Couple of "semi" custom Benchmade 630's

[Techiesplat]

I scored these from a fellow forum member here. You guys have me all wound up just sitting here and looking at all the cool "mods" and "pimpings" and "goings ons" in regards to "making a knife your own".

...so I thought I would jump in. I know it's not much compared to some of the excellent work you guys post up in here, but I figured, you gotta start somewhere, right?

Let me know what you think...

Both knives were sorta "projects" for the previous owner, so they turned out to be perfect for my needs. I found out some very interesting things while playing.

I heat "anodized" the handles on both units.

On the unit with the black blade and hardware, I hand sanded the Ti and polished the edges only. The polished surfaces took on lots more color than the rest, and the sanded surfaces almost turned out like what I am calling "industrial" looking. The blade has seen almost no use, and the pocket clip is showing some light wear which produced a real cool "urban/industrial camo" type of finished product. I am very satisfied with this one.

On the unit with polished blade and hardware, I bead blasted the Ti and polished the hardware and blade. Previous owner had "sanded" the blade for a matte finish...so I spent quite a bit of time bringing it around to the polished state that you see before you. There are still a couple of very faint lines from the sanding, but all in all I am happy with the blade. As for the Ti...well, the bead blasting makes the heat anodizing take on a completely different look. It looks more subdued and almost "3D". I reckon because of the different heights left behind from the blasting. I think it looks very cool, almost like a faded tie-dye t-shirt as compared to the other unit which more closely resembles a fresh tye-dye shirt prior to washing.
I also tried my hand (literally) at some file work. I shot these 2 units side by side so you could really see the difference between a mostly stock 630 and one with extra jimping. I am a big "Hinderer" fan, so I tried to kinda/sorta emulate Rick's jimping. I didn't cut as deep as Rick's, and I added a round divot to the inside edge coming off of the flat file work to match those that were already on the knife. Man...that Ti sure eats up some files!!!

I know...I talk too much...

Well...let's have it...

 

[Any Cal.]

That bottom picture looks like a million bucks.

 

[Jason B.]

Looks very nice :thumbup:


Question about heating the Ti though, So if you heat it you color it but what effects besides color happen? anything negative?

 

[Techiesplat]

That bottom picture looks like a million bucks.

Thanks. Yeah, I got lucky with that one.

Looks very nice :thumbup:


Question about heating the Ti though, So if you heat it you color it but what effects besides color happen? anything negative?

First time I ever did it. From my research, Ti is a very poor conductor of heat, so when you heat it, the heat doesn't travel very far. That's how you can get focused color patterns. I heated some areas up to glowing orange. It happens pretty fast since it holds all the heat right there where the tip of the torch is. I used a propane torch, but I understand that if you use something with a more focused flame tip, you can get more fine control of where the color ends up. But to more specifically answer your question, I got no movement, warping, percieved hardness changes, etc...

 

[eKretz]

There aren't any majorly adverse changes that happen when heating titanium like there are with hardened steel. Most of the time the Ti used in handles isn't required to be heat treated anyway, since even non heat treated titanium is pretty tough stuff.