Adamas Mod and Fix

Jens Schuetz

Jens Schuetz

Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,162
I had a not so pleasant experience with my Adamas, my first Benchmade, when its blade had too little retention which caused it to pierce my pants and almost cut my behind :D http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1143331-Tip-Up-Disaster-(graphic-content)
I fixed that to some degree by making stronger Omega springs and used the opportunity to mod he blade a little bit.
Following are the pictures with some brief explanations. Please feel free to suggest any more improvements or ask any questions.
Thank you.

Original Blade


I etched the laser engraved butterfly and letters using DC and then blackened the deepened patterns with AC


The result was black patterns in a black blade


Now I removed the black coating with this paint stripper from Home Despot. Either I got a really old one or this particular brand is not very good. Even on other knives it took much longer than what other people can do with the spray version.


While stripping my BK-9 for example was hard, the Adamas was even worse. I guess Benchmades coating is just better. It took me 6 applications of the stripper for 3 hours each. (the instructions said 1x15 minutes...) In addition it needed lots of scraping with an exacto knife and rubbing steel wool over it. Still not enough!. At the end I was left with many large spots which could not be removed. It almost looked like it was bonded to the metal on a molecular level like some Anodization. I know it wasn't but that's how it behaved and looked. I took another 2 hours with a dremel and a wire brush wheel.
The result is as follows. Non black blade which I prefer for food prep and black etched patterns.


In addition I wanted to make the grooves black to make my Adamas look more refined by having the groove color matching the colors of screws and pocket clip.
I taped the whole blade and cut out the grooves from the tape with an exacto knife and used AC to introduce black oxidation.


Here you can see the part I am most proud of.
I planned to make stronger Omega springs to increase blade retention and prevent another disaster like this http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1143331-Tip-Up-Disaster-(graphic-content)
Initially I planned to use guitar wire. But Rainforest would take 2 days to ship and I couldn't wait and found a cheap thin key-ring which came for free with my car keys. It was the max size wire (0.033 inch) which could fit into the frame hole and turned out twice as strong as the original spring. (Guitar Wire came yesterday and the thickest available is only as strong and thick as the original spring with 0.026 inch). Maybe that is what Benchmade is using in the real deal?
This is a photo of the spring which I bend in 5 minutes with the original lying on top of it. You can also see that the Sibert sign isn't as black anymore. That happened because the original paint was so strong and paint stripper was not enough and I had to use a wire brush wheel to finish cleaning the blade.


Hoping this was a bit interesting to you.
Thanks for reading.
:)
 
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Nice job, looks great with the satin blade.

As for the omega springs, how much harder/stiffer is the lock to operate? I have some of the exact key rings you used so I guess ill be taking them off the spare key thing and putting them in the spare knife parts drawer.

I believe the "paint" is actually Cerakote so it's no wonder it was hard to remove, it's designed to be especially chemical resistant.
 
Thanks guys, glad you like it.

Cereal Killer
The new springs are twice as strong as the original. They are still easy to operate and don't lock up. The originals feel more high end and it's more fun to play with them. I would have kept them if they would have provided a bit more blade retention.

Side note: good thing about the key ring spring is that the big bend is already in there and all I needed to do is make the small bend around the axis and the tiny hook which goes into the steel frame. So basically very cheap and almost no work. Why not give it a try :)
 
Nice job, looks good. I have been hoping that Benchmade would release a version of the 275 with a satin or stonewashed blade. Maybe even release it with M390, that would be great.
 
boobar said:
Nice job, looks good. I have been hoping that Benchmade would release a version of the 275 with a satin or stonewashed blade. Maybe even release it with M390, that would be great.
Click to expand...
That would be some nice steel.
Also liking the rough stone washed look on steel :thumbup:
Lets hope the best. Maybe 2014 they will release some?
If not, how hard can stone washing be? Maybe I will read up on tumbling or acid stone washing :D
 
Nice job Jens, I like your finish on the blade, looks great! It's sad to see Folsom Lake so low, my wife and I have been Kayaking on the waters for many years. Sorry for the side comment, but yes we really need rain out here. Cheers!
 
I like the etching you did, can you post more details about how you did that?

Also, about the new springs you made, just how durable do you think they would end up being? Wont that type of metal break after flexing repeatedly?
 
I didn't take more pictures during this etching but luckily I made a more detailed tutorial with more pictures a few months ago http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1130635-Kukri-Etching-Walk-Through-w-pics
Etching the Benchmade Symbols was much easier because the black paint isolates from electricity and the symbols are blank metal and conduct the DC (very very shallow laser etched by BM) So all you need is to apply the DC current like in the link. No need for taping the blade and cutting out any patterns (unless you want to add some off your own design)
I still taped the edge since its also conducting and once my electrode touched an edge of a knife and it sparked and melted a tiny chip off the edge :eek:

Here is were I learned the etching and stripping the blade, might be useful too http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1128192-BK9-etching-help-appreciated

Seriously feel free to ask if anything isn't very clear. I am happy to help.

