- Joined
- May 17, 2009
- Messages
- 73
I don't have many friends that appreciate knives, so I thought I'd post my first knife mods on here. I have carried this Cold Steel Voyager XL for almost 2 years now. It's a great knife for me and it's seen it's fair share of use. As such, it was covered in scratches and just looked rough so I decided to dress her up a bit.
I had a friend of mine TIG weld a hand ground piece 304 stainless that serves as a bottle opener on to the top of the spine. It also happens to make for a decent thumb ramp. Incidentally, it also happens to snag on the edge of my pocket as I draw the knife therefore opening it in one fluid motion! Who'd have thunk that?
After I had that piece welded on, I had to polish the blade to get rid of a few scratches and heat colors. It came out pretty good, but I decided to make it a bit more unique by acid etching the blade. I'm pretty sure I have a little OCD, therefore I traced out a pattern that I liked on paper and made a reverse image of it on copy paper in order to have nearly perfect symmetry. I cut out the gaps in the paper copy and duct taped it to the blade. Once taped to the blade, I could see the imprints of the paper. I carefully cut out the template and removed the template from the blade. I did this on both sides. I then coated the blade in fingernail polish and once dried, I removed the little bits of tape left on the blade. I let it soak in 75% Ferric Chloride for 25 minutes. I then removed the fingernail polish and polished the blade again with Mother's Aluminum Polish.
I'm pretty happy with the results. I probably could have done a slightly better job on this project, but this is really my first knife mod. I can only improve from this point. As a first attempt, I'm happy. Let me know what you guys think! If you have any Voyager mods, please post them : )
Sorry for the crappy pictures.
I had a friend of mine TIG weld a hand ground piece 304 stainless that serves as a bottle opener on to the top of the spine. It also happens to make for a decent thumb ramp. Incidentally, it also happens to snag on the edge of my pocket as I draw the knife therefore opening it in one fluid motion! Who'd have thunk that?
After I had that piece welded on, I had to polish the blade to get rid of a few scratches and heat colors. It came out pretty good, but I decided to make it a bit more unique by acid etching the blade. I'm pretty sure I have a little OCD, therefore I traced out a pattern that I liked on paper and made a reverse image of it on copy paper in order to have nearly perfect symmetry. I cut out the gaps in the paper copy and duct taped it to the blade. Once taped to the blade, I could see the imprints of the paper. I carefully cut out the template and removed the template from the blade. I did this on both sides. I then coated the blade in fingernail polish and once dried, I removed the little bits of tape left on the blade. I let it soak in 75% Ferric Chloride for 25 minutes. I then removed the fingernail polish and polished the blade again with Mother's Aluminum Polish.
I'm pretty happy with the results. I probably could have done a slightly better job on this project, but this is really my first knife mod. I can only improve from this point. As a first attempt, I'm happy. Let me know what you guys think! If you have any Voyager mods, please post them : )
Sorry for the crappy pictures.
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