- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 12,955
I got this one in the mail and the blade was all scratched up really bad. Some were fairly deep and I apologize that I neglected to take before shots of it. Not sure how. The owner of this one wasn't sure how these scratches were done and got it this way but asked if I could clean it it up while I worked on it. As it turned out I cleaned it up a lot. The action was stiff, and it had gunk in the lock contact, from pocket carry no doubt. Fixed that up with a dab of Tuff Glide worked in well after a thourough cleaning. Now she is sweet.
Put a thumb stud on it along with a new standard style clip slightly longer than the one I made for one recently (by request) but before all that I reground the blade using my 10" wheel instead of an 8" like Buck used which is something I did not know about until already getting into it. I don't have an 8" wheel so once touched I was committed. Whatever Buck used its not 10" for sure (always scary IMO to find out this way).
This thinned the blade down very nicely in the end particularly in the hollow grind a bit more and edge which is very hard to appreciate by these scans I think. It took a while to do also but its a very good slicer now compared to an original grind like my own original Buck 501 shown here for comparison (original Buck top). The new grind is thinner by about . 003" or more best I can tell and also, perhaps most importantly, "no more scratches that look unsightly!" I managed to get all the old marks out and I did leave the tip thicker on purpose because quite frankly grinding toward the tip makes for more heat than I wanted to mess with. Best to just only brush it to match and leave it since I'm not as experienced at this as Tom Krein.
And honestly I almost wrote Tom to see about sending it to him for that since he is the master but the owner of the folder didn't want to have to wait that long and gave me the go ahead to knock it out.
Thought she turned out sweet and I'm glad since this is a 1980 folder but due to the time involved in cleaning it up right I wish I had an 8" wheel instead of the 10" because that meant more steps by quite a bit to get it right without letting the blade get hot. Lots of dipping on this one which makes me appreciate the service Tom offers that much more let me tell you. Its hard to do this right and not make things worse than they were IMO and its also one of those jobs where I think you have to finally reach a point where you tell yourself to leave well enough alone before you really mess it up.
STR
Put a thumb stud on it along with a new standard style clip slightly longer than the one I made for one recently (by request) but before all that I reground the blade using my 10" wheel instead of an 8" like Buck used which is something I did not know about until already getting into it. I don't have an 8" wheel so once touched I was committed. Whatever Buck used its not 10" for sure (always scary IMO to find out this way).
This thinned the blade down very nicely in the end particularly in the hollow grind a bit more and edge which is very hard to appreciate by these scans I think. It took a while to do also but its a very good slicer now compared to an original grind like my own original Buck 501 shown here for comparison (original Buck top). The new grind is thinner by about . 003" or more best I can tell and also, perhaps most importantly, "no more scratches that look unsightly!" I managed to get all the old marks out and I did leave the tip thicker on purpose because quite frankly grinding toward the tip makes for more heat than I wanted to mess with. Best to just only brush it to match and leave it since I'm not as experienced at this as Tom Krein.
And honestly I almost wrote Tom to see about sending it to him for that since he is the master but the owner of the folder didn't want to have to wait that long and gave me the go ahead to knock it out. Thought she turned out sweet and I'm glad since this is a 1980 folder but due to the time involved in cleaning it up right I wish I had an 8" wheel instead of the 10" because that meant more steps by quite a bit to get it right without letting the blade get hot. Lots of dipping on this one which makes me appreciate the service Tom offers that much more let me tell you. Its hard to do this right and not make things worse than they were IMO and its also one of those jobs where I think you have to finally reach a point where you tell yourself to leave well enough alone before you really mess it up.
STR
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