Gentrified Sifu pic

Nice!
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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
Looks cool! It took me some time to see what you have done.
BTY is this a Rekat-catalog I see in the background? Do you have an idea where to get one? TIA
Greetings
red
 

I got that REKAT catalog from them at the Blade Show West. You can probably get one by contacting them. The one in the image is obselete though, it doesn't have the Sifu in it. Actually their webpage is very similar to the catalog you can probably just print that out.
As for the Sifu itself, I removed the finger grooves, softened the "lump" on the blade, polished all the screw heads and chamfered all the sharp handle edges (including the inside of the liners and pocket clip). It took about 2.5hrs.
 
WOW! That looks fantastic! I am totally amazed!

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 
Looks soooo good! Actually this could now be more of a "decent folks" knife than a "tactical assault knife". Still big though, just "nicer".
 
Looks almost…civilized.
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James Segura
San Francisco, CA
 
Maybe I have not seen many knife art pics or am not photogenically inclined but the pic on the top left corner just RULES!! I might just need to get some of that warehouse sheet metal plate flooring thingee. I guess I can get that in a builder's empooorium or somehting? Hardware store? It woudl make a cool backing for my knife display!!! RULES!

I don't visit the REKAT forum but I thinkttheir knives would feel better smoothed.. I have many light gashes from my REKATS.


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<A HREF="http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~soo/balisong/balisong.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~soo/balisong/balisong.html
</A> If you play with love you will be heartbroken; if you play with knives you will [bleed]


 

I used a burr king belt grinder w/8" contact wheel to remove the finger grooves starting w/50 grit to 120 and finishing by hand sanding to 400 (about 40min). I probably should've used a 5" wheel but was too lazy to change the set up. I left the knife intact but disassembled it afterwards inorder to clean the accumulated grit out. Its probably better to at least remove the blade but I didn't want to take the thing apart more than really necessary. Plus I want to grind the blade-spine "lump" down a bit too.

Any sort of grinder will probably do although cleaning the rough edges up afterwards might be harder or easier depending on what you use. You have to go slow or the G10 will burn and it burns well beyond the grind.
The job probably could've been done on a milling machine too but setting up a jig would've taken more time and you'd have to do the handle "curve" on the grinder anyway.

A dremel w/the right bits might work but it'll take a lot longer and you'll either have to clamp the knife or the dremel or both in something to minimize "skips." Or instead of grinding, use dremel "cut-off" discs to roughly remove the finger grooves then finish up by hand w/files and sand paper. In either case its a long proposition time wise.

In order to chamfer or radius the inside of the liners (they're very sharp after grinding the grooves off) use the dremel and a slightly-larger-than-the-space-between-the- handles round grinding bit. Just run the dremel along the inside of the liners and then clean up w/sandpaper.

Be sure to keep the handles intact or you might end up w/an uneven job. Or for any method, remove everything between the handles (including the blade) and bolt the two halves (both sides w/G10 and liners)back together securely w/temporary screws then work from there. Actually thats probably how I should've done it. Be sure to wear a dust mask, cause that G10 isn't healthy to inhale.
 

Yeah I like diamond plate too. In fact I like it so much that the image in the upper left is taken on my dinning room table (which was another project of mine....it involved a lot more swearing though).
Also in that image the knife isn't completely finished yet. I had to take the shot before finishing cause I only had the 2nd untouched Sifu for a short time.
 
Where exactly did you get that diamond plate, btw? I've been looking everywhere for some, and for the rubberized round dot version as well, and have turned up frustrated each time.... enquiring minds want to know!

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here
 

I believe diamond plate can be found at metal/steel surplus type stores. If you have an industrial (aerospace, shipyard, etc) area around you, your odds are probably better at finding the type of place.
 
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