Byrd Cara Cara mod

[moonwilson]

I've fallen in love with my Byrd G10 Cara Cara. I think I paid $22 for it and when it came, I was blown away. My only problems with it were that the G10 was a bit rough and not perfectly flush with the scales in a few spots, and the clip was painted, which I hate.

I spent about an hour working on the handle with small diamond files, some fine grit sandpaper and steel wool and now the knife is as nice as anything else in my collection (though the blade steel still isn't fancy). I "melted" and rounded all of the edges on the liners and scales, and polished up everything. Then I gave everything a nice brushed finish with the steel wool.

I took off the clip, stripped the paint, rounded all of the edges and gave it a brushed finish as well. (the screws too)

Now this knife is gorgeous! Everything is prefectly smooth and flush, though I left the texture in the center of the scales for grip. I love this knife, I can't believe how inexpensive it was.

Has anybody else worked on their Byrd? I like the idea of taking something that costs so little and making it special.

I'm thinking about taking the knife apart and blueing everything except the blade, and maybe doing some filework on the back of the blade as well.

 

[rebeltf]

Bro , pics pics pics !

 

[moonwilson]

I knew that was coming. Sorry for the tease. My wife has our camera and she's out of the country for a month. I'll end up posting pics but it'll be a while.

I'm thinking of buying several and pimping them out as Christmas presents, since mine turned out so nice. Maybe I'll post a group pic of all of them together once they're done. I 'm going to carve (dremel) into the G10 in different patterns for each, maybe do some different scalloping on the liners, with different kinds of filework on the backs of the blades. I think I'll do some things with the clips as well, drill a couple, try some cutouts. I was thinking about waving one them by removing part of the blade in front of the thumbhole.

It should be cool!

I think the Cara Cara is a great candidate for modification, because of its high quality and low price point. It's kind of like the Honda Civic of the knife world.

 

[Prcek]

On Spyderco.com forums is another mod of this knife - and it looks really GREAT!
http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26147

 

[moonwilson]

On Spyderco.com forums is another mod of this knife - and it looks really GREAT!
http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26147

Wow, that makes my "mod" look like a joke. That's pretty rad. I love spacers under G10 or micarta scales. I wonder why you never see this on mainstream production knives. It really makes a handle "pop"- and look extra fancy.

For what it's worth, the fit of the lock on my Cara Cara is better than that of the fancy modded one on the Spyderco forum. It's totally flush both open and closed, and mirror-polished like the back of a fine Case slippie. Awesome.
I don't carry it anymore. (and still no pics, sorry) I've gone back to the "dark side" momentarily, I'm carrying my old Benchmade 942 again.

 

[rebeltf]

Wow He did one hell of a job on that knife..
Gives me food for thought.

 

[augustus88]

Prcek ,
Thanks for posting the link to my Cara Cara mod here. I was going to post it and forgot somehow.

The stock G-10 Cara Cara is a great knife to mod. Cheap, decent quality and easy to take apart. I have to admit that my green micarta Cara Cara is now one of my favorite knives. It's in my pocket right now. I almost like it better than my Manix.

 

[rebeltf]

Let me re-emphasize that , you di a fantastic job on that , I am very impressed. The notches on the back add even more to it.
Not only with the actual work but the fact that you took something you like and made into something with your own personal touch.
That knife is a hierloom now.

 

[augustus88]

Let me re-emphasize that , you di a fantastic job on that , I am very impressed. The notches on the back add even more to it.
Not only with the actual work but the fact that you took something you like and made into something with your own personal touch.
That knife is a hierloom now.

Thanks for the compliments.

The notches on the back are stock. That's how it came from Byrd/Spyderco. I only added the green canvas micarta, vulcanized red spacer material and removed the paint from the clip. I plan on keeping this knife forever or until they plant me in the ground. I like it so much I'm thinking about making a matching Meadowlark and Robin.