Failed Experiment: Native Lightweight to Native Titanium Blade Swap

[B.F.U]

I have been carrying and using a Native 5 Fluted Titanium that my brother gave me for a few years now. It's a great knife, crazy smooth, great ergonomics, striking looking.

Since all the low cost high value exotic blade steel lightweight models have been coming out I've wanted to try a blade swap. I even was thinking I'd have the blade reground for a near perfect edc knife.

I decided to go all in and get a Maxamet Lightweight Native 5 recently. The first thing I noticed was the great action. Spyderco always impresses me with their FRN models. The second thing was that the blade had a distinctly different finish than the titanium model, more of a stone wash. I took both apart, I'd taken the titanium model apart several times for cleaning and such with no damage or detriment to function, and the lightweight was even easier. I knew the pivot would be somewhat different on the lightweight, and again I'm impressed by the design of the inside of the handles on these, but I put the s35vn blade on the frn handle and it went back together fine.

Unfortunately, when I tried to put the pivot of the titanium handle through the Maxamet blade, it was just a hair too big. I didn't want to try to force it and it was obvious it wasn't going to work, so I dejectedly put them back together as they came from the factory.

So finally I can confirm that the G10/Carbon Fiber/Titanium Native 5s cannot house the blades from the FRN/Lightweight Native 5s. I don't really need two of the same knife just in a different steel and handle, despite the lightweight Maxamet being a great knife that I'd like to keep, so it's kind of a downer.

But oh well, s35vn is still a great steel! I'm certainly not one of the now many who seem to see it and s30v as less than good enough.

 

[MaxFactor]

Well, that sucks. Kudos to you for trying though!

That being said, non-FRN swaps definitely work. A few years ago I put an S110V blade on a Fluted Ti handle. Worked very well. Ended up selling it, but someone out there is enjoying it.

 

[B.F.U]

Well, that sucks. Kudos to you for trying though!

That being said, non-FRN swaps definitely work. A few years ago I put an S110V blade on a Fluted Ti handle. Worked very well. Ended up selling it, but someone out there is enjoying it.

Yeah I also saw some other swaps between g10/CF/ti. Still very cool!

 

[MMGRenovations]

I almost bought a maxamet native to do the same swap. Was there any play when you put the s35vn blade on the lw pivot?

 

[B.F.U]

I almost bought a maxamet native to do the same swap. Was there any play when you put the s35vn blade on the lw pivot?

Not that I could feel

 

[MMGRenovations]

Did you try to slide in from both sides? For some reason I remember doing the same on a different knife and I could only get the blade to slide on the pivot from one side and not the other. If you don't feel any play when you slip on the s35vn blade on the lw pivot, then they are pretty close. I would expect there to be some play if they were a different size. When you checked for play did you have the back lock depressed?

 

[B.F.U]

Did you try to slide in from both sides? For some reason I remember doing the same on a different knife and I could only get the blade to slide on the pivot from one side and not the other. If you don't feel any play when you slip on the s35vn blade on the lw pivot, then they are pretty close. I would expect there to be some play if they were a different size. When you checked for play did you have the back lock depressed?

I don't think the kind of play that you would get from this would be felt in a normal side to side test for play. It would be more of a forward and back slipping.

I did try both sides. It was suuuuuuper close but didn't fit either way.

 

[Rusty_shackelford]

Any way you could keep the pivot with the blade it came with and swap the pivot/blade into the opposite scales?
I've never taken apart a native so I'm blind to any obvious differences between the two, but I figured I'd ask.
That seemed to work on a military blade swap I was talking to a guy about a few days ago.

 

[B.F.U]

Any way you could keep the pivot with the blade it came with and swap the pivot/blade into the opposite scales?
I've never taken apart a native so I'm blind to any obvious differences between the two, but I figured I'd ask.
That seemed to work on a military blade swap I was talking to a guy about a few days ago.

I didn't try it, but looking at the pivot from the inside out looked like being that the FRN versions have molded in bearing areas the hole to accept the pivot was different.

 

[Rusty_shackelford]

Gotcha.

