Buck 112 Photo Ballet, "Are You Ready For Some Football?" Modifications (Pic Heavy)

joejeweler

joejeweler

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Jan 27, 2006
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497
With all the recent work done on some Buck 500's recently, I had almost forgot I had redone the grip on one of my bit older Buck 112's. There are some advantages to these fatter profiled knifes. A "meaty grip" is one of them when in use, although a bit more luggage to carry around of course.

I thought about making a custom fit to my hand and a few other weight savings re-profiling cuts that might shave about 1/2 ounce off the gross weight, as well as making for a REALLY comfortable grip when in use.

I found that when making the deep pinky cuts in the rear bolster, a sort of pseudo-football shape emerged :) I suspect an entire detailed "football" carving could be produced if that's what someone was after, but I'm content with the pseudo look.

I also decided that since the 112 only comes with a clip point blade, I would alter the blade to more of my preferred drop point.

.....and for the record, working with these brass bolsters is a piece of cake compared to the stainless steel 500 Duke frames I worked on recently!

I took some detailed pictures that I hope convey most of the work done. All re-profiling work was done with the intent to avoid any metal directly around the frame pins on the bolsters. The tapering at both ends does a lot to make pocket carry a lot less noticeable to others. The weight reduction appreciated as well, and such a joy "in hand".

I'll let the pics speak for themselves.........
















































THE END :D
 
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Nice!! Kind of fun to make a knife to your own preference. :thumbup::thumbup:
 
Great job Joe! I like that better then the 500s you did, and I bet it really feels good in the hand!
 
Peter Parker said:
Great job Joe! I like that better then the 500s you did, and I bet it really feels good in the hand!
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The 500 I modified with full finger grooves still gets the nod for being slimmer and a hair lighter (and one of my favs now as an EDC), but this 112 REALLY does feel great in the hand. All of the "chunky" feeling is gone with these mods, and my hand wraps around it like a fitted glove. I have a medium to smaller hand than some folks, so this is important to me.

While not as slimmed down as might happen with a total strip down and bringing the bolsters right down near 500 dimensions,......I look at is as if the 112 has had "Liposuction" in a few choice places! :D Rides a bit lighter and less noticeable in a jeans pocket also.

One thing you may not notice in the pics due to the flash glare is the lock bar push "knob" area has had the brass bolster sides square corners tapered out and down to blend into the pinky cutaway along the sides. When I'm gripping it tightly on one of the pics you can see my picky follow the sweet curves! ;)

Pack Rat said:
Excellent work!!!

That's probably the best 112 mod I have seen.
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Well,...maybe that's so when considering some mods that don't involve messing with all the pin-rivets at least. ;)
 
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Sweet looking mods, Joe!

Out of curiosity, did you use a sander and polishing wheels for this or did you go with hand tools and sand paper?
 
cuad said:
Sweet looking mods, Joe!

Out of curiosity, did you use a sander and polishing wheels for this or did you go with hand tools and sand paper?
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Most of it was done with a 1/2 " rubber drum sander (takes 60 grit and 120 grit covers from Sears), and finished with a fine rubber wheel and later hand sanding with 1200 or so crocus cloth, with a final polish with 1" muslin wheel and "Fabuluster" (a one step jewelers compound)
 
Yeah, that is sharp. Thanks for sharing with us. The 112FG is probably my favorite traditional lock back & your custom looks sweet.
 
JSutter said:
Yeah, that is sharp. Thanks for sharing with us. The 112FG is probably my favorite traditional lock back & your custom looks sweet.
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I haven't seen or tried a 112 FG model yet, BUT,..... I do own a bit older Buck 110 with factory Finger Grooves ( I did alter the blade to more of my preferred drop point :-) However, I find the index finger groove starts much TOO far back for my hand. (and I suspect on most folks hands ??? :-)

Additionally, ALL the finger grooves don't go near as deep as the could to be really effective,.....AND don't have contoured edges to make them comfortable in hand. I'm not sure who decided on the Finger Grooved model's design specs and positioning, but I can't imagine it was a knife "user" :rolleyes:

Maybe it's different on the 112 FG model, and the index finger groove starts at that neat built-in hilt cutaway like where I started mine. But I suspect the grooves aren't cut as deep or with a contoured edge for comfort?

On the other hand, perhaps the shallow Finger Grooves were intended to allow for some user customazation to their individual hands?

Here's a pic of the 110 FG after I altered the blade to more of a drop point. You can clearly see how much further back the index finger groove starts on this example. The 112 below it was the test subject of this thread, prior to surgery. :D

 
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Another good job doing a DP Joe! Another reason for my EDC I prefer the 112 is that the pivot end bolster drops down some so if I'm not doing some real hard cutting I can use that area and the tang part as a finger choil, I pull back on the bolster to make sure my finger doesn't go the wrong way.
 
Peter Parker said:
Another good job doing a DP Joe! Another reason for my EDC I prefer the 112 is that the pivot end bolster drops down some so if I'm not doing some real hard cutting I can use that area and the tang part as a finger choil, I pull back on the bolster to make sure my finger doesn't go the wrong way.
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Thanks,...but it really doesn't take much to do the change. I traced around one of my Randal Model 26 "Pathfinder" fixed blades and made a cardboard cutout, and then used a simple pointed black marker to trace the shape onto the Buck 110.

You can see how little is coming off from this photo, although you could remove less steel "if" you wanted to keep the upper false tapered edge intact. I personally never liked that design, so off it came.



And how similar the end result is to one of my favorite blade shapes,....the popular Randall Model 26 in high carbon Stainless Steel.





Anyway,....as close as possible with a complete blade swap! Now if Buck would just go back to the Thumb-Nick-LESS Blades like they did in the 2 dot 112's back in the day! ;)

With finger groove models especially,.....you sure don't need the unsightly things! :eek:
 
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