Dark Ops Stratofighter (customized), pictures and thoughts

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fninjap91

Joined
Jul 12, 2006
Messages
12
I can't say that this is a good knife out of the box. It's true, the lockbar locking mechanism barely engages and the finish on some of the steel parts is subpar. With some extensive work though, I turned it into a good attractive knife. The components are thick and heavy. It fits in the hand very comfortably and securely, and has a very effective glassbreaker design. Its first job consisted of it cutting down some thick branches hatchet style on a camping trip. The sheer momentum of swinging the knife around makes it an effective hatchet, which is basically all the thick blade is good for: bludgeoning and covertly deanimating stuff.

First off, I removed the locking pin on the lockbar. I dremeled the lockbar down so that it engages the blade more deeply. The lockbar hinge pin was slightly smaller than the holes it fit into, so the lockbar had noticeable play. This translated into blade play, especially after whacking the blade a few times, which slightly deformed the apparently soft steel of the hinge pin. I lathed an allen wrench on a drill to form a harder and tighter fitting pin. I also created a new stiffer lockbar spring, as the stock one somehow kept plastically deforming and weakening after repeated hard blade strikes. This eliminated all the mechanical issues (which are quite a bit).

I also sanded and polished the steel lockbar, thumb stud, glass breaker, and the top of the blade. This made the knife prettier in my opinion and removed the surface finish defects (i.e. one side of the thumb stud having a different finish than the other side). During sanding, the poor surface finish was very apparent with uneven paint removal and shallow areas which remained black. You can see some voids in the steel on the sanded part of the top of the blade.

All in all, it was a pretty crappy knife, but with some work put into it, it's now pretty sexy. It makes a really loud menacing thwack when opening and locking with the stiffer spring :)

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I agree with what you said about the hinge pin. For a folder advertised as having one of the strongest locking mechanism it really had a puny hinge pin IMO. This also applies to Extrema Ratio lockbacks' hinge pins as well.

Perhaps in the future you can try to insert a thicker stronger pin? That'll make the locking mechanism much stronger than before.

By the way, I think it looks better with the sanded lockbar. More sexier :) Nice work.
 
For a knife of that price to need extensive improvement is poor value. On the other hand, I doubt that this folding bayonet was designed for chopping. It's thick so you have confidence in stabbing it through the rib cage.

About the hinge pin: is it possible that the pin is relatively weak because it was designed to fail first? A broken hinge pin can be easily replaced, but a worn out / broken frame or locking bar is not.
 
Good job. This becomes an addiction too. Look at me, I cut chunks out of perfectly good knives ;) This could possibly lead to a belt grinder. I'd say you're teatering on the brink.
 
The knife is good for stabbing, chopping, and hitting stuff. It's just not very good for cutting. I'm satisfied with the $200 I paid for it though.
 
fninjap91 said:
The knife is good for stabbing, chopping, and hitting stuff. It's just not very good for cutting. I'm satisfied with the $200 I paid for it though.
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That thing is sexy. Holy cow, deanimation station!:eek::thumbup: Remember, third and fourth rib and twist.
 
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I like it a lot. Nice work. I may do mine the same way.

This is strange, a post on a knife forum about Dark Ops and no one slamming them. Refreshing, actually.
 
Sep said:
About the hinge pin: is it possible that the pin is relatively weak because it was designed to fail first? A broken hinge pin can be easily replaced, but a worn out / broken frame or locking bar is not.
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The amount of material involved in the blade and lockbar interaction area means they could take a very large amount of force (both in closing and opening forces) based on the design.

Assuming you are right in the 'controlled failure' situation where hinge pin is first to fail to ensure protection of other related components then the hinge pin needs to be slightly weaker compared to the rest. In this case the hinge pin is weaker by too much margin.

The hinge pin is only 2.5 to 3mm in diameter. the resulting strength is too weak. Considering the amount of space in the frame and lockbar of the Extrema Ratio and Dark Ops folders, it is funny why they didn't incorporate a thicker hinge pin.
 
fninjap91 said:
The knife is good for stabbing, chopping, and hitting stuff. It's just not very good for cutting. I'm satisfied with the $200 I paid for it though.
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no insult intended, but i find this statement to be a bit odd. it only became good at the tasks you mention after you fixed some initial design problems.

i have no problem spending $200, or more, on a single knife. but i certainly would not expect to have to retrofit my own homemade parts for the knife to function properly. i am willing to do a little lubing, cleaning, or even light sharpening out of the box. but having to make new pins and fit the lock bar??

i think you did a fine job of modification, but for those of us who aren't so good at fixing stuff, i think this knife should be avoided like cancer.
 
Reminds me of the Extrema Ratio Nemesis that I had. It had similar issues and I was glad to got rid of it.
 
eburon said:
Reminds me of the Extrema Ratio Nemesis that I had. It had similar issues and I was glad to got rid of it.
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its a copy of the nemisis so it should FWIW.

while i dont care that much for darkops the ER line is excellent imho, i have had 2 or 3 of them (including a nemisis i wish i wouldnt have swapped out) and never had any issues at all with them i thought they were excellent knives, heavy duty, similar in function to striders but cheaper and just as tough.

your darkops looks good after the mods though.
 
Cotherion said:
The amount of material involved in the blade and lockbar interaction area means they could take a very large amount of force (both in closing and opening forces) based on the design.

Assuming you are right in the 'controlled failure' situation where hinge pin is first to fail to ensure protection of other related components then the hinge pin needs to be slightly weaker compared to the rest. In this case the hinge pin is weaker by too much margin.

The hinge pin is only 2.5 to 3mm in diameter. the resulting strength is too weak. Considering the amount of space in the frame and lockbar of the Extrema Ratio and Dark Ops folders, it is funny why they didn't incorporate a thicker hinge pin.
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I see. I don't know the dimensions, that's why I asked. If this is the case, then it's purely poor design. Not worth $200 IMHO. Thanks for the info.:)

I did see the resemblance with Extrema Ratio (secondary lock on the back lock, 2-finger wide groove, etc.), but didn't want to accuse plagiarism until I know for sure. It's not uncommon for knife makers to license design features.
 
200.00??? Dear lord.

Nice work though on fixing it up though. Projects like that are pretty satisfying.
 
Nice mods. Reinforces my thoughts of wasting too much of the cost of the knife on advertising instead of getting the knife right to begin with.
 
Good job fixing this one. I'd have the blade either coated or sanded down to take all that absurd writing off FWIW.
 
Hammer27 said:
Good job fixing this one. I'd have the blade either coated or sanded down to take all that absurd writing off FWIW.
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The writing is there to distract the enemy... while they are distracted trying to read the gawdy childish text you take them on a little trip too deanimation town.:cool::rolleyes:
 
Sep said:
I did see the resemblance with Extrema Ratio (secondary lock on the back lock, 2-finger wide groove, etc.), but didn't want to accuse plagiarism until I know for sure. It's not uncommon for knife makers to license design features.
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Oh no, accuse away. At this point their practically fugitives over here:p
 
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