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- Mar 27, 2012
- Messages
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So I've been wanting to try some file work for while now and decided my FPR BK16 would be a great candidate.
I've done a few mods to her already but she still has plenty of potential for more modding!!
Dug my old set of diamond files from about 12 years ago out and got to work. They were just some cheap harbor freight ones I think.
And after filing this tempered steel, I need a new set. No joke. They all wore out now. haha. Gonna invest in some good ones to do the bottom side of the tang.
Here she is on her way to awesomeness!!
Hours later........
I then soaked her in some pcb enchant to try and darken her up a little.
Then I sanded and polished the tang. There are still a couple of grind marks I did not get out yet. When I do the underside I will clean her up all the way.
I ended up putting a little paint in the groves to make the file work stand out more.
Still have a few more things to do to her before she is complete but I wanted to share what I have done so far.
I will update and post more pics as I get more finished.
I have ka-bar micarta on the way and it should be here any day now. Might do something special with that as well, don't know yet?
She's not perfect, but for a first try I think it looks ok. I learned a lot thru this process and cant wait to do another one.
Hope y'all enjoy.
UPDATE STARTS HERE!
So my new needle files came in a few weeks ago and I've finished the file work on the underside of the tang.
I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of the final product until yesterday.
I'm gonna post as much of the process as I can and try to explain all the mods that I've done to this sixteen..
Let's get started .
So I started filing the underside. I must say that since I got a handle for the files that it was a lot easier. I would recommend spending the 5 bucks it cost for a nice handle if your gonna do any file work with needle files. I usually just use the file by itself or put tape on the handle. Way easier and more controlled with the handle.
Here are a few pics of under the tang ..
Here she is with the main pattern complete
Now I just have to fill in the rest .
Ok, now thats all done, time to sand this baby down
And more sanding ..
I started with like 380 or something and worked up to like 2000. Then used some Micro mesh I had.
I wrapped the sand paper in a little foam pad so it could have a little give.
Here is a pic of the kabar micarta handles. only thing done to them is that I have previously dyed them..
See how they are a little bigger than the tang (since I did remove a tiny amount of metal) and that they are somewhat rough and blocky?
Now I've sanded the handles down to fit more flush and I broke all the sharp edges on the micarta .
The handle feels so much better in the hand now.
I would suggest that anyone with stock micarta take a little bit of sandpaper and just lightly run it over the edges of the micarta.
Such a big difference
Re-dye and dry time .
I re-dyed them and then once dry I washed and cleaned up.
Now Its time to re-etch the blade since I did some mods to the blade itself.
All I did was apply a little cold gun blue to a few spots and put it in a jar of household bleach.
If you attempt this at home, do not leave unattended for long because the stuff works fast and eats metal quick and deep.
Once done I cleaned up the blade.
I wanted to fill in the grooves from the file work to make it darker to stand out more.
I primed it
Then tried some cheap car spray paint out .
And I used a set of the old scales to do this.
After all that
Alright, now she's all complete.
Mods so far on this blade are:
1- Stripping of the factory paint.
2- Etching with gun blue and bleach.
3- File work done on entire tang.
4- I did sharpen a spot on the back of the spine to use my fire steel and it works great.
5- New micarta handle scales that have been sanded to fit flush, smoothed out all the sharp edges, and have been dyed black.
6- And I modded the blade where it meets the handle. I did not want a full choil so I came up with something else.
I filed down the sharp part where the blade meets the tang. I also filed down the hand guard thing. ( I will explain and show why I did this later on)
I then polished it at that area on the knife so it feels like a full choil even tho I didn't really lose any cutting area.
Now for the Picture Show!! haha
Here she is just looking all sexy in that mossy grass ...
Now some pics of the file work
I did a little something to dress up the pommel...
Here is how my choil works.
off...
on .
in use .
Its just that simple.. Haha.
But really, I am so surprised at how good it feels when your finger is on there. Since I polished up all the parts that contact your flesh, nothing digs in at all.
I was worried that I was making a huge mistake when I was actually filing away metal but I am overjoyed with the results.
This is a comparison of this one next to two stock 16's .
If you notice, I almost didn't lose any cutting edge at all.
This is saber next to saber ..
Now if your asking yourself why in world would this guy get rid of the finger guard, Well I'll show ya
I like to use my knife for all sorts of tasks. So that means since I cook a lot, I like to use my Beckers in the kitchen.
The problem is the finger guard doesn't allow the blade to fit flush against the cutting board and this really pisses me off.
On to the demonstration .
Stock 16 cutting a mushroom ..
As you can see, it didn't get all the way thru. I would have had to slide the knife back instead of just doing the roll cut like I did...
Now the mod in action .
No problem with that mushroom.
Or this onion ..
Or this ..
And who just doesn't love this?
Such a bad little knife....
Well thats it for this one. I think she's done, for now at least. Maybe some nice wood scales later on but I'm very pleased with how things turned out.
I learned so much with this project. First attempt at file work and it wasn't so bad. She's not perfect, but she's got a lot of character!!!
Can't wait to try some more file work. It really was a blast.
I am gonna make a nice leather sheath for this baby and I might do a thread on the process.
I'm just itching to start my next project. Have a few ideas and I have big plans for a Bk9!!! Really big!!!
And on a side note: It seems like I got my sisters boyfriend hooked on Beckers too!
He saw the bk16 I gave my sister for christmas and thought it was one of the coolest knife he had ever seen. Until he looked online and saw the BK9! So I told him to come over and check out my collection. He ended up ordering a BK2 and a BK5 from Tomars. We have some mods planned for both of them as well.
He will probably get the whole collection eventually.
