- Joined
- Jul 16, 2012
- Messages
- 13
I don't have a lot of knives (compared to some of you guys), so deciding to mod one of my more expensive knives was a bit intimidating. I was tired of having a great knife that couldn't throw sparks, so I figured it was worth a shot so I didn't have to carry two blades into the woods for short hikes. There were a lot of helpful posts on BF, so I referenced multiple successful stripping threads before jumping in. So, thanks in advance to everyone who posted some "how to's" with photos.
I used some Zip Strip which worked great...I was able to scrape the coating off within 3-5 minutes. Used a wire brush with a metal scraper on the tip. For the edges of the tang, I used some q-tips because, as suggested, I wanted to leave most of the coating under the scales.
The reason I didn't do the whole thing first was because I had 30 mins to kill before a meeting and I had to get started!
This was after the first pass and some rough sand paper.
Then I got home and finished up the rest of the tang/spine. Used 60-250 grit sand paper and some 0000 wool to wrap it up before oiling it.
I had one more image of the whole knife but I was only allowed five photos
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the result. I'm trying to figure out if I still need to do more to square the spine...just use a file for that? I'm happy to be able to carry this on my pack with a fire steel soon..thanks again for all the tips. I think I'll let the blade develop it's own character...in other words, I don't think I'll be forcing a patina or bluing...unless somebody can show me an example and convince me otherwise.
Cheers.
I used some Zip Strip which worked great...I was able to scrape the coating off within 3-5 minutes. Used a wire brush with a metal scraper on the tip. For the edges of the tang, I used some q-tips because, as suggested, I wanted to leave most of the coating under the scales.
The reason I didn't do the whole thing first was because I had 30 mins to kill before a meeting and I had to get started!
This was after the first pass and some rough sand paper.
Then I got home and finished up the rest of the tang/spine. Used 60-250 grit sand paper and some 0000 wool to wrap it up before oiling it.
I had one more image of the whole knife but I was only allowed five photos
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the result. I'm trying to figure out if I still need to do more to square the spine...just use a file for that? I'm happy to be able to carry this on my pack with a fire steel soon..thanks again for all the tips. I think I'll let the blade develop it's own character...in other words, I don't think I'll be forcing a patina or bluing...unless somebody can show me an example and convince me otherwise.
Cheers.
