Beckerhead Knife Making and Modification Thread

[Dexwithers]

Candiru who? Dex, that is a seriously cool little knife! :thumbup:


It would be cool to see a concept where the bottle opener could still be incorporated on the end. *cough*Dubz*cough*

Can-da-who? lol Thank Jerry. I am really really liking it. It was actually one of the easiest and quickest extreme makeovers I have ever done.

You may be able to add a bottle opener by cutting a slot in the circle. But the way I used this knife, the smooth circle in the palm of my hand felt good where as a sharper bottle opener may not be as comfortable.

Is that a little piece of deer or a fire ant bite on your index finger? Looks like one of the hundreds I've had over the years. Nasty buggers.

Awesome job on the 11 and the deer.

Thanks man! And no Ant bites for me. That was deer flesh. lol. The pieces were flying!

Got going on the sheath last night, rivets tonight. Alas, it's too late to run the bandsaw and grinder to finish it up.

Looking good GSOM. That purple actually really works well. Nice.

That's a sweet little knife, Dex. Looks like it came in damn handy.
That looks like a good deer to get out of the gene pool.:thumbup:

Mike, that looks great. And purple. I bet you are excited to have it so close to done.

Thanks cbwoods. Worked great. And yep out of the gene pool into my freezer! Well not yet actually, it's still aging in the ice chest on my porch.

Holy crap! Nice buck sir! Wish I had pics of my 2, 14, and 15 in action on mine.....

Thanks, and yea it's hard to get action shots for this kinda stuff when you are doing it alone.

awesome work with that littlized 11, Dex!
I'm not surprised it's easier than a 16 *at all*.
My buddy and I did my last deer entirely with a pair of 3" knives with purpose-designed blades. I was pleased and VERY proud.
Control is more important than blade length.

Thank you Daizee.
You are right and I was blown away by how much control I had with a blade like this.

Did you have pics somewhere of this? Seems vaguely familiar? Very cool it sounds like for sure.

And I think since the balance ended up being just about right, the knife kinda floated in my hand.

 

[daizee]

And I think since the balance ended up being just about right, the knife kinda floated in my hand.

Dude, this is honestly one of the most elegant knives I've seen in a long time. I think it should replace the BK-13 in the line-up. In S35VN.

Did you have pics somewhere of this? Seems vaguely familiar? Very cool it sounds like for sure.

If you're referring to my 3" hunters, I can post pix of them all day.
These were the two we used to completely disassemble the deer. Field dress to butchering. I only went to a longer blade when I had to move up to the kitchen to cut/pack the meat.

The resemblance of the front-end of the white-handled one to the BK-11 is no accident. My early blade patterns were definitely influenced by Ethan's drop-point lines.

 

[Dexwithers]

Dude, this is honestly one of the most elegant knives I've seen in a long time. I think it should replace the BK-13 in the line-up. In S35VN.

Wow. Thank you man. That means a lot coming from you Brother. And it would be very cool if the released something like this and S35VN would be awesome.

I really do like there is no plunge line at the blade and I can actually use more of the knife to get deeper cuts. The cutting edge is a hair shy of 2 1/4" but you can actually push the blade in up to 3 1/4" with no problem.


If you're referring to my 3" hunters, I can post pix of them all day.
These were the two we used to completely disassemble the deer. Field dress to butchering. I only went to a longer blade when I had to move up to the kitchen to cut/pack the meat.

The resemblance of the front-end of the white-handled one to the BK-11 is no accident. My early blade patterns were definitely influenced by Ethan's drop-point lines.

I do remember seeing these I think. Very cool. I like them a lot and the white handle looks great. I can understand completely why you would use the 11 as inspiration. Actually I have compared the shape of the 11 to many of Ethan's knives and there is a hint of that shape in most of his designs. It just works great.

And like you said, I think you can do everything you need to process a deer or other game with a small knife. The only time I jump to the larger blades is to package the meat as well.

 

[daizee]

and the white handle looks great.

Thanks, and not just white either (it was ivory paper micarta, IIRC):

 

[Tdhurl1103]

Love the tactipurple, GSOM . GREAT urban camo, imo.

Mike the knife is all kinds of fine....I like that you decided on a non-tactical, kind of everyday color for the scales and the sheath.

So, is te name of the setup gonna be.....Purple Haze, Purple Rain, Color me Purple, or Plum Crazy Beckerhead?

 

[granitestateofmind]

Mike the knife is all kinds of fine....I like that you decided on a non-tactical, kind of everyday color for the scales and the sheath.

So, is te name of the setup gonna be.....Purple Haze, Purple Rain, Color me Purple, or Plum Crazy Beckerhead?

Depends....on how much of this I drink:

It's named for what you turn into after a couple - 10.2% ABV. Finishing up the sheath right now. One thing I know for sure is that I will have to remove all references to "tactical" from the name and thread . What about Purple Nurple? I can't use Plum Crazy; that was a Mopar color from the 70's. How about "Lavender Lacerator" or maybe "Violet Vivisector"? Not that I'd ever use it for that. I was just trying to make a stylish beer opener. As for the color scheme, all I have to do is swish a little while I'm wearing it proud, and I'll probably get all kinds of personal space.

Thanks for the compliments. It is all kinds of sharp, too.

 

[Dexwithers]

Thanks, and not just white either (it was ivory paper micarta, IIRC):

Very nice Daizee. Question: How does the paper micarta hold up when it gets wet? I almost ordered some before but was afraid it would not handle water well unless you coated the finished handle in a CA glue.




GSOM: That came out awesome man. Very nice job on the sheath! The Purple look great.

 

[worldwood]

Very nice work Mr. Clean!!

 

[worldwood]

It seems like nearly every time i see a real nice set of book-matched wood scales for sell they are only 1/4" thick *OR* they are only 1.5" wide.... Which may work on a lot of knives but its also cutting it real close on others.

For anyone who has made full sized wood becker scales, if you used bought blanks, what size did you go with to start?

 

[granitestateofmind]

It seems like nearly every time i see a real nice set of book-matched wood scales for sell they are only 1/4" thick *OR* they are only 1.5" wide.... Which may work on a lot of knives but its also cutting it real close on others.

For anyone who has made full sized wood becker scales, if you used bought blanks, what size did you go with to start?

What size do you need? I've got a couple blanks already cut out....I'm still getting together your order . I think to make a good match for full size BK&T scales you need at least 5/16"....although 3/8" would give you a little wiggle room.

You want walnut, cherry or sapele? They're profiled and that's about it.

 

[worldwood]

What size do you need? I've got a couple blanks already cut out....I'm still getting together your order . I think to make a good match for full size BK&T scales you need at least 5/16"....although 3/8" would give you a little wiggle room.

You want walnut, cherry or sapele? They're profiled and that's about it.

Anything large enough for some full sized Becker handles LOL.

I was measuring the Becker handles and it seems towards the middle of the scale is nearly 1/2" thick. Then they also seem to be a hair over 1.5" wide as well. That made me worry 1/4" thick & 1.5" wide would be too small.

As far as wood type goes you can just surprise me I like LOTS of wood so its hard for me not to be happy with any of it. Even the cheap oak hobby board i picked up and used on my first knife looks real nice to me after a couple coats of Tung oil.

No rush on that "order" though. I was playing with the BK4 a little and figured i want the becker micarta on it... But id like to try and make some wood scales for the BK2. SO i started looking at wood scales and didnt like the sizes on them LOL.... I wont be making the BK2 scales super soon though... These little hawks are keeping me busy and i have a buddy that wants me to make him a knife in between this batch of hex hawks and the next. Hell i still need to do the scales on my 2nd knife too...

Not enough hours in the day all of a sudden.

 

[granitestateofmind]

Not enough hours in the day all of a sudden.

It's not "all of a sudden" (though those words/expression looks funny now that I think about it....)....there have NEVER been enough hours in the day, in my experience.

Trying to figure out something for this sheath....but I'm not sure what. . . . .I would like to figure out a "knife guy" shoulder rig for it. Not Baldric, more like inverted, (dare I say it) "tactical" carry...or backpack shoulder strap mount, inverted...

 

[worldwood]

If your going to invert it, are you going to put some type of retention strap or bungee cord to help make sure it doesnt fall out when moving around?

After a while kydex tends to loosens up a bit from what i have seen, id be worried holding any knife upside down without some form of retention strap or tie-down.

Hell i wont even neck carry something that doesnt have some form of safety measure anymore. I almost lost 1 knife that way, found it a few days later, and had another fall out the sheath and hit my bare toes... Luckily the handle hit first. Both of those sheaths seemed to have good retention before then....

 

[granitestateofmind]

If your going to invert it, are you going to put some type of retention strap or bungee cord to help make sure it doesnt fall out when moving around?

After a while kydex tends to loosens up a bit from what i have seen, id be worried holding any knife upside down without some form of retention strap or tie-down.

Hell i wont even neck carry something that doesnt have some form of safety measure anymore. I almost lost 1 knife that way, found it a few days later, and had another fall out the sheath and hit my bare toes... Luckily the handle hit first. Both of those sheaths seemed to have good retention before then....

That's why there's another piece of Kydex bolted on behind the handle, bud. Though I've been carrying my necker in it's homemade sheath inverted since I made it and have never had a problem. This sheath is so tight it's almost impossible operate.....though I hope it loosens up some, imo a well designed Kydex sheath (with the right kind of blade/handle profile) will have great retention even after it's broken in.

 

[Eero]

Brilliant little mod. Looks like it works well for processing too.

 

[Silverthorn]

Dex was that 11 the outcome of our talk about the Candiru ? ..lol I like it alot.

 

[cbwoods67]

I bought a Craftsman 2x42 today. May finally get around to grinding on that trailing point I profiled out some time ago.

 

[worldwood]

Awesome stuff. Congrats on your score CB!

 

[daizee]

Dex, it doesn't seem to have been a problem.
The material is seriously infused with epoxy. Linen and canvas micarta would have the same problems. Not that I'd SOAK any of them... Usually I wax the handle anyway. it makes the color a bit richer and less likely to absorb stuff like water, blood, etc.

 

[Dexwithers]

Brilliant little mod. Looks like it works well for processing too.

Thank you Eero! It sure does man. I've been using it for all kinds of stuff and it seems to do great.

Dex was that 11 the outcome of our talk about the Candiru ? ..lol I like it alot.

It sure was buddy. It was based off the first drawing I had and set into action after our conversation. I just had to try it out. My first drawing actually had a choil kinda like we talked about but I drew this one and thought it would work better for a skinner. It is very similar to the candiru but I like this one much more. lol
And thanks man. Are you gonna mod your Candiru? I'd like to see that.

I bought a Craftsman 2x42 today. May finally get around to grinding on that trailing point I profiled out some time ago.

Congrats man. Have fun with that thing!

Dex, it doesn't seem to have been a problem.
The material is seriously infused with epoxy. Linen and canvas micarta would have the same problems. Not that I'd SOAK any of them... Usually I wax the handle anyway. it makes the color a bit richer and less likely to absorb stuff like water, blood, etc.

What I mean is that when paper gets wet, it usually falls a part. Where when fabric get's wet, it just dries. I know I soak my micarta scales in soap and water and clean with a tooth brush or scrubber when they get dirty and they seem to be fine. They actually dry really quick and look brand new. Have never had a problem at all.

I just wasn't sure if the paper would hold up that well. But it makes sense that since the paper is so thin, it would be completely impregnated with the resin and be fine.

Thanks for the info, I may try some out cause I love the smoothness you can get since the fibers are so small. And the white looks so good.