Home Alone? Time to strip!

Uncle Malice · Sep 7, 2012

...oh stop it, you perverts!

UPDATE: PICS BELOW

The better half is out of town with one of her girlfriends tonight so it's just me and the pooches. Spent some time with my new BK7 out back... wanted to see if I could make a 1 stick fire, as I've heard it called...

Found a small stick.. maybe as big as my thumb and about 3 feet long. Did some feather shaving, a little bigger shavings, and split it down to some tooth pick sized through pencil sized pieces. Got the shavings to light up with a few strikes of the firesteel. Wasn't trying to have a big fire burning so it only lasted a couple of minutes.

After all that, I decided I wanted to strip the BK7. The only other Becker I've stripped was my first BK2 and I like that one a lot. I cliched that one... but I think I'm going to leave this one alone other than a smooth white vinegar patina. Nothing too fancy. I