Beckerhead Knife Making and Modification Thread

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Well for christmas this year I received a Mora Classic #2. I honestly really like the knife but it just felt like it had some potential. Plus since it was a gift I decided to make it a bit "nicer" more unique.

Started with just a standard Mora, nothing fancy, here it is sitting waiting for chemicals...



First thing I did was clean up and straighten up the spine, the carbon moras come with rough spines, up to 1200 grit and then hand buffed with compound. Then I applied stripper and began taking off the paint. For some reason this paint decided to be a pain so I ended up sanding off a lot with 60 grit, plus the grain had soaked up a lot of red giving it a pink look. Once it was bare and clean I took the time to reshape/clean up and straighten up the handle. Then I flattened the butt to prep it for the next part, adding a butt plate.

Decided to due this just because I figured it would turn out looking neato. Used some G10, Aluminum and 3/16 brass rod. I drilled a hole in the butt of the knife to accept a pin. Also had to end up drilling hidden epoxy pin holes inside the aluminum, g10, and wood due to the an issue that occured after attaching it the first time. The epoxy set up, but ended up having a failure with the aluminum the first time around. So I re-thought and re-worked it! The through pin is tiny, but it has a groove ground it to hold it in the handle, and then it's been peened against the aluminum.

After reshaping everything I toiled over how to finish the wood, but after conversing with the brain trust (my 5 and 3 year old kiddos) we decided to shoot for a red stain similar to the red paint as a kind of call back to the classic coloration. Used bright a red rit dye method as the hardware store was lacking the color that suited my daughter and son. Stained it a few times buffing up from 500 to 1000 all the way up to 0000 steel wool. After I got it close to the final shade I finish buffed it with my beeswax concoction. Hand buffed the pommel/butt plate, and fittings, then re-buffed the blade. The intention was making something that looked like a fancier version of the same knife, I really like it, plus now it's my own.

Enough jibber jabber, knife time.





Well thanks for looking, I might need to make a sheath now! If yall have any questions let me know, this was a lot of fun to do
 
iwouldhurtafly said:
Well for christmas this year I received a Mora Classic #2. I honestly really like the knife but it just felt like it had some potential. Plus since it was a gift I decided to make it a bit "nicer" more unique.

Started with just a standard Mora, nothing fancy, here it is sitting waiting for chemicals...



First thing I did was clean up and straighten up the spine, the carbon moras come with rough spines, up to 1200 grit and then hand buffed with compound. Then I applied stripper and began taking off the paint. For some reason this paint decided to be a pain so I ended up sanding off a lot with 60 grit, plus the grain had soaked up a lot of red giving it a pink look. Once it was bare and clean I took the time to reshape/clean up and straighten up the handle. Then I flattened the butt to prep it for the next part, adding a butt plate.

Decided to due this just because I figured it would turn out looking neato. Used some G10, Aluminum and 3/16 brass rod. I drilled a hole in the butt of the knife to accept a pin. Also had to end up drilling hidden epoxy pin holes inside the aluminum, g10, and wood due to the an issue that occured after attaching it the first time. The epoxy set up, but ended up having a failure with the aluminum the first time around. So I re-thought and re-worked it! The through pin is tiny, but it has a groove ground it to hold it in the handle, and then it's been peened against the aluminum.

After reshaping everything I toiled over how to finish the wood, but after conversing with the brain trust (my 5 and 3 year old kiddos) we decided to shoot for a red stain similar to the red paint as a kind of call back to the classic coloration. Used bright a red rit dye method as the hardware store was lacking the color that suited my daughter and son. Stained it a few times buffing up from 500 to 1000 all the way up to 0000 steel wool. After I got it close to the final shade I finish buffed it with my beeswax concoction. Hand buffed the pommel/butt plate, and fittings, then re-buffed the blade. The intention was making something that looked like a fancier version of the same knife, I really like it, plus now it's my own.

Enough jibber jabber, knife time.





Well thanks for looking, I might need to make a sheath now! If yall have any questions let me know, this was a lot of fun to do
Click to expand...

I have a friend who comments on people who are cheap as " He'd skin a fart to save a nickel and ruin a 25¢ knife!" That Mora is a tribute to all that is inexpensive, and it looks pretty cool, too. I will admit to being a bit confused, tho....I don't see where the aluminum and G10 come into play here.....but still looking forward to the new leather sheath ;).
 
granitestateofmind said:
I have a friend who comments on people who are cheap as " He'd skin a fart to save a nickel and ruin a 25¢ knife!" That Mora is a tribute to all that is inexpensive, and it looks pretty cool, too. I will admit to being a bit confused, tho....I don't see where the aluminum and G10 come into play here.....but still looking forward to the new leather sheath ;).
Click to expand...
Thank you! I really like these cheaper kind of blades because there is really a lot of potential in them.

