BREAKING NEWS!!! "Baby" ZT 0200 In The Works!!!

joejeweler

joejeweler

Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
497
BREAKING NEWS!!!! A ZT 0200 "Baby" is in the works!

Although considered unconventional by those in the knifemaking world,............
....................this new manufacturing process is SURE to raise some eyebrows!

Kershaw has long been known for innovative and cutting edge knifemaking,.....
.....and all at a price that seems too good to be true.

Well,.....it's only going to get better from here folks, as a "leek" has been discovered
in Kershaw's R&D department!

These photo's have been taken by an undercover photographer,..........
......at great personal risk! Propriatary processes are often guarded by armed associates,.....

......and THIS process is one of the most closely watched!


ENJOY!!!

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................................For you close up freaks.................
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...the knife equivilant of having a smoke after,....ummm,....manufacture! :D
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Please don't keep us waiting too long.........:D
 
Joe,

You had me going there, with the title, then the photos loaded up (it takes awhile via my slow dial-up), and I had to chuckle. Thanks for the late Sunday morning chuckle!.:D.

At-least now I can stop looking-around my place for things to sell to buy one of those new "Mini-0200's".:D...At-least 'till a "Mini-0200" DOES become a reality.:thumbup:.:thumbup:.

BTW...I was playing with my new ZT 0200 (thanks again, Joe!.:thumbup:.), and really thinking just how sweet a version of this folder with a 2 & 7/8ths inch blade WOULD look and feel...Keep the thickness of the blade, liners, and scales the same as on the "original", and make the handle just slightly shorter than the "original", but with a shorter blade (for those cities & places where you can only carry under a 3" long blade folder). The full-sized ZT 0200, along with a "Mini" version would make the PERFECT "EDC" pair!.
 
Dann,.....your thoughts on the "Mini ZT 0200" vital specs is exactly like mine,......hope i didn't brainwash you with my previous post on this "phantom" knife. :D

Sure would be nice, though,........and as i already mentioned elsewhere Kershaw could count on me to pick up at least 50 of them! :eek:

If that's not enough, .........get them made and we can talk about it. ;)

I don't think the "originals" are made in huge numbers anyway. I've aleady mentioned that all of the 19 i've purchased had serial numbers less than 1000, and mine were made in July '07 (most from 400's to mid 900's)

In going back over the "Knives Illustrated" February '07 magazine,......which covered the ZT 0200 over several pages,.........the sample they had was # 0080 , made in May '06

......so in 14 months production they made less than 1,000 pieces, as far as i can tell. That seems pretty small to me. I'd bet a 1 inch smaller blade length version would beat that by a whole lot,.........

......and would ROCK!

BTW,.....i also have dial up internet service,.......but NOT the super slow AOL. I switched over several years ago to NetZero,.......and now run their "Highspeed" version. It's a big improvement over AOL,......and i would recommend it if you're not using it yet. $14.95 a month is cheaper to boot last i looked.

...........it used to drive me nuts on AOL when i was typing an email on yahoo and i lost the connection. (pretty common on dial up). If i hadn't continually saved every line of my email,.....and i went offline with AOL,..... i'd LOSE the entire yahoo page and all my work! (for sometimes a half hour or more.)

...with highspeed NetZero,.......your web page stays up and after reconnecting you can finish whatever you started. Anyway,.....if that's not what you're using i'd look into it. Often the free software discs are available at supermarkets and other large stores.

glockman99 said:
Joe,

You had me going there, with the title, then the photos loaded up (it takes awhile via my slow dial-up), and I had to chuckle. Thanks for the late Sunday morning chuckle!.:D.

At-least now I can stop looking-around my place for things to sell to buy one of those new "Mini-0200's".:D...At-least 'till a "Mini-0200" DOES become a reality.:thumbup:.:thumbup:.

BTW...I was playing with my new ZT 0200 (thanks again, Joe!.:thumbup:.), and really thinking just how sweet a version of this folder with a 2 & 7/8ths inch blade WOULD look and feel...Keep the thickness of the blade, liners, and scales the same as on the "original", and make the handle just slightly shorter than the "original", but with a shorter blade (for those cities & places where you can only carry under a 3" long blade folder). The full-sized ZT 0200, along with a "Mini" version would make the PERFECT "EDC" pair!.
Click to expand...
 
You had me going for a second there Joe (New model! Where?).
I don't have a 0200 yet, but a stubby little one would be pretty appealing.

If a baby ever comes they'll have to complete the family with a 4.5 inch "Grandpa" model.
 
I could live with a normal gestation time of about 9 months,......after that i'd say the baby was overdue. Might have to perform a cesaerian on one of my current grown up ZT 0200's after that.:D

Seriously, i'm thinking of shortening up a regular model as it is. If the baby lives i'll share it with everyone...........
 
Joshua J. said:
...If a baby ever comes they'll have to complete the family with a 4.5 inch "Grandpa" model.
Click to expand...
Now, THAT would be SWEET!!!...A large ZT 0200 to go with the medium & small sizes...:thumbup:.
 
