Dont laugh... its my first time.. customizing knives.

stebolicious

stebolicious

Joined
Apr 16, 2012
Messages
1,655
Okay guys, i got a little bored tonight. I have always wanted to learn how to make custom handles for my knives, and after tonight, i’m one step closer to doing so.
Take it easy on me though, I had no clue what i was doing, and didn’t care to read a bunch of how to’s to figure it out. This is the end result of just jumping into a project an seeing what happened.

AND YES, i realize that the G10 work looks absolutely horrid, but everyone’s gotta start somewhere.

First off, I stripped the blade and the back lock of its horrendous black coating; which was, surprisingly enough, the easy part. All it took was some scraping with a cheap knife and it flaked right off, revealing a nice stonewash/tumbled finish.

Then, i got out my dremel tool, and just using a couple sanding drum attachments, proceeded to attempt an Anso Pattern, but the one side turned out horrible. I sanded down the spine, by the gimping so that the thumb could rest flat against the blade. I also added somewhat of a forward finger choil to provide a choked up grip, which is quite comfortable.

Finally, i finished the handle work by rounding all the corners and edges so there are no hot-spots or sharp edges. I re-contoured the finger grooves to better fit my hand.


Overall, i am happy with that i have accomplished, being that I had no prior knowledge of how to do any of this. about 50% luck and the rest was miracles i guess. The only down side to doing this project, is now the knife has an absurd amount of vertical blade play, but i cant figure out why? Im sure it was some stupid thing that I did, but im not too worried about it.


20130213_164416_zps60e6be88.jpg

20130213_164403_zps1bc590a2.jpg

20130213_164332_zps3a3dd413.jpg

20130213_164351-1_zps57af0e07.jpg


Feel free to leave any tips, or tricks, or anything. Im open to suggestions, and am eager to master this. I want to make my own knives eventually.


STAY TUNED, i am going to try my hand at acid etching a pattern in the blade. I will post pics and stuff later.
 
Looks pretty dang good, man! Never would have guessed that it was your first embellishment project. Have you considered stripping the pocket clip? They never seem to stay coated for very long anyway and would be a nice match to the new blade finish.
 
Brisket said:
Looks pretty dang good, man! Never would have guessed that it was your first embellishment project. Have you considered stripping the pocket clip? They never seem to stay coated for very long anyway and would be a nice match to the new blade finish.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i will probably strip the clip eventually. I like black clips because they are more subdued when wearing jeans; not so noticeable to the eye.
 
That looks amazing. I'm very impressed, my EDC is a recon tanto and I'm planning on stripping the blade. Just so I don't screw something up, you simply scraped it off with a cheap knife?
 
That's a nice looking knife. Do you have any photos from a top or bottom view? I'm interested in how deep the grooves in the scales are in relation to the original thickness of the scales.
Thanks.
 
Micahdrake said:
That looks amazing. I'm very impressed, my EDC is a recon tanto and I'm planning on stripping the blade. Just so I don't screw something up, you simply scraped it off with a cheap knife?
Click to expand...

Yep. it seemed too good to be true. I saw someone else do it on youtube, and thought to myself “It cant be that easy” but it is... the coating just scraped off, and left behind that beautiful finish. I took it one step further and polished it a little with metal polish. It wasn’t necessary though.
I honestly am perplexed as to why Cold Steel puts that awful coating over such a beautiful surface finish. It would be like spending hours buffing and waxing your car, just to spray paint it. :confused:

Chris Pierce said:
That's a nice looking knife. Do you have any photos from a top or bottom view? I'm interested in how deep the grooves in the scales are in relation to the original thickness of the scales.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Ill post a pic for yah. Any other picture requests while im at it?
 
Here’s a pic for you Chris.

The pattern I put on it really didn’t change the thickness all that much, there are some thin spots where i messed up on the left side handle by the finger grooves... but other than that, just slightly thinner.


20130213_210554_zps44357848.jpg
 
I'm curious about the vertical play. It's possible that the mating surface of the locking mechanism on lockbar, stop pin and blade tang are thinned down too much(?). However, it's said that Triad Lock should be self adjusting against wear. I'm wondering if the work done can result in more than the built in self adjusting properties. Looking at the diagram on CS website, it shouldn't be.
:confused:

Overall, nice mod!

Edit to add: after stripping the clip, you can burn it over a stove to darken it, and it should last better than the painted original finish, and still subtle on jeans.
 
Last edited:
nice job well done you cant see anything to laugh at
 
Chris "Anagarika";11856130 said:
I'm curious about the vertical play. It's possible that the mating surface of the locking mechanism on lockbar, stop pin and blade tang are thinned down too much(?). However, it's said that Triad Lock should be self adjusting against wear. I'm wondering if the work done can result in more than the built in self adjusting properties. Looking at the diagram on CS website, it shouldn't be.
:confused:

Overall, nice mod!

Edit to add: after stripping the clip, you can burn it over a stove to darken it, and it should last better than the painted original finish, and still subtle on jeans.
Click to expand...

Yeah, im confused as well. It wasn’t from stripping the blade. The lock up was perfectly fine after that. It wasn’t until I sanded the pattern in the scales and re-assembled the knife when I noticed the ridiculous play. I don’t know what I did wrong to cause that much play.
Im over it though. This knife has always been a beater for me, and the lock doesn’t fail, so its still good in my book. I spine whacked it pretty hard a couple times to make sure.


Also, Thanks for all the kind words guys; they are greatly appreciated.
 
stebolicious said:
Yeah, im confused as well. It wasn’t from stripping the blade. The lock up was perfectly fine after that. It wasn’t until I sanded the pattern in the scales and re-assembled the knife when I noticed the ridiculous play. I don’t know what I did wrong to cause that much play.
Im over it though. This knife has always been a beater for me, and the lock doesn’t fail, so its still good in my book. I spine whacked it pretty hard a couple times to make sure.


Also, Thanks for all the kind words guys; they are greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

The only possibility I can think of is the pin mount might be compromised. You might want to check it with the lockbar removed, if the stop pin or the lockbar pivot pin moves/rattles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top