 

[DNAIrradiator]

Hi there, sorry to hear about your failed experiment especially given I’ve had zero issues swapping 4-5 lightweight blades into my G10 and Ti Native 5s. Here are pics of my Maxamet blade in a G10 frame (now with desert ironwood) and a S90V from the recent orange CS exclusive in another G10 frame (Anso contoured G10). Also had zero issue getting my lightweight S110V blade into my fluted Ti N5 frame. All work perfectly and the swaps went seamlessly.

 

[B.F.U]

Hi there, sorry to hear about your failed experiment especially given I’ve had zero issues swapping 4-5 lightweight blades into my G10 and Ti Native 5s. Here are pics of my Maxamet blade in a G10 frame (now with desert ironwood) and a S90V from the recent orange CS exclusive in another G10 frame (Anso contoured G10). Also had zero issue getting my lightweight S110V blade into my fluted Ti N5 frame. All work perfectly and the swaps went seamlessly.

Huh, that's awesome but perplexing. Did you keep the lightweight pivot with the lightweight blade and switch them together to the titanium?

 

[MMGRenovations]

Hi there, sorry to hear about your failed experiment especially given I’ve had zero issues swapping 4-5 lightweight blades into my G10 and Ti Native 5s. Here are pics of my Maxamet blade in a G10 frame (now with desert ironwood) and a S90V from the recent orange CS exclusive in another G10 frame (Anso contoured G10). Also had zero issue getting my lightweight S110V blade into my fluted Ti N5 frame. All work perfectly and the swaps went seamlessly.

I read your post on here and Spyderco forum quite a bit on doing the swaps. I got a fluted cf native just to put a maxamet blade in. I'm probably still going to attempt it some time soon.

 

[B.F.U]

Hi there, sorry to hear about your failed experiment especially given I’ve had zero issues swapping 4-5 lightweight blades into my G10 and Ti Native 5s. Here are pics of my Maxamet blade in a G10 frame (now with desert ironwood) and a S90V from the recent orange CS exclusive in another G10 frame (Anso contoured G10). Also had zero issue getting my lightweight S110V blade into my fluted Ti N5 frame. All work perfectly and the swaps went seamlessly.

After taking them apart again, I really can't understand how they could be switched with confidence. The pivot holes are visibly different sizes. The pivot from the lightweight version can be slid around when placed in the corresponding hole of the titanium handle. Are yours differently designed than mine? Do they go together desire this? Is there not wobble?

The screws of the titanium handle don't fit into the pivot from the FRN handle, and the pivot from the titanium absolutely doesn't fit in the pivot hole of the Maxamet blade, and the pivot from the FRN is too small for the handle pivot holes of the titanium. Taking it apart again has made the fact that you got it to work way waaaaaay more confusing.

 

[MMGRenovations]

After taking them apart again, I really can't understand how they could be switched with confidence. The pivot holes are visibly different sizes. The pivot from the lightweight version can be slid around when placed in the corresponding hole of the titanium handle. Are yours differently designed than mine? Do they go together desire this? Is there not wobble?

I believe he left the pivots and lock bars in their corresponding frames and just simply swapped out the blades. I could be wrong.

 

[B.F.U]

The pivot from the titanium handle just doesn't fit into the pivot hole in my Maxamet blade. Idk why our models would be different, but they must be.

 

[B.F.U]

Mr. @Sal Glesser any thoughts on this? CQI on the pivots???

 

[Rusty_shackelford]

Maybe just a rub with some emery cloth would be enough to allow the pivot to fit into your new blade. Little rub around the pivot and a little wipe inside the hole in the blade.

 

[DNAIrradiator]

Hi there, I only switched the blades and mated lockbars on all of them. I never switched the pivots themselves. Every N5 blade I've come across that I've swapped into various frames (lightweight, G1, Ti - haven't tried the fluted CFs yet because I like the stock options on both) has been frighteningly identical in their construction, as I've indeed mentioned in some of my Spyderco forum threads on swapping N5 blades. So much so that I'd bet I'd wold have been OK in not even swapping the lockbars, but I've always kept them faithfully together. That you're seeing such variation in the pivot size is odd to me. Regardless of how they lock into the liners, the diameters of the actual pivot where the blades actually rotate were/are always identical in my hands.

 

[MMGRenovations]

Couldn't get some some sleep late last night. I have the fluted native 5 and a s110v version. I took them both apart just to see if I could do the blade swap. It worked ok for me.