- Joined
- Apr 6, 2013
- Messages
- 58
Hi Guys,
I have had my BK2 for about a year and a half now:
Mods? Like many of you with Bk2's the first thing I did was to remove the coating.... I am having some doubts about this though. If you don't keep an eye on the knife it will rust like anything made out of carbon steel. (I am now looking for another Bk2 that I will not strip - but that will be another post...)
I wasn't too keen on the cutouts in the tang. If I was looking for a lightweight knife I would probably get a mora. I was looking for a tank and that is why I bought the bk2. I filled the cutouts in the tang as well as the hollows in the micarta handles with pratley steel putty. That ramped up the weight of the knife quite a bit. The knife now feels like one solid piece of steel and weighs in at 495 g. It fits my hand perfectly and the weight raises the eyebrows of everyone who looks at it. Heck, it will destroy practically anything I drop it on.
Personally I love the sheath. It is bloody awesome. It looks cool. It is well made, sturdy, very functional and highly moddable and one of the reasons I bought this knife in the first place. My only criticism is the nylon dangle thing that your belt is supposed to go through. That got removed even before I started messing around with the knife coating.
I wasn't too crazy about the aluminium bolts holding the sheath and dangle adapter together. (What on earth is the correct name for that piece of plastic with the four holes?) A solution was close at hand: I liked the allen key bolts used on the micarta handles. They are bigger and more sturdy than what is used on many similar knives. I went to a local hardware shop and got a whole bunch of stainless allen key bolts in different lengths with normal and split washers:
The split washers keep tension on whatever you fasten with them - this prevents stuff from rattling loose. I used them to attach the belt adapter baseplate (seriously what the hell is it called....?) to the sheath.
The allen key botls created a complication : Now I needed an allen key with the knife at all times. This is my solution so far:
The short end of the allen key fits through the hole on the left and it is secured with a cable tie. I put some heat shrink over the allen key to keep it from rattling. And it looks cool too. It fits in quite tightly and will not fall out on its own. When you do need to use the allen key, it is not difficult to take out.
For a lanyard I am just using a piece of braided paracord with a slipping noose. This can be done better using more paracord but it works:
Stripping the blade created another unforseen complication: The coating is damn thick and without it, the knife doesn't fit as tightly into the sheath as I would have liked. A 'temporary' solution was to cut a scale shaped piece of plastic from an old cd case I had lying around:
One of these was just about enough to make up for the lost coating:
I still have to sand it down a bit. The knife now snaps in with a loud clack and fits perfectly in the sheath. I started thinking : "When something works, why not screw around with it some more to make it even better?"
My wife bought some flat T shaped brackets to fix something a while ago. I liberated one of these and after eyeballing it a bit took the dremel to it as an experiment.
These are some of the pieces that were cut off:
After cutting, dremelling and hammering it into shape I ended up with a u shaped piece of steel with a slight extension on one of the legs. It is located just below the thumb ramp on the sheath.
As with everything else on the knife, It was secured using the hex bolts and washers. It doesn't wiggle around and requires some pressure to operate:
When pressed flat the 'BK2 Lock TM' holds the sheath securely together, making it impossible to remove the knife without rotating the lock back.
The small hole in the lock will be used to fit a small piece of paracord through for better grip.
When cutting out the CD case, I was struck by the fact that its finish perfectly mimics that of the BK2 sheath. I was going to order a Tek Lock, but decided to experiment a bit. I cut out a larger piece and after heating it on a gas stove, bent it into shape. Once again it was secured with a bunch of allen bolts. The sides were trimmed down using the Dremel:
When you hold put the knife in the sheath and hold it vertical by the belt loop, it stays almost perfectly vertical. Remember this is my heavier BK2. For a future version, I will shape the belt loop a bit better to better fit the profile of a belt. The CD cases really seem to have some thermo plastic shaping ability which makes them ideal for this...
The loop is also pretty wide. The wide width of the belt loop is one of the things I wil have to evaluate.I haven't really used it a lot, but I don't forsee any issues. If you want to overdo things and make it even stronger, you can always use a double layer...
Making this belt loop took less than half an hour.
Anyway there you have it, my take on customising the BK2:
What's my impression of the BK2 after more than a year?
I love this knife.
It lives by my bedside, in my backpack on the bike, under the seat in my SUV.... For more than a year and a half I have always known where it is. It is really nice to have something that will outlive you.
Ethan really created one of those timeless classics in the BK2. I have been looking around for another camping knife to use alongside the BK2 and after a lot of time on the internet I have decided that the best companion for the campanion would be ....... another Bk2.