I hope you all enjoyed this work in progress and got something out of it!
I've done a few mods to her already but she still has plenty of potential for more modding!!
Dug my old set of diamond files from about 12 years ago out and got to work. They were just some cheap harbor freight ones I think.
And after filing this tempered steel, I need a new set. No joke. They all wore out now. haha. Gonna invest in some good ones to do the bottom side of the tang.
Here she is on her way to awesomeness!!
Hours later........
I then soaked her in some pcb enchant to try and darken her up a little.
Then I sanded and polished the tang. There are still a couple of grind marks I did not get out yet. When I do the underside I will clean her up all the way.
I ended up putting a little paint in the groves to make the file work stand out more.
Still have a few more things to do to her before she is complete but I wanted to share what I have done so far.
I will update and post more pics as I get more finished.
I have ka-bar micarta on the way and it should be here any day now. Might do something special with that as well, don't know yet?
She's not perfect, but for a first try I think it looks ok. I learned a lot thru this process and cant wait to do another one.
Hope y'all enjoy.
UPDATE STARTS HERE!
So my new needle files came in a few weeks ago and I've finished the file work on the underside of the tang.
I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of the final product until yesterday.
I'm gonna post as much of the process as I can and try to explain all the mods that I've done to this sixteen..
Let's get started .
So I started filing the underside. I must say that since I got a handle for the files that it was a lot easier. I would recommend spending the 5 bucks it cost for a nice handle if your gonna do any file work with needle files. I usually just use the file by itself or put tape on the handle. Way easier and more controlled with the handle.
Here are a few pics of under the tang ..
Here she is with the main pattern complete
Now I just have to fill in the rest .
Ok, now thats all done, time to sand this baby down
And more sanding ..
I started with like 380 or something and worked up to like 2000. Then used some Micro mesh I had.
I wrapped the sand paper in a little foam pad so it could have a little give.
Here is a pic of the kabar micarta handles. only thing done to them is that I have previously dyed them..
See how they are a little bigger than the tang (since I did remove a tiny amount of metal) and that they are somewhat rough and blocky?
Now I've sanded the handles down to fit more flush and I broke all the sharp edges on the micarta .
The handle feels so much better in the hand now.
I would suggest that anyone with stock micarta take a little bit of sandpaper and just lightly run it over the edges of the micarta.
Such a big difference
Re-dye and dry time .
I re-dyed them and then once dry I washed and cleaned up.
Now Its time to re-etch the blade since I did some mods to the blade itself.
All I did was apply a little cold gun blue to a few spots and put it in a jar of household bleach.
If you attempt this at home, do not leave unattended for long because the stuff works fast and eats metal quick and deep.
Once done I cleaned up the blade.
I wanted to fill in the grooves from the file work to make it darker to stand out more.
I primed it
Then tried some cheap car spray paint out .
And I used a set of the old scales to do this.
After all that
Alright, now she's all complete.
Mods so far on this blade are:
1- Stripping of the factory paint.
2- Etching with gun blue and bleach.
3- File work done on entire tang.
4- I did sharpen a spot on the back of the spine to use my fire steel and it works great.
5- New micarta handle scales that have been sanded to fit flush, smoothed out all the sharp edges, and have been dyed black.
6- And I modded the blade where it meets the handle. I did not want a full choil so I came up with something else.
I filed down the sharp part where the blade meets the tang. I also filed down the hand guard thing. ( I will explain and show why I did this later on)
I then polished it at that area on the knife so it feels like a full choil even tho I didn't really lose any cutting area.
Now for the Picture Show!! haha
Here she is just looking all sexy in that mossy grass ...
Now some pics of the file work
I did a little something to dress up the pommel...
Here is how my choil works.
off...
on .
in use .
Its just that simple.. Haha.
But really, I am so surprised at how good it feels when your finger is on there. Since I polished up all the parts that contact your flesh, nothing digs in at all.
I was worried that I was making a huge mistake when I was actually filing away metal but I am overjoyed with the results.
This is a comparison of this one next to two stock 16's .
If you notice, I almost didn't lose any cutting edge at all.
This is saber next to saber ..
Now if your asking yourself why in world would this guy get rid of the finger guard, Well I'll show ya
I like to use my knife for all sorts of tasks. So that means since I cook a lot, I like to use my Beckers in the kitchen.
The problem is the finger guard doesn't allow the blade to fit flush against the cutting board and this really pisses me off.
On to the demonstration .
Stock 16 cutting a mushroom ..
As you can see, it didn't get all the way thru. I would have had to slide the knife back instead of just doing the roll cut like I did...
Now the mod in action .
No problem with that mushroom.
Or this onion ..
Or this ..
And who just doesn't love this?
Such a bad little knife....
Well thats it for this one. I think she's done, for now at least. Maybe some nice wood scales later on but I'm very pleased with how things turned out.
I learned so much with this project. First attempt at file work and it wasn't so bad. She's not perfect, but she's got a lot of character!!!
Can't wait to try some more file work. It really was a blast.
I am gonna make a nice leather sheath for this baby and I might do a thread on the process.
I'm just itching to start my next project. Have a few ideas and I have big plans for a Bk9!!! Really big!!!
And on a side note: It seems like I got my sisters boyfriend hooked on Beckers too!
He saw the bk16 I gave my sister for christmas and thought it was one of the coolest knife he had ever seen. Until he looked online and saw the BK9! So I told him to come over and check out my collection. He ended up ordering a BK2 and a BK5 from Tomars. We have some mods planned for both of them as well.
He will probably get the whole collection eventually.
I hope you all enjoyed this work in progress and got something out of it!
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