The spring's shape developed by Benchmade is great. Since the curved metal is much longer than the length the Axis travels no part of the spring does get bend very much. It feels like it would last for a very long time. I was playing a lot with mine and its not getting any weaker yet. I heard of some original Omega springs breaking but it seems to be only a very few incidences. I think that my thicker and stronger spring will last longer but only time will tell. Of course I could take original and mine and bend them like crazy to see which one gives up first but I am hesitant since I am happy with how it works now. :D
 
Jens Schuetz said:
I didn't take more pictures during this etching but luckily I made a more detailed tutorial with more pictures a few months ago http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1130635-Kukri-Etching-Walk-Through-w-pics
Etching the Benchmade Symbols was much easier because the black paint isolates from electricity and the symbols are blank metal and conduct the DC (very very shallow laser etched by BM) So all you need is to apply the DC current like in the link. No need for taping the blade and cutting out any patterns (unless you want to add some off your own design)
I still taped the edge since its also conducting and once my electrode touched an edge of a knife and it sparked and melted a tiny chip off the edge :eek:

Here is were I learned the etching and stripping the blade, might be useful too http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1128192-BK9-etching-help-appreciated

Seriously feel free to ask if anything isn't very clear. I am happy to help.

The spring's shape developed by Benchmade is great. Since the curved metal is much longer than the length the Axis travels no part of the spring does get bend very much. It feels like it would last for a very long time. I was playing a lot with mine and its not getting any weaker yet. I heard of some original Omega springs breaking but it seems to be only a very few incidences. I think that my thicker and stronger spring will last longer but only time will tell. Of course I could take original and mine and bend them like crazy to see which one gives up first but I am hesitant since I am happy with how it works now. :D
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the links, Ill look into that, etching seems like an awesome way to make a custom even more unique, oh and please let us know how those springs work out in the long run.
 
The satin blade looks great. It's always fun to see how others modify their knives.

Have you considered grinding it to a full flat grind? You mentioned food prep, and in my opinion a FFG blade is better for that.
 
Just a consideration, have you thought of bending out your stock springs a bit to see if they can be pushed to provide a bit more force to the axis bar?
 
sogflash said:
The satin blade looks great. It's always fun to see how others modify their knives.

Have you considered grinding it to a full flat grind? You mentioned food prep, and in my opinion a FFG blade is better for that.
Click to expand...
The satin was under the black coat. I've seen that with many knives. The coat looks shiny but under there is a satin finish and some show even tool marks which I actually don't mind at all.
Regrinding an edge is easy but changing the whole blade shape to full grind would be something new. I have the tools but would attack some lesser knives first before risking to mess up a nice Benchmade :)
Also food prep didn't mean that's all I use it for. Yesterday I showed my kids how to cut a fishing spear out of wood. So it's more like a camping hiking folder for me which also includes some food prep.
Thanks for your suggestion.
 
double7 said:
Hey thanks for the links, Ill look into that, etching seems like an awesome way to make a custom even more unique, oh and please let us know how those springs work out in the long run.
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No problem. Let me know how the etching goes.
Will surely post any development on the springs or whatever else seems interesting.
Thank you.
 
Skimo said:
Just a consideration, have you thought of bending out your stock springs a bit to see if they can be pushed to provide a bit more force to the axis bar?
Click to expand...
Thought about that, but even if I get it to be 20% stronger (unlikely) the initial blade retention would still be to lose for my taste.
Also didn't want to break the originals by overstretching since Benchmade doesn't sell them. Getting them for free with some warranty claim doesn't feel right too since breaking them would have been my fault and not BMs.
 
I suppose I don't get it, the springs are useless to you, but you don't want to risk breaking them?

All good, I'm just glad to see other guys doing what makes them happy and posting it up with pics. :)
 
They are the the original parts of an expensive knife. :o
Might put them back in case I ever have to send it back to BM.
Would add them to the knife if I sell it to somebody.
Could use them to fix another Benchmade in my future.
Maybe somebody else needs another spring and doesnt want to ship his knife to BM and pay shipping and have to wait a lot.
Why risk wasting them if even the best possible outcome of over bending them would not help me much?
 
any tip up knife needs to be carried with the spine against the side of the pocket. A stronger spring will not entirely prevent inadvertent openings.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
any tip up knife needs to be carried with the spine against the side of the pocket. A stronger spring will not entirely prevent inadvertent openings.
Click to expand...
I have lots of tip ups and never had any issues while running and jumping with them. However the Adamas heavy blade combined with super smooth action and no blade retention is a different animal. It taught me the hard way what you already knew :) http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1143331-Tip-Up-Disaster-(graphic-content)
Thank you for your concern :thumbup: and I will also make sure to let other people know when they do it wrong.
 
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