Well,.....i didn't have to wait as long as i thought for my "baby" ZT 0200. I spent several hours yesterday and into the wee hours of today to think thru and execute a cesearan on a full size ZT 0200.

I just "knew" there was a baby in there! ;)

I still have to get a keen edge on the front half of the blade,.....but that will have to wait until i can order some sharpening equipement. All the work done so far was with my jewelry repair equipement,......made up mostly of a Foredom Flexable shaft machine and using thin stone separating discs, and an assortment of files.

I first tore the knife down to get at the steel liners, and made a decision to save as much of the original length as i could and still end up with a 3" blade length. I used a magic marker to to mark the outline, and decided to keep the 3rd set of spacer holes intact in order to have the upper part of the knife fill my palm.

I cut one liner at a time, and after i roughed them both out i made a couple of alluminum rods to fit in the two outermost spacer hole sets. These were fitted tight so that the two liner halves could be matched up perfectly in the final finishing.

After finishing the steel liners i put the frame together with the spacers and G10 scales attached,......but left out the blade. The scales, of course, hung way outside of the liners at this point,.......but i was able to trim them pretty quick using a separating disc to remove most of the excess scales,.....followed by one of my old diamond setting steel burs to blend in close to the steel liners. A final fitting with a rubber abrasive wheel and a quick polish with jewelers polish made the butt end look pretty nice.

I originally was planning on either cutting the 3rd set of spacer holes out totally,......or leaving at least one hole on a single liner to allow for attaching a cord. I chose to eliminate the cord attachment idea,.....and opt for the longer handle in my palm. I think i made the right choice as it fills my hand very nice!

I then took it all apart again and washed it all down,.....before re-assembly with the blade in place. I wanted to be sure how to profile the blade before i cut it. Reinforced tape was placed over the blade's sharp edges while i worked, and i used magic marker again to get the profile i wanted. I actually made a cardboard sample of the blade shape, and traced it over the blade with the marker.

I then worked slowly to keep heat from building up in the blade, and used my cutting disc again over about an hour to get thru it. Repeated dippings in water also helped. This blade is HARD,......and i wanted to keep it that way!:thumbup:

I then freehanded a decent edge base to work from,......once i get some sharpening equipement in. The blade would probably benefit from a bench grinder's re-grind,.......but i'd loose the tungston coating so i'll wait to see what kind of edge i can get without going there.

Anyway,.....all in all a fairly nice "baby",........

...i guess all my jewelry repair experience pays off again. ;)

BTW the weight of the original was 7.9 ounces and the baby weighs in at 6.8 ounces.

Overall length dropped from just a tad over 8 3/4 inches to 7 1/8 inches.

Closed length shrunk from 5 1/4 inches to a more pocketable 4 1/2 inches.

......and the blade is now a fiesty 3 inches.

Save for a section at the top where i had to re-profile the blade to come to a point,......NO high tech coatings were injured in the making of this knife! :D


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Well done! It certainly pays to do things in proper order. I wish my knife mods turned out looking that good.
 
Remember,......measure TWICE,.....cut ONCE! ;)

Here are some pics of interest to show where the cutting was done,....and why. Here you can see the cut off pieces of the stainless steel liners and how they lined up originally. Note the cuts were made where they were because of the placement of the weight reducing holes already there.
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........ the finished liners, with top half having scales attached because the pivit screw is really tight! It has to be carefully hammered out with a brass, nylon, or leather hammer over a supporting structure. I took it out once to do the cutdown..........
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......... a close up view of the liner lock,.....note most all of the supporting steel behind the "spring" cut out was saved with the placement of my cut. I didn't want to weaken this area!
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Here's the blade with the cut off section in approximate position of where it was cut from. This steel is HARD, and i used cutting discs made from corundum,.....same material as sapphire & ruby.
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Voila,.....about an hour later and the blade was rough cut off. Frequent water dips kept it cool during cutting
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Here's the "butt" side finished off area where the frame cuts were completed.
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I have a size 10 ring finger,.....so i'm about a medium hand guy and this is how it now fits my hand for controlled cutting situations. I'm a "righty", but i was working the camera with that hand.....
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You larger handed guys might have to make use of the cut out at the butt end.
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Here's a tight grip with full finger wrap,.....for serious situations!
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Joshua J. said:
Well done! It certainly pays to do things in proper order. I wish my knife mods turned out looking that good.
Click to expand...
 
Just bumping the thread to give everyone a scare all over again.:D

There's probably quite a few newcomers who haven't seen this sweet mod either.
 
Sure caught my attention ........AGAIN. I was around for the first time it played, and it still got me going!:D

That is a heck of a mod joe did!:thumbup::thumbup::D
 
Thanks,......but until the powers that be actually put it in production,......

..............i keep mine in a safe!

Sure seems like it would have a market, especially in states requiring no more than a 3 inch blade.


BTW,.....you just know Glockman99 is going to get all worked up again! :D
 
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