The friendly USPS delivered my BK-7 this week! I said in a previous post that I wasnt totally happy with the BK-2 as a chopper and wanted to try out a longer blade for wood processing chores in camp and on the trail. Here is the BK7 before I start to strip the epoxy coating. This will be the first and last pic of it as it came from Ka Bar:
Now I am stripping it using StripX brand paint stripper. I coated it heavily and let it sit in the hot sun for about 30 minutes. I tested the coating to see if it was loose and at that point, it came off easily using an old chisel to peel off the epoxy.
Once the blade was clear of the epoxy. I took it in the house, and scrubbed it with clorox and a scotch brite pad. Then I dried it off and gave it a liberal coat of oil and applied new grips. I think patinas look cool, but I like my blades plain without the factory coating so this is probably as far I will go in terms of finish.
Here she is with a set of micarta grips that I dyed using black Rit liquid dye. A sharp observer may note that I actually swiped them off my BK2 from the first picture, which is correct (you get a free cookie!)! However there is a new set of micarta grips w stainless hardware inbound from Tomars, and I will dye those and mount them on the BK-2 as soon as they arrive. A kydex sheath with firesteel and altoids pouch mounting is next on the plan and then I will add a BK-16 to the family!
