Handle work

grogimus

grogimus

Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
2,375
I may have missed it but with the Custom Shop closed is anybody doing some good rehandling work nowadays?

I scored an excellent HOG MUK LE from Cobalt Cobalt and it is an exceptionally well built knife but I'm not in love with the scales. It fits my hand just fine but it does so with height and flat scales, I'd prefer it be a less tall handle with more contouring of the scales. I think it would need to have some steel removed to accomplish this.

First world problems, right? I can certainly "deal" with it as is but it's pretty close to being a perfect knife for me, I'd like to take it the rest of the way. I'm thinking of an upscaled version of the Ergo Mini MUK from the first iteration of OP2W.

I've made a few of my own knives but considering how much I like this one I really don't want to risk screwing it up. I have a handle work guy in mind but I thought it worth floating out there, I'm sure I'm not the only one wanting something similar.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.
 
Nice customized handles would work for you. I like the flatness of the factory handles but I think most prefer a fatter handle that is more contoured. At the end of the day it is your knife and you can do with it what you want. Value is not an issue in a keeper. I had this done to my ASHBM
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By the way, that MUK I sent you is a frieken razor. It may be one of the sharpest factory knives I have ever had. And I think it is the blade geometry more than anything else.
 
grogimus said:
I have a handle work guy in mind but I thought it worth floating out there, I'm sure I'm not the only one wanting something similar.
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Same guy I have in mind as well I bet. I'm taking it you're thinking of doing something other than wood with this one then Dan? I'm not sure who to recommend for the synthetics, but I can see why you'd want it just right since you like it so well.
 
Cobalt said:
Nice customized handles would work for you. I like the flatness of the factory handles but I think most prefer a fatter handle that is more contoured. At the end of the day it is your knife and you can do with it what you want. Value is not an issue in a keeper. I had this done to my ASHBM
cWRJZPC.jpg


By the way, that MUK I sent you is a frieken razor. It may be one of the sharpest factory knives I have ever had. And I think it is the blade geometry more than anything else.
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The edge is no joke on this thing, I'm waiting for the inevitable bite from it. I like the handles as is but I think with the scales shortened and contoured it'll be a "pass down to the nephews" knife.

Hard Knocks said:
Same guy I have in mind as well I bet. I'm taking it you're thinking of doing something other than wood with this one then Dan? I'm not sure who to recommend for the synthetics, but I can see why you'd want it just right since you like it so well.
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Yep, I'm sure we're both thinking the same guy. Ideally I think I'd like a burlap micarta, probably something from Shadetree. I'm not completely opposed to wood scales, some koa or ironwood would look pretty slick on it.
 
Blackwood might be cool on that muk as well. Ya you can probably cover the wood route easy enough. Wish I could be more help. If you do find someone that is willing to try it in the micartas I'd be very interested in how things turn out for you. There's got to be someone out there.
 
You certainly have options. You might try spacing them out to be a little thicker with liners or a thicker set of new handles that are radiused from the thickest part in the center down to the spine for a fuller/rounder grip first before you start removing metal from the spine. Handle material is a lot easier to replace or change where spine metal once gone is gone forever. So if you thicken it up and like it, you are all set, or if not then you can still work on the spine until you get it where you like.

These handles made the grip almost a 1/4" thicker and provided a much better feel in the hand.
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The BOSS Street liners added about .13" to the grip thickness without giving up the factory handle color or machined texture.
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I have always had my eye on that knife, but the handle shape has always shied me away...

It shouldn't be hard to mod minus the flaring of the tubes, since I don't have a set of flare dies and the bearings that I thought might fit, do not...

That still leaves 1/4" (or smaller) tubes, rod or mosaic pins for slab securing.
 
Tim, would it be possible to do that with a Res-C handled Busse?
Btw, OUTSTANDING job!
 
MacLaren1 said:
Tim, would it be possible to do that with a Res-C handled Busse?
Btw, OUTSTANDING job!
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Which part?
Scratch removal and/or refinish? Yes, here is a BB13 CG that I received already stripped/etched that I took off the decarb & finished my way.
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Completely new handles on a Res-C stick tang? Probably, but I have not yet tried it. The challenge would be securing the front half of the new handle properly . I have often pondered how just the right shape of the new handle might make it possible to do, but I like Res-C too much to bother with it on my own blades on top of limited free time.

Liners? Won't work with Res-C as it's hot molded to size & shape completely around a specific tang thickness. This is why you only need one fastener at the end to hold the entire one piece sleeve on the tang.

And, thank you! :)
 
Anybody have the custom shop do a standard rehandle job? Nothing exotic. I have one with safety orange that I'd like to have switched to black canvas. I know they aren't taking orders. Just curious what something like that would cost whenever they open the doors back up.
 
clampdaddy said:
Anybody have the custom shop do a standard rehandle job? Nothing exotic. I have one with safety orange that I'd like to have switched to black canvas. I know they aren't taking orders. Just curious what something like that would cost whenever they open the doors back up.
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This is the closest to a straight answer I could give you on that as my experience was not really a normal transaction. In 2010 I sent in two knives with TAC handles, one snakeskin & one black canvas with $100 bill in the box. The snakeskin was swapped from one to the other, new Bruiser G10 was installed on the second knife and the black canvas scales stayed at the custom shop which seemed to be sufficient to get the deal done. With the Custom Shop closed, it is very hard to know what it would be. :confused: Nobody ever told me what any of that was supposed to cost in an itemized bill, but I was so happy regardless that I not rock the boat to find out. ;) I suspect it would be more now as materials cost has gone up and so have end user prices on knives, especially with handle upgrades. Heck, in the good old days, Competition Finish was a free option. :eek::cool:

In the mean time, if you want factory scales you could buy a black canvas knife of the same model and either sell the other one or swap the handles if they match without too much variance in tolerances. If the tolerances are off by too much the spine would have to be worked on to make everything flush which would remove any existing coating. Or just patiently wait or the possibility of a CS reopening! :)
 
AZTimT said:
This is the closest to a straight answer I could give you on that as my experience was not really a normal transaction. In 2010 I sent in two knives with TAC handles, one snakeskin & one black canvas with $100 bill in the box. The snakeskin was swapped from one to the other, new Bruiser G10 was installed on the second knife and the black canvas scales stayed at the custom shop which seemed to be sufficient to get the deal done. With the Custom Shop closed, it is very hard to know what it would be. :confused: Nobody ever told me what any of that was supposed to cost in an itemized bill, but I was so happy regardless that I not rock the boat to find out. ;) I suspect it would be more now as materials cost has gone up and so have end user prices on knives, especially with handle upgrades. Heck, in the good old days, Competition Finish was a free option. :eek::cool:

In the mean time, if you want factory scales you could buy a black canvas knife of the same model and either sell the other one or swap the handles if they match without too much variance in tolerances. If the tolerances are off by too much the spine would have to be worked on to make everything flush which would remove any existing coating. Or just patiently wait or the possibility of a CS reopening! :)
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Thanks. I have considered buying one that is already in black canvas but the blade in question is an ASH2 that I stripped and I am not confident in my chances that the next one would look as nice under the coating as this one. And I'm in no hurry. Still need to decide if I want a regular pattern or smooth
 
grogimus said:
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I'm pretty fickle when it comes to my taste in knives but for me this is a knife for life. Thanks for letting this one go Cobalt Cobalt . Can't wait to get more use on this one and get a nice sheath made.
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I like the handle. The MUK LE is by far the sharpest Busse knife out of the box, I have ever owned. Nothing comes close.
 
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