Gettin' Mods Done

S

sketchbag

Banned
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Oct 1, 2007
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915
Who would one talk to about getting some work done in a reasonable amount of time and for a fair price? I have a feeling sending it back to Busse will take a long time and cost a fortune. I'm thinking maybe Justin Gingrich, Ban, BRKT, or Dan Koster (maybe, he seems really busy).

I want to have the pommel of my SAR5 shortened, the tang skeletonized and possibly tapered (depending on the cost of that + refitting the handles), and a mirror polish.

Anyone have a rough ballpark idea of how much that work might cost?
 
Agreed. Ban is the premier third party source for Busse mods. Either talk to him or the custom shop. I've personally never bothered with the latter.
 
sketchbag said:
Who would one talk to about getting some work done in a reasonable amount of time and for a fair price? I have a feeling sending it back to Busse will take a long time and cost a fortune. I'm thinking maybe Justin Gingrich, Ban, BRKT, or Dan Koster (maybe, he seems really busy).

I want to have the pommel of my SAR5 shortened, the tang skeletonized and possibly tapered (depending on the cost of that + refitting the handles), and a mirror polish.

Anyone have a rough ballpark idea of how much that work might cost?
Click to expand...

I don`t think even Ban can cut into the handle to skeletonize it unless he uses some type of cutting disc.
 
I have a SAR5 and I love it but it does have a heavy damn handle. It would be perfect if it were a comp model. I think Ban would do an amazing job.

If I were going to skeletonize the handle I would try a cutting disk on a dremel although it would be a brutal amount of work. Maybe a small die grinder would be small enough but I think it would have to be dremel

The polish would be simple and look great as well it would work as a signal mirror so fit in with the search and rescue.

Some proof of Ban's greatness.


I have got obsessed by polished INFI recently so if you follow the link on the photo there is more.
 
A carbide drill bit would likely work for lightening the handle.

I would guess that for a shortening of the handle, the polish job, and skeletonizing or tapering the handle will run you some where in the neighborhood of $200-$300 (depending on who you get to do it. Ban quoted me a $100 price for taking the curve out of an SS, and shortening the blade by an inch, which I thought was quite reasonable for working on a hardened knife, much more wear and tear on equipment, and have to be much more careful about the heat level so the HT and Temper are not affected).

Ban responds quickly with a price (normally) but I do know he is making his own custom knives right now, and his schedule is likely much busier right now. (last month I believe his turn around time quoted to me was 1.5 to 2 months, but he guessed longer after he started making his own custom knives).

You could try one of the custom makers on here (Bill Siegle occasionally customizes Busse, and sometimes posts them for sale here).
 
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I don't think Ban has ever done a full mirror polish, my Ban'd Cutter in the pictures isn't polished except for the edge but his satin finish is real nice.

The SAR5 is handle heavy but the handle is also pretty big around. Ban modified one with finger grooves that narrowed the handle a bit. It made the knife more comfortable for me (largish palms, short fingers) and changed the balance quite a bit. I think that might have had a tapered tang also.

One of these days I'm going to get him to work on my SAR5's.
 
I talked to Ban recently, and he was up to a 3 or 4 month turnaround. Still very worthwhile, and better than the "two weeks" you'll get from the custom shop imho.
 
That was for a hot-rod AK...which is a lot of work. So it might be shorter for something that isn't so labor intensive.
 
Ban's The Man 4 completed waiting on 2 more .
DSCN2204.jpg
 
sketchbag said:
Who would one talk to about getting some work done in a reasonable amount of time and for a fair price? I have a feeling sending it back to Busse will take a long time and cost a fortune. I'm thinking maybe Justin Gingrich, Ban, BRKT, or Dan Koster (maybe, he seems really busy).

I want to have the pommel of my SAR5 shortened, the tang skeletonized and possibly tapered (depending on the cost of that + refitting the handles), and a mirror polish.

Anyone have a rough ballpark idea of how much that work might cost?
Click to expand...

Not that anyone mentioned so far will be a disappointment, but you can also talk to Bill Siegle or Tom Krein or even Mike Stewart of BRKT. All have experience modifying Busse knives in one way or another.
 
on_the_edge said:
Not that anyone mentioned so far will be a disappointment, but you can also talk to Bill Siegle or Tom Krein or even Mike Stewart of BRKT. All have experience modifying Busse knives in one way or another.
Click to expand...

Siegle is good, but he doesn't do any removal of the handles
 
I'm gonna do what I can first and save some dough, starting with the edge. Just did this by hand last night, aint nothing like a full convexed "zero edge".
Dont have my strop in town, so I'll finish polishing 'er up when I go back to work.

CIMG1871.jpg
 
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