and my bad I should probably have explained a little better, plus my pictures don't show th spacer real well. I used a piece of G10 liner as a spacer between the wood and the aluminum, just little thin black line. The aluminum is the bottom piece of the pommel/butt plate. Started life as a hunk of 1/16 thick aluminum bar. Chose it cause it just seemed like it would hold up the best, while being the easiest to shape against the soft handle material, it could be finsihed to look like the bolster fitting, and it would contrast well with the brass rod in the center.
 
iwouldhurtafly said:
Thank you! I really like these cheaper kind of blades because there is really a lot of potential in them.

and my bad I should probably have explained a little better, plus my pictures don't show th spacer real well. I used a piece of G10 liner as a spacer between the wood and the aluminum, just little thin black line. The aluminum is the bottom piece of the pommel/butt plate. Started life as a hunk of 1/16 thick aluminum bar. Chose it cause it just seemed like it would hold up the best, while being the easiest to shape against the soft handle material, it could be finsihed to look like the bolster fitting, and it would contrast well with the brass rod in the center.
Click to expand...

OK, got it. Yeah, I like the cheaper ones to mod as well. Unfortunately, all the Moras I have are plastic handled. Gave away the one classic to a friend's son for Christmas last year. So....that leaves me with my Beckers - which are cheap enough and after modification are even nicer!
 
Bottom line is the modding bug is real!!!! It's an illness only satisfied by endless steel dust, epoxy fumes and messes, scraps of sandpaper strewn about everywhere, and those moments where you look at your creation and think "what have I done?!?!"
 
iwouldhurtafly said:
Thank you! I really like these cheaper kind of blades because there is really a lot of potential in them.

and my bad I should probably have explained a little better, plus my pictures don't show th spacer real well. I used a piece of G10 liner as a spacer between the wood and the aluminum, just little thin black line. The aluminum is the bottom piece of the pommel/butt plate. Started life as a hunk of 1/16 thick aluminum bar. Chose it cause it just seemed like it would hold up the best, while being the easiest to shape against the soft handle material, it could be finsihed to look like the bolster fitting, and it would contrast well with the brass rod in the center.
Click to expand...

How did you go about attaching the brass round stock to the factory tang?
 
pollock9131 said:
How did you go about attaching the brass round stock to the factory tang?
Click to expand...
It's not, the tang on these mora's runs about 3/4s the length of the handle.

About like this...



What I did was drill a hole up almost to the tang, and then run the pin up to that. The pin has a relief cut into it around the end to provide a place for epoxy to grab onto. There also is a slight bit of space for epoxy in front of the pin.The pin is also peened against the aluminum plate keeping everything in place. Among other things.

On full length/exposed tang puukkos the end of the tang is exposed, peened over, or attached (etc) at the pommel/end/butt of the handle. Either way the tang would be seen at the end as such.

I added the plate and pin as kind of a throw back to that. I also purposely inverted the colors so it's apparent the pin is not the end of the tang, while still being reminiscent of other full length peened tang puukkos.

As far as function goes it adds a tiny bit of weight to the back the knife, you could hit it or hit stuff... but mostly it's just for purty lol.
 
iwouldhurtafly said:
It's not, the tang on these mora's runs about 3/4s the length of the handle.

About like this...



What I did was drill a hole up almost to the tang, and then run the pin up to that. The pin has a relief cut into it around the end to provide a place for epoxy to grab onto. There also is a slight bit of space for epoxy in front of the pin.The pin is also peened against the aluminum plate keeping everything in place. Among other things.

On full length/exposed tang puukkos the end of the tang is exposed, peened over, or attached (etc) at the pommel/end/butt of the handle. Either way the tang would be seen at the end as such.

I added the plate and pin as kind of a throw back to that. I also purposely inverted the colors so it's apparent the pin is not the end of the tang, while still being reminiscent of other full length peened tang puukkos.

As far as function goes it adds a tiny bit of weight to the back the knife, you could hit it or hit stuff... but mostly it's just for purty lol.
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks for the explanation and photo.
 
Just finished my little bk9 project, perhaps only a couple modds where made (tumb ramp and the clip removed)i really like the way it came out.
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Looking good, Kentwood!

Change of plans tonight, as my younger daughter isn't feeling so well.....working on a little BK-16 re-profile that I was thinking about.....only I needed a second 16 to do it on, which I got, courtesy of another 'Head via the exchange. So, I'm doing a little grinding tonight.

The plan:

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Profile now, compared to my other 16:

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Subtle, I know....but I like a smoother transition to the point. Now, to put the edge back on and clean things up a bit. Don't think I'm going to change the grip profile at this point, though I may add some liners to the Micarta.
 
Thank u Sir, I've been thinking in add a choil to it , but that's gonna be in the future, for now I'm keeping it as is, really happy with it's functionality so far.
 
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Looking good GSOM! Glad it went to someone who would change it up!!
Here is my latest project-
I love these Ontario machete's. They make great fodder for custom knife projects. This time its one for my wife. She handles all cooking duties when we are camping so I thought a Nessy would be appropriate for her.
Here are the pics-










 
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