Full height convex BK-4 mod

J W Bensinger

J W Bensinger

Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
2,228
This is my first real modification-I rehandled and polished my 5 but that was more spiffing than modding.
I wanted to see how a full height convexed BK-4 would run, and the one that came home from Northeast with me was just the motivation. Started out just convexing and polishing, and dropping the point a bit:

Then added a pot lifter and a little bit of an indexing point for my left hand for drawknife work (it also provides an LZ for batonning)- finished up wit a ferric chloride etch, and since I'd ground off the model designation I put it back in runes using a nailpolish resist (since it looks like the forged in runes on old swords, and yes I am a wicked nerd sometimes).

I left the full spine thickness all the way out, and the chopping section is a little steeper convex. The neck/drawknife section is almost a zero edge. Hope y'all like it. New grips will have towait 'til after BLADE show...
 
It's not a huge difference chopping big stuff-I did manage to keep the point of percussion in about the same place. Limbing, on the other hand...almost no resistance. I was flicking little 1" sections off of a 1"ish spruce limb that came down near the shop.
 
granitestateofmind said:
Damn, you work fast! That looks very sweet. I like the rounded off drop, too.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I had some time waiting for forgings to cool off, and I embuggered the coating using it at the family Mother's day cookout at Jackies-there were no grilling tools and I forgot mine. (Hence removal of non-heat resistant coating and the pot/grill lifter).
The Bader makes it all go a lot faster.
 
Holy crap you do work fast! One of those in the same thickness as the Cincy Machax, with no swedges..... *drool*
 
That is slick! I like it a lot. :thumbup:
I like how you dropped down to the point. It gives it a nice sleek look.
 
A very nice job...... When I used to do all the sharpening, I always gave the blade an angle differential from quite slicy at the heel to choppy at the point........ Lovely work......

Ethan
 
Ethan Becker said:
A very nice job...... When I used to do all the sharpening, I always gave the blade an angle differential from quite slicy at the heel to choppy at the point........ Lovely work......

Ethan
Click to expand...

Thank you sir!
Did you ever find the heel section getting beat up from batoning? I worried about that a little after the fact (I'm not likely to baton that far back, but it did occur to me.)
 
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