I have had my BK2 for about a year and a half now:
Mods? Like many of you with Bk2's the first thing I did was to remove the coating.... I am having some doubts about this though. If you don't keep an eye on the knife it will rust like anything made out of carbon steel. (I am now looking for another Bk2 that I will not strip - but that will be another post...)
I wasn't too keen on the cutouts in the tang. If I was looking for a lightweight knife I would probably get a mora. I was looking for a tank and that is why I bought the bk2. I filled the cutouts in the tang as well as the hollows in the micarta handles with pratley steel putty. That ramped up the weight of the knife quite a bit. The knife now feels like one solid piece of steel and weighs in at 495 g. It fits my hand perfectly and the weight raises the eyebrows of everyone who looks at it. Heck, it will destroy practically anything I drop it on.
Personally I love the sheath. It is bloody awesome. It looks cool. It is well made, sturdy, very functional and highly moddable and one of the reasons I bought this knife in the first place. My only criticism is the nylon dangle thing that your belt is supposed to go through. That got removed even before I started messing around with the knife coating.
I wasn't too crazy about the aluminium bolts holding the sheath and dangle adapter together. (What on earth is the correct name for that piece of plastic with the four holes?) A solution was close at hand: I liked the allen key bolts used on the micarta handles. They are bigger and more sturdy than what is used on many similar knives. I went to a local hardware shop and got a whole bunch of stainless allen key bolts in different lengths with normal and split washers:
The split washers keep tension on whatever you fasten with them - this prevents stuff from rattling loose. I used them to attach the belt adapter baseplate (seriously what the hell is it called....?) to the sheath.
The allen key botls created a complication : Now I needed an allen key with the knife at all times. This is my solution so far:
The short end of the allen key fits through the hole on the left and it is secured with a cable tie. I put some heat shrink over the allen key to keep it from rattling. And it looks cool too. It fits in quite tightly and will not fall out on its own. When you do need to use the allen key, it is not difficult to take out.
For a lanyard I am just using a piece of braided paracord with a slipping noose. This can be done better using more paracord but it works:
Stripping the blade created another unforseen complication: The coating is damn thick and without it, the knife doesn't fit as tightly into the sheath as I would have liked. A 'temporary' solution was to cut a scale shaped piece of plastic from an old cd case I had lying around:
One of these was just about enough to make up for the lost coating:
I still have to sand it down a bit. The knife now snaps in with a loud clack and fits perfectly in the sheath. I started thinking : "When something works, why not screw around with it some more to make it even better?"
My wife bought some flat T shaped brackets to fix something a while ago. I liberated one of these and after eyeballing it a bit took the dremel to it as an experiment.
These are some of the pieces that were cut off:
After cutting, dremelling and hammering it into shape I ended up with a u shaped piece of steel with a slight extension on one of the legs. It is located just below the thumb ramp on the sheath.
As with everything else on the knife, It was secured using the hex bolts and washers. It doesn't wiggle around and requires some pressure to operate:
When pressed flat the 'BK2 Lock TM' holds the sheath securely together, making it impossible to remove the knife without rotating the lock back.
The small hole in the lock will be used to fit a small piece of paracord through for better grip.
When cutting out the CD case, I was struck by the fact that its finish perfectly mimics that of the BK2 sheath. I was going to order a Tek Lock, but decided to experiment a bit. I cut out a larger piece and after heating it on a gas stove, bent it into shape. Once again it was secured with a bunch of allen bolts. The sides were trimmed down using the Dremel:
When you hold put the knife in the sheath and hold it vertical by the belt loop, it stays almost perfectly vertical. Remember this is my heavier BK2. For a future version, I will shape the belt loop a bit better to better fit the profile of a belt. The CD cases really seem to have some thermo plastic shaping ability which makes them ideal for this...
The loop is also pretty wide. The wide width of the belt loop is one of the things I wil have to evaluate.I haven't really used it a lot, but I don't forsee any issues. If you want to overdo things and make it even stronger, you can always use a double layer...
Making this belt loop took less than half an hour.
Anyway there you have it, my take on customising the BK2:
What's my impression of the BK2 after more than a year?
I love this knife.
It lives by my bedside, in my backpack on the bike, under the seat in my SUV.... For more than a year and a half I have always known where it is. It is really nice to have something that will outlive you.
Ethan really created one of those timeless classics in the BK2. I have been looking around for another camping knife to use alongside the BK2 and after a lot of time on the internet I have decided that the best companion for the campanion would be ....... another Bk2.
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