Gator Mods

[Pete1977]

I just picked up a gerber gator, and I want to drill a spyderhole into the blade. I think I have the right position to start the hole. What I would like to know is how difficult would actually drilling the hole be. The steel was described as "surgical stainless" I'm assuming something like 420J2.

also, would drilling the hole compromise the blade's strength, if it was not intended to have a hole in the first place?

Peter

 

[Daniel Moore]

Forget that you're drilling into 420'ish steel...you're trying to drill into tempered steel. It might be pretty hard.

 

[STR]

If you attempt to drill that hole with anything less than a carbide drill you will just heat up and ruin the drill and probably the temper of the blade also as well as burn mark it. In fact you are most likely going to burn mark it even with a carbide. The bigger the diameter of the drill the more heat it produces.

When I deal with hardened steel I always drill in steps. Start out with a 1/8 carbide, then a 3/16, then 5/64 and so on until you get it the size you want. Of course the immediate set back to all this is the cost of the drills. By the time you buy all those you could just buy a Spyderco easy.

STR

 

[Pete1977]

thanks fellows!

I decided against it after a little bit of thought, and your posts helped me along.

Pete