The time came to just do it. It's a great knife, but the whole "almost as heavy as the steel version" kept eating at me.
The weight loss is amazing, even with the retained spacer being a big chunk of metal. I don't have a scale, but balancing the liners vs. the new knife on a lever it is almost 40% less. That would make it about 2.5 ounces, vs. the new FRN version at 2.7. It's flatter too, of course, making it a very nice knife to carry loose in a pocket.
The holes in the G10 don't fit as perfectly as the liners. The lock bar shows the most, sticking out more than before:
This was present when I did a test assembly before modifying any screws, so unfortunately it probably won't do any good to try another one.
It's also visible where the blade meets the handle...
...but the overall appearance is OK (the blade doesn't look crooked):
I had to cut down all screws so they would fit in all the way, including the female halves of the lock bar pivot and the blade pivot.
The biggest problem is the male half of the blade pivot is not threaded all the way to the head of the screw, so it doesn't screw all the way in even if the female half is cut down to just barely reach the countersunk level in the slab. This is not a problem with the liners in place, but with only the G10 between the blade/washers and the screw head, the male half doesn't screw in far enough to squeeze the handle together.
One solution is to just grind down the female half until it doesn't reach through the opposing G10 slab and leaves room so the pivot can tighten enough, which works but makes assembly tricky and seems a little "ghetto." The other option is to grind down the threads inside the female half to give the non-threaded portion of the male half (only about 1mm) room to go in, while still leaving enough of the female half to reach across to the opposing handle slab.
I went for option 1 because I was afraid of damaging the threads in the female half and not being able to screw it in at all. If I decide I like carrying it, I might get another one and try doing it the "right" way.
The weight loss is amazing, even with the retained spacer being a big chunk of metal. I don't have a scale, but balancing the liners vs. the new knife on a lever it is almost 40% less. That would make it about 2.5 ounces, vs. the new FRN version at 2.7. It's flatter too, of course, making it a very nice knife to carry loose in a pocket.
The holes in the G10 don't fit as perfectly as the liners. The lock bar shows the most, sticking out more than before:
This was present when I did a test assembly before modifying any screws, so unfortunately it probably won't do any good to try another one.
It's also visible where the blade meets the handle...
...but the overall appearance is OK (the blade doesn't look crooked):
I had to cut down all screws so they would fit in all the way, including the female halves of the lock bar pivot and the blade pivot.
The biggest problem is the male half of the blade pivot is not threaded all the way to the head of the screw, so it doesn't screw all the way in even if the female half is cut down to just barely reach the countersunk level in the slab. This is not a problem with the liners in place, but with only the G10 between the blade/washers and the screw head, the male half doesn't screw in far enough to squeeze the handle together.
One solution is to just grind down the female half until it doesn't reach through the opposing G10 slab and leaves room so the pivot can tighten enough, which works but makes assembly tricky and seems a little "ghetto." The other option is to grind down the threads inside the female half to give the non-threaded portion of the male half (only about 1mm) room to go in, while still leaving enough of the female half to reach across to the opposing handle slab.
I went for option 1 because I was afraid of damaging the threads in the female half and not being able to screw it in at all. If I decide I like carrying it, I might get another one and try doing it the "right" way.
