Beckerhead Knife Making and Modification Thread

granitestateofmind said:
That looks alright, daiz....learning experience, eh?
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yeah... it came out better than I the words suggest, but having spent a great deal of attention to perfect bolster fit, it's super-aggravating to me. In the end it's actually quite a nice knife, and the giftee seems happy.

I like that santoku. you beat me to the finish line on the kitchen knife. Mine won't be ready for another couple months at this point, due to work.
 
Cool filet knife Col. What's the blade length on that one?

daizee, are you going to make more guarded/bolstered blades like that one?
 
iwouldhurtafly said:
Awesome Work Daizee!!!

Well at the behest of our own GSOM here is a little KA-BAR 1211 mod I knocked out yesterday. When getting pics together I realized I have probably modded this knife a little bit by bit since it came into my possession years ago. So I grabbed some similar pics to show the progression.

When I first got it, it was just beat up KA-BAR with no edge, and some chewed up blade coating. A lot of the edge had been eaten up already, so I sharpened it up, stripped it, then gave it a hot vinegar bath.


After that it was just put to use, over time the edge just became more and more convexed... Also sometime around here I sharpened the clip on it for giggles, didnt like it much so I knocked it off which exaggerated the clip some.


Finally it got to the point it was looking pretty rough, so I gave it a little spa treatment. This included a hand done regrind. Basically reground the bevel on a course then medium stone, then gave it a little hand stropping. This helped with the thick grind/edge a lot and made it such a better cutter but after some use I thought it could be better.


SO just the other day I took it to my 2X42 and thinned this sucker out a lot. Brought the grind up probably 1/8" or so... much slicier... Also exaggerated the clip some more on it.


Well speaking to Hoss over in the snark thread I decided to go ahead and mod the guard. Like it a lot this way. Also stripped the paint off the of pommel and guard then hit everything up with a wire wheel. Gave it a quick buff and I think its ready to go!


Who knows what will happen to this knife over the next couple years. :D

Added an older pic, then a current one to better show the difference.


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I really dig what you've done here! I've been wanting to do something like this to my ol' 1246 camp knife but couldn't really wrap my brain around it. Basically I wanted to do a strip and stack leather handle and trimmed guard but my skills aren't up to snuff for the handle mod. After seeing this I've been inspired to pretty much match what you've done. It never hit me to polish the butt like that. now I can do a full makeover minus the handle and still have a nice product and I can do the handle on down the road.

I'll be working with this:
 
NCSlice said:
I really dig what you've done here! I've been wanting to do something like this to my ol' camp knife but couldn't really wrap my brain around it. Basically I wanted to do a strip and stack leather handle and trimmed guard but my skills aren't up to snuff for the handle mod. After seeing this I've been inspired to pretty much match what you've done. It never hit me to polish the butt like that. now I can do a full makeover minus the handle and still have a nice product and I can do the handle on down the road.

I'll be working with this:
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yah, get after it! It is tons of fun.. Best advice I ever got when it comes to knife making/modding was from Mr. Todd Hunt. He said, "Creep up on everything when it comes to knife making." Basically meaning, move slowly, deliberately, bit by bit, and step by step. At least that is how I took it lol.

Plus when it comes to what I did the effort was COMPLETELY worth it. Major difference now. I too was kicking around re-doing the handle, but I will probably wait to because A: I really like the Kraton, B: It works as is, and the only real "improvement" I would get could be ascetic, and maybe/possibly a "stronger" handle material. Just a thought.

But yah, get after it! Take some pictures along the way, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

One another note, Love the knife. Those KA-BAR Variants on the F/U handle are freaking awesome. :thumbup:
 
Yessir, you know I'll show it lol. Yeah, I just thought it'd look better stripped if the handle was leather, function was not part of my factoring. After seeing how yours turned out I was wrong! The more I see it, it'll prob stay kraton. The patina gray looks nice with the black. I may get a wild hair up my ass and get on it this weekend. Thanks for the reply and advice! :thumbup:
 
Working on a couple for beachmaster (here in BK&T sub)....Recon is ready for a sheath, Trailmaster is getting the Micarta block for a handle with SS pin and nickel silver lanyard tube.

They were both pretty beat up when they came to me; guard on the TM was....scalloped, the Recon had the tip broken and the edge looked like it was used to carve concrete, LOL.

