Favorite Knife Modification?

J

jag-engr

Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
341
I've noticed a lot of people here like to tweak with their knives. Numerous people like to reshape the blade edge, tip, etc. I've personally modified several sheaths, ground off serrations (CRKT Mirage and SOG Seal 2000), and improvised sheaths or carry options (mostly with cord and webbing).

What is your favorite knife / sheath modification or innovation?
 
I like to take knives that belong to others, send them a 16 digit number, and PRESTO CHANGO I make it mine :)
 
Welcome to Bladeforums!

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My favorites (for myself) include making a good kydex sheath with a variety of carry options, sculpting the grips, reducing full guards to half guards, and adding thumb notches. Dremmels are wonderful tools!

Oh yea, and reprofiling edges.

For others I really enjoy bringing an old knife back to life. I've done alot, but two times really stand out. Both friends had a knife given/left to them by their grandfather, and the knives were in pretty tough shape to say the least. With some work I made them look almost new again. The happiness in their faces made it very worth while. Here's a few pics of one of the knives.

This old Buck was covered in scratches both on the grip and blade. It was missing its sheath, and had also been sharpened on a grinder at one time. All but the deepest scratches came out. My friend actually carried this knife this past hunting season again for the first time in almost twenty years.
 
Nice restoration scottang1 :)

It depends on the knife on how I like to modify it and as to whether or not I will mod it.

Coloring , polishing , filework , scale replacement , fixing and restoring.
Have not been doing it too long but am getting good at it.
 
These two are knives my grandpa made. We found about fifty knives rusting and rotting in a five gallon bucket in his shop after he passed away. I salvaged these two, cleaned them up and made some simple leather sheaths. One day I'll get a new handle for the bottom one.
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This was the knife my dad carried in Vietnam. It was also left in a shed for a long time and I'm in the process of cleaning it up. Next on the list is straightening the edge and fixing the loose pommel.
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I get a kick out of putting nice woods on knives. Here's a handful of SAKs:

Ebony One Hand Trekker
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Zebrawood Sportsman
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Purpleheart and Cocobolo Secretaries
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And last but not least, a little maple Classic.
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Hey thanks!
Got some top-secret plans in the works, involving some carbon fiber... don't tell anybody ;) :p
Mike
 
I like to take a folding lockback hunter apart, do some simple filework on the backbone, then reassemble with a new handle made of an exotic wood. Also add some new mosaic pins in place of the original brass pins.

Here's a link to two, the top is curly Koa on a Case knife, the bottom is Leopardwood.
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This is my #555 mini-grip with a #707 blade installed. One of my favorite knives. The handle has been modified and so has the blade.

sorry for the bad pic.
 
Gents, I believe the overall term you are looking for in these fine examples is "work satisfaction".

Nice work by all, the look of wonder on someones face seeing results like these is priceless indeed!!!

Nice one...........
 
Super Dave said:
I like to take a folding lockback hunter apart, do some simple filework on the backbone, then reassemble with a new handle made of an exotic wood. Also add some new mosaic pins in place of the original brass pins.

Here's a link to two, the top is curly Koa on a Case knife, the bottom is Leopardwood.
P1230173.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice nice!! :D ... you are inspiring me to do the same to my 110.
Hey , was that leopardwood a total pain in the ass to work with or what ?
I'm near ready to throw whats left of my L-wood in the trash.
 
I will buy a 110 just to do that to. Nice resorations of grampas knives and the Buck.
 
Don't try to plane; cut to rough thickness on bandsaw or use drum thickness sander to get close to the final thickness. Using a thickness planer leaves pits and is not smooth enough for finishing. If you wet the wood surface with a sprayer, and take off very small increments, it can be planed on a thickness planer. More sanding is still necessary after thickness planing before applying a finish. I cut these scales on a bandsaw, fit them to the knife then sanded after gluing in place. See my tutorial at: http://pages.suddenlink.net/superdave/
 
Improvising sheath carry as you mentioned is one of my favorites, but so is getting a knife that came with a more obtuse edge engle down to something a little sharper :cool: I also like getting rid of the wire edge that some knives come with from the factory know that I know how to do it without dulling the knife.
 
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