Bead Blasting......

Finally ready to share another quick pic of dslteck's excellent & generous work. I've got a whole bag of goodies from him to digest but here's one I wanted to share first.

picture146sebbie.jpg


The small sebbie is hand rubbed (& probably the next one to go for rework:p), the large sebbie is the one with the nice even bead blasted finish from dslteck & the inlaid small 21 is there to show CRK's stock BB finish (on the lockbar & clip. It's the only stock CRK example I have left to show).

picture147sebbiemillie.jpg


& because it just so happens to be sitting next to my lightbox. Here's the sebbie with the new Ti Military. The finishes are close but as expected of mass finished knives, the bead blast on the millie is no where as even & fine as that produced by dslteck.

Starting with this post, I'm going to limit my raving about dslteck's work & generosity (Otherwise, you guys & gals might start to get the wrong idea :p)

I'll just go with a :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

scooby;)
 
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I'm glad that you like the way your Sebenza turned out! I thought it turned out great as well! I am surprised at how the fresh bead blast made the scales exceptionally "grippy"! I know you had hand rubbed a satin finish on it before you sent it in for work, and I have no experience with CRK's stock finish.
In your opinion Scooby how was the finish compared to stock in terms of visual apperance and texture? What about compared to the Milli?

One more thing.....If you are going to send in your small Sebanza's scales please include the barrel bolts with it! It's the only feasible way I can blast the scales without comprimising the chamfers of the bolt holes! That is how I did your large scales. I installed the bolts and taped the smooth surfaces of the barrels, worked great! I tried taping but that didn't work so well. Sticky-tac will just get "blown" out and make a mess.
 
DSLteck: I too have some pieces that I might send over! But, I have to say that it is very nice of you to offer this for free to the members here, and I would like to say thank you. I know that this must take up a good amount of time also, and for that we are all very appreciative.
dave
 
d.weglarz13 said:
DSLteck: I too have some pieces that I might send over! But, I have to say that it is very nice of you to offer this for free to the members here, and I would like to say thank you. I know that this must take up a good amount of time also, and for that we are all very appreciative.
dave
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No problem!:thumbup: What are you wanting refinished?
 
dslteck said:
I'm glad that you like the way your Sebenza turned out! I thought it turned out great as well! I am surprised at how the fresh bead blast made the scales exceptionally "grippy"! I know you had hand rubbed a satin finish on it before you sent it in for work, and I have no experience with CRK's stock finish.
In your opinion Scooby how was the finish compared to stock in terms of visual apperance and texture? What about compared to the Milli?
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I will say that I understand why CRK uses a rougher finish. However for my uses, it is overly rough and not especially visually appealing. So far, I haven't come across a production finish which compares to the use of fresh media that you use in your booth.
Again, I don't expect production companies to use fresh blasting media after every couple of scales. That would be once of the main differences between your finish and the others. The finish from your use of new media is very even and consistent in particle size.

Also, I haven't had the chance to digest some of the other items refinished but here is an old pic of the endura before it was sent in for treatment.
cimg8468.jpg


As shown in the *after* pics, the blade now looks as good as new.
 
I've been a bit slow in taking pics. But here are a few more that I've promised...

My "user" BM710 which dslteck has basically redone increments. First the clip & pivot bolt went for beadblasting & a stonewash. Along in the batch was the great refinish on the blade. & in the last batch, the well used slippery G10 scales went for a quick refresh via beadblast.
It's finally back in service.
bm710.jpg


bm710b.jpg


I'm really happy with how it turned out. Beadblasting the worn scales brought back a good amount of grip to the texture.

& here's a pic of the beadblast clips on my Bradley Mayhem & Ra EDC Clickie. The stock clips on both were mirror finished & a bit gaudy IMO. The subtle beadblasted finish really suits them well.

bradleyra.jpg


dslteck :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Scooby ;)
 
I realize that I have neglected to show some examples of aluminum after a fresh bead blast. Soooooo on to some pictures :D
Once again with my phone, but you get the idea. I just don’t carry my camera around with me. Although I beginning to second guess that thought…

Here is a piece of aluminum….as you can see It’s rather filthy.
AlumBefore.jpg


Here it is after a fresh blast…..
AlumAfter-1.jpg
 
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Just got my blade back from dslteck....what service!! I'm talking about faster than prompt......I'm working on a Ka Bar re-do, and thought I would give this bead blasting a try.......soooooo glad I did......fantastic even finish....
Thanks so much Mitch!!

BM...before Mitch.....
KaBarre-do.jpg


done!!
KaBarre-do003.jpg


KaBarre-do004.jpg
 
scoobyaz said:
For now, I'm just going to put a few of the *AFTER* shots in this post. However, I do want to say that I never expected each & every item to come back to me individually wrapped in bubble wrap & rust resistant wrapping :eek:
Wow, I thought that my return package must have gotten mixed up with some fine jewelry :p
Great job DSLTECK :thumbup:

My macro shots are no where near as nice as dslteck's, so I'll just try my best with a few.

I will say that the extra mile was definitely gone for cleaning up my BM710's blade. I wish I had taken some good before pics of it. It's one of my users that I hand rub with a 220 grit block. A even finish but, definitely user written all over it. What I got back was extremely nice & even.

A shot of my salt1 folder's ti clip
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A shot of my delica 4 with a toned down clip.
picture124.jpg


picture129v.jpg
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Dude, who did the scales on that Para?
 
I wanted to once again thank my man dslteck for his "pro bono" work:thumbup:

Without his stonewash... I doubt this color anodizing picks up as well as it does.

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The bead blasted screws he did really set off against the blue ti.

picture213b.jpg


It does show so well in the pictures because of the color but, the stonewash really gives the ti an antique type of polish. I like it very much as a lasting finish on a user.

Scooby :thumbup:
 
Wow. I can't believe I've never seen this thread. First off, just offering this service is a saintly thing to do. The world needs more people like you. I will be gathering up a few items to be sent in but first I have some questions. Is a tiger stripe pattern achievable with just masking on say my KaBar heavy bowie? Also do you offer mirror polish? And lastly, how does the G-10 beadblasting go about? I saw it mentioned earlier on a BM710. Thank you again. This is just one reason why Bladeforums rocks.
 
jay2pointoh said:
Wow. I can't believe I've never seen this thread. First off, just offering this service is a saintly thing to do. The world needs more people like you. I will be gathering up a few items to be sent in but first I have some questions. Is a tiger stripe pattern achievable with just masking on say my KaBar heavy bowie? Also do you offer mirror polish? And lastly, how does the G-10 beadblasting go about? I saw it mentioned earlier on a BM710. Thank you again. This is just one reason why Bladeforums rocks.
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LOL....well thank you for the nice comments but I am FAR from being a saint:)
Any pattern is attainable with beadblasting.....the only limits are your creativity with the masking!
No I don't apply mirror finishes....I don't have the proper buffing wheels and compounds for that. I doubt I will ever get them either...sorry:o
I bead blast the G-10 in my plastic bead cabinet. The beads are a bit more rough and sharp and they do a great job at "refreshing" the grip on G-10 scales. Don't mis-understand, it won't make them like brand new again
but it does help considerably!
When you are ready feel free to shoot me an e-mail :thumbup:
 
An amazing offer! I would appreciate advice on something I would like to do and see what you think. I love BladeForums too! Great knife informatiom and a lot of good people!
 
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