Civilian Repair

[roshi]

Long ago I had a new Civilian with Carbon Fiber scales. I found that I just didn't like the feel of CF so I sold the knife. I also didn't want to test the capabilities of such a thin fine edge and risk ruining it.

Ah but I missed that Civvie The recent post by a new owner got me thinking about it again. I managed to find a well used Civvie in G-10 for a very reasonable price. The only thing wrong with it is the very fine tip, about .04 of an inch has broken off.

I plan to regring the tip myself to restore a point. I'll do it by hand to avoid ruinng the temper. Any other maintenance tips from you all?

 

[Sal Glesser]

Use a belt, not a wheel, keep it wet, don't let it get too hot.

There are special techniques we use to make that tip that cannot be done once the blade is finished. You can always send it to Spyderco and Keith, or one of our other knifemakers can regrind it for you.

sal

 

[roshi]

Sal,

Thanks for the personal follow up. I hadn't planned on using power tools, only some stones to bring the tip back to a point by removing some of the top edge.

I'll take another look at it. If it looks too challenging I'll send it off to you all for a professional regrind.

 

[BigDeeeeeeee]

Originally posted by roshi
I hadn't planned on using power tools, only some stones to bring the tip back to a point by removing some of the top edge.

I used this method on mine when I broke off .040" or .050" from the tip. You can't tell at all and I didn't have to mess with the edge side of things.

 

[roshi]

BD was right. After about 15 minutes using medium, fine, and very fine stones, I was able to reprofile the tip. Then just a bit of touch up to the edge using the corner of a triangle stone from a 204 yielded a new tip that is tough to distinguish from a NIB.

In the process I learned that the tip is hard but tough.

I realize that the Civilian is designed for self defense and not recommended for uility work. It appears that the tip was boken by the original owner opening boxes since there was still some sticky tape residue on it when I recieved it.

So....if you use your Civvie as a uility knife, you'll break the tip. However all isn't lost, it's relatively easy to restore it using patience and common hand stones.