G10 Dying Without Disassembly?

VermontEdge · Oct 26, 2015

Hey all,
Would really like to dye my Camo/Satin PM2 scales black, but I really don't want to have to take it apart. Is there any way to just dip the handle into dye with the blade open?

TravisH · Oct 27, 2015

Yeah sure. Blade opened or closed.

Just open the blade 90° and use the it as a 'handle' for dipping. Yeah, kinda hard to do with a PM2 though.

For safety, if working with an opened blade, you could tape it up with some blue painters tape.

Just rinse well and dry thoroughly afterwards. Then re-oil.

uxo2 · Oct 27, 2015

Are you lacking the tools to do the job?

aquaman67 · Oct 28, 2015

I didn't take my Benchmade 300 apart when I dyed it.

Here's the process I used.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...you-the-orange(ish)-Benchmade-300SSN-Rit-Dyed

It hasn't faded and still looks good.

spketch · Oct 28, 2015

I recieved a Spyderco that had been dyed without disassembly a while back. Dye job turned out fine, but when I took it apart all the internal were covered in rust.

If you really want to dye it without disassembling, be sure to flush it well with wd40 after.

bdmicarta · Oct 28, 2015

I did the RIT dye treatment on my digicamo PM2. I soaked it and it looked great when I pulled it out, but all the color rinsed off. I soaked it again for longer and had the same result. I read that you have to boil the dye so then I did that. I boiled the entire knife for about 15 minutes. The dye job worked and stayed, the rest of the knife seemed unaffected. Of course YMMV.

VermontEdge · Oct 29, 2015

uxo2 said:
Are you lacking the tools to do the job?

No I totally have the tools. My hesitations are:
1) Voiding the warranty (although boiling a knife probably does that anyway, huh?) and
2) My PM2 is insanely perfect. So smooth without a hint of bladeplay. I've never messed around with any of the screws or anything. Once I start tinkering with a pivot screw, I can't stop. In fact, I usually need to loctite my pivot screws into their sweet spot just to prevent myself from making tiny little adjustments every day. I drive myself crazy

I was hoping to be able to leave it with its original perfection.

TravisH · Oct 29, 2015

VermontEdge said:
My hesitations are:
1) Voiding the warranty (although boiling a knife probably does that anyway, huh?)

Duh, only if you told them. But then, it's not like they wouldn't notice the dye job, eh?

WARNING! Be VERY careful when boiling over a heat source to never let the knife touch the container itself! Though boiling water will not exeed 212°, which will not endanger the steel's heat treatment, the bottom of the container could easily exceed temperatures that would.

bdmicarta · Oct 30, 2015

uxo2 said:
Are you lacking the tools to do the job?

I don't know the odds, but I read about a lot of screws that are damaged when people try to mess with them. There's the old saying "if it's not broke don't fix it", meaning leave well enough alone and don't mess with it. My digicam PM2 came out of the boiling dye just fine. I still carry it and it works very well. I did mine as an experiment and it was reasonably successful. If a person preferred to disassemble theirs then that's their right and IMO they are taking a different risk by doing it. Now if a person is lucky enough to get the upcoming M4/Jade version and wants to change the color, I would guess that the M4 blade would not like the hot dye very well.