[foofie]

Nice work. I would have used this as an excuse to get the mantra 2 in addition. I am really close to justifying it.

 

[5-by-5]

I love the Mantra. I don't even see the hump. M4 rocks.

Can't warm up to the Mantra 2 though. Why give up double action?