Before:

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In progress:

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Gonna make some Kydex for the Recon and hopefully fit and finish the TM handle this weekend.



Nice looking filet blade, colonel.

And IWHAF is right, NCslice....get on it. The worst you can do is learn from your mistakes. And no matter how bad you do or don't eff it up, you'll still have a sharp, knife-like object. When I was learning to improvise playing saxophone, I was told this: "There really is no such thing as a wrong note....only poor choices" Go for it and see what develops. I like the "creep up on it" mode of operation....
 
awesome.
my buddy from work posted a 'before' picture of the rudder bearing from which the bolster of that last knife was reclaimed:

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I took my stock BK10 and shallowed out the dge and convexed it on my 1x30.
Then I removed the ramp with a 40 grit belt.
Stripped the coating.
Applied a cold blue.
I attached some custom scales from 710. I wish the lighting was better to truly show how beautiful they are.

I still plan on doing a small amount of contouring on the handle.
But overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.













 
Recon is as finished as it's gonna get. OD Kydex:

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Now, finally getting to work on the Trailmaster. split the canvas Micarta on the band saw, gonna try and get it fitted tonight.
 
Been working on rehandling a Trailmaster for beachmaster (here on BK&T sub). Figured I'd show what I've been up to since he's probably wundrin' where the hell his knife is (I'm working on it! - s l o w l y.....)

Got a big block of canvas Micarta that I sawed roughly in half - minus the thickness of the blade, 'cause I only wanted to rout out one side for the tang. Hopefully the offset seam won't show much.

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Marked it for routing:

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....and then spent an hour or so setting up the router table. Only one block of Micarta - didn't want to eff it up. But I kinda did anyway...more about that later in our program. There are a couple supports for the guard that I had to chisel some space for so the both sides would sit flat (also had to pound the guard back to straightness as it was bent from all the zombie killing). Turns out that stuff is hard - I noticed that I took a chip out of my freshly sharpened chisel :(. Any who, fitted the slabs, drilled for the pin and lanyard tube, bandsawed a rough approximation (and I do mean rough) of the profile, then dry assembled and clamped with inner tubing so as to shape the part that's up against the guard.

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Everything ready for epoxy. Now you can see where I effed up with the router table - which was too bad since my setup was otherwise on the money. I'll deal with the fallout after I shape it and see what's showing (or not showing, as the case may be).

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Epoxied and clamped. See how clean my bench top is?

img]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8577/16764388856_1436630d02_b.jpg[/img]
....and cured. Which brings us up to date so far. hopefully get it shaped this weekend and finish it so I can get it and the Recon into the mail and back to their owner. BTW, I mixed as much Micarta dust as I could into the remaining epoxy and stuffed it into the gaps where I did the extracurricular routing....hopefully it'll work and I won't have to repair my repair too much....

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Stay tuned!
 
GSOM, you are awesome!
The recon looks awesome!
I am so glad that i contacted you. You are clearly the right man for the job! Very talented!
 
granitestateofmind said:
And IWHAF is right, NCslice....get on it. The worst you can do is learn from your mistakes. And no matter how bad you do or don't eff it up, you'll still have a sharp, knife-like object. When I was learning to improvise playing saxophone, I was told this: "There really is no such thing as a wrong note....only poor choices" Go for it and see what develops. I like the "creep up on it" mode of operation....
Click to expand...

Got that wild hair! Here she is so far...came off pretty good with 80 grit, then 180, then a couple of sponges with no idea but smoother than 180. Still need the guard chopped and a patina. Gotta find them o-rings I have somewhere around here.



 
NCSlice said:
Got that wild hair! Here she is so far...came off pretty good with 80 grit, then 180, then a couple of sponges with no idea but smoother than 180. Still need the guard chopped and a patina. Gotta find them o-rings I have somewhere around here.

Click to expand...

HELL YEAH! Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout.
 
Little more work on beachmaster's TM:

You can see the gap leftover from my exuberant routing adventure that I'm gonna have to address:

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It feels pretty good, even in my not so large hands. I emailed him some more photos of it in hand so he can tell me whether I should stop or contour it a little more - if I was keeping it, I'd slim the handle a bit more and give the bottom a little more of a pronounced kick....
 
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