Custom Sage 4 scales - hide the scratches

kidcongo

kidcongo

Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
3,199
I have been EDC-ing a Sage 4 for several months now. I really really like this knife. The extra weight and blade shape are very useful to me in my daily work. I know this knife is collectable, but I am not a knife collector, so i look at it as a tool and I am fine with that. My job involves skinning and terminating multi-layer industiral power cables. Traditional "break-away-blade" type Olfa knives have too sharp a point that can cut through from one layer of insulation to the other when you do not intend that to happen, ruining the cable. The leaf-shape blade of the SAGE gives me better control on the depth of my cut. Also the extra mass of the Sage 4 stops the knife from "skipping" along the surfaces I am cutting like some light weight EDC knives might, so for me the extra weight is a bonus.

Anyways..........after a few month of abuse the Sage 4 was looking pretty sorry and scratched. I tool a dremel tool with a soft mini wire wheel and created a "craze pattern" on the Ti scales to mask the scratches. I though the results were interesting. This is super easy to do and takes all of 5 minutes. You just run the soft wire wheel, with no pressure, across the surface in multiple random directions. A very cool optical illusion of depth appears, but the surface is still completely smooth to the touch. Just don't press too hard and burn a mark in the Ti. Here are the results:

DSCF3490_zpsdf9bc8c3.jpg
 
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sogflash said:
Can you take more photos with different lighting?
Click to expand...

Here is another pic I have in just natural light (turned off the lights in my kitchen)

DSCF3493_zps13d6613c.jpg


It might be better viewed in a video....so I will think about doing that maybe if there's interest. As you move the knife back and forth, the illusion changes, and different "lines" become promminent.

Anyways..........this knife looks probably best as it comes out of the box, with clean simple lines, but mine had a couple really annoying scratches, and so far this finish has been very durable. The knife as photographed has another couple weeks of use on it, and I can't tell where any new scratches are if there is any.
 
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Neat idea. I think it looks very cool. Hard to tell for sure but it almost gives it a pearlescent look. It would be interesting to see it in a video, the vid can literally be 15 seconds.
 
Very nice. I love that look. Now I want to get a Sage 2, take off the bead blast and do that all over the handles. Lol.
 
I like that and am going to file this one for when my Sage 2 gets scratched up. What metal was the wire wheel made out of?
 
SAKsRCool said:
I like that and am going to file this one for when my Sage 2 gets scratched up. What metal was the wire wheel made out of?
Click to expand...

It is the stock wire wheel that typically comes with any dremel "combo pack" type kit. It is a stainless steel wire wheel about 3/4 in diameter.
 
That's pretty nifty :D Makes it look almost like a pearl handle. Will definitely keep this trick in mind if I ever get a titanium handled knife. I wonder how it would look on a stainless steel like my Cricket. It's sporting the house and car key stonewash right now.
 
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