has anyone stripped their Milganzaa's yet ??

mckrob

mckrob

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Jan 15, 2007
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Has anyone stripped their Milganzaa AD/MrS' yes ? If so please post some photos! I may give it a try on one or both of my desert olive set when I get my hands on them in a couple of weeks.
 
Nope, but my MMS is sittin' here eyeballin' me. I think it knows that being naked is inevitable.
 
I'm going to have to strip one for sure, then take it down to a satin finish (no dimples!)

I sure wish there was a way to look at them with their coating still on and pick which one is the prettiest underneath...

I think I might even remove the scales to really be able to clean up the whole knife. Never done that before --- does anyone know what size drill bit to use?
 
xaman said:
I'm going to have to strip one for sure, then take it down to a satin finish (no dimples!)

I sure wish there was a way to look at them with their coating still on and pick which one is the prettiest underneath...

I think I might even remove the scales to really be able to clean up the whole knife. Never done that before --- does anyone know what size drill bit to use?
Click to expand...


I believe its a 1/4" bit... I'm about to remove the slabs on my stripped FFBM, and I was going to start at 3'16" and work my way up until it pops the flared part off.

After I try it on the FFBM, I'll probably strip a muddy meaner. :D

.
 
(1) I heard 1/4 as well to drill out the tube fasteners. You could always call/email Garth.

(2) I am sure I'll be strippin' mine real soon after some heavy use first of course. ;)

(3) xaman: How are you going to remove the dimples? I have always been wary of removing them other than by hand which is slow and tedious. I do not want to screw the warranty.
 
Tyrkon,

I'm thinking that I'll do it all by hand (sanding block). It's a small enough blade that it should be do-able... It'll just take a lot of time.
 
Use a 1/4" drill bit to remove the tube fasteners. I have done it more than a few times already. Hand sanding the AD or MS is very doable but still tedious. How much work ahead depends on how bad the pits are once the coating is removed. I have stripped a busse with large and deep scratches and it was a real pain in the rear to remove. But I have also stripped one where the finish looked like it had been bead blasted (not dimples). That one was much easier. So I guess it is a luck of the draw.

Regarding the INFI dimples, I no longer think they are a result of the heat treat process. I noticed that they only appear on the flats of the blade and never on the bevels. This leads me to believe that the steel came that way from the mill and were never removed during the blade manufacturing process.
 
Tyrkon,

Removing the dimples should not void your warranty. I personally think that the Busse warranty is much stouter than that.

Smaller blades like the AD or MS should not be too bad to put a satin finish on. Just make sure you have lots of 60 or 80 3M Sandblaster paper. I like the 3MSandblaster paper bc they are less likely to clog.

Just lay the whole sheet on a flat service and sand away on the flats. You can hit the primary bevels by using the edge of your flat service.The hardest part is removing the dimples from the flats. Go from 80, 150, 320, then 600.

Goodluck!
 
if the dimples you folks are talking about are the pitts found when the coating is removed...bring your lunch....i have done a couple in high polish and its a fuckin job and a half...im workin on my third one now.

IMO if you want a decent satin or HP ...you must remove the handles so you can get the area's close to the handle edges...and removing the pitts requires removing a fair amount of material...and infi is tough stuff...much like working with Titanium (imo)

if you want to leave the handles on and strip it...i would say to just leave the coating and use the knife or you wont be able to get the pitts out.
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bigmark408 said:
if the dimples you folks are talking about are the pitts found when the coating is removed...bring your lunch....i have done a couple in high polish and its a fuckin job and a half...im workin on my third one now.

IMO if you want a decent satin or HP ...you must remove the handles so you can get the area's close to the handle edges...and removing the pitts requires removing a fair amount of material...and infi is tough stuff...much like working with Titanium
Click to expand...

hahahaha... Removing them dimples by hand is a real biaatch alright! I am also right there with you about removing the handles to be able to get the job done right.
 
I have a question and a comment.

Question: How do they get that *beige* color on the LE's from the shop? My FBM LE has a kind of beigeish finish on it, but my strippers go from dull to shiney as I polish on them. There's not a beige stage, right? So how do they do it?

Comment: I got my dimples off with one of those plastic scotch-brite attachments for my drill in less than 5 minutes. There's a hard plastic kind, and a soft bristley kind. I got both, and had at the dimples with the composite platic one and they vanishes quick (sparks were flying:eek: ). Then switch to the softer one to remove the circular cuts on the surface. Then go to a 120 or higher grit. It'll save tons of time by getting a good start on those dimple. Tyrkson gave me a good suggestion to keep a bin of water handy to cool down the steel when it heats up to the touch. You don't want the blade getting too hot, but the power tools heat them up quick. The water dunk quickens the down time good.
 
hmmmm....beige? Now that you mentioned it I do notice that that my FBMLE has a hint of golden straw color to it. I am not sure how it got there but I would guess that it came from some sort of buffing compound that is embedded into the steel. But what the heck do I know.

The dimples on your INFI is either very shallow or that wheel attachment of yours very abrasive. It took more than 10 passess on my 2X72 belt grinder using a high quality 60grit belt to remove the dimple and pits on the flats of my Paul's Hatchet. That would have easily been equivalent to 3hrs of hand sanding. As previously mentioned, the amount of work ahead depends alot on how bad those dimples are.
 
Yes, Ban, it's VERY abrasive and sturdy. Do you know the one I'm talking about. It's like a composite plastic? It was throwing sparks. That's what I mean. It only took 10-20 passes (less than 5 minutes), as opposed to 3 hours by hand.
 
I like the dimples. Besides, my wife says that if my knives looked shiny and new, the rest of me would just look silly(er).
In reality, there is no way I could sand the dimples out by hand, and I do like the look of shiny INFI with pits in it.
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It kind of looks like Daniel Kosters and Tom Kreins new coatings.:thumbup:
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Damn the Man said:
Yes, Ban, it's VERY abrasive and sturdy. Do you know the one I'm talking about. It's like a composite plastic? It was throwing sparks. That's what I mean. It only took 10-20 passes (less than 5 minutes), as opposed to 3 hours by hand.
Click to expand...

DtM, can you put up a pic of that plastic thing so I know what I'm looking for? or a link to a web site that show it? TIA
 
like i said earlier...it depends on the quality you want.....please post some pics of your drill attatchment job as there must be a transition where the material is removed around handles....i would think to do a proper job that all material removed must be kept flat....no rolls or grooves...IMO one can also damage a knife easy and make it just a user...kill the resale value.
 
Haggis said:
Very educational guys, thanks. But... Can someone post if they pics of the handles being placed back on? And what supply store for parts?

Thanks again! Much appreaciated!!!:D

EDIT: If no pics, is it similar to bruce bumps chain knife tutorial? http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=474466&highlight=bruce+bump
Click to expand...

Wicked had a nice tutorial that he wrote...
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4025582&postcount=36
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4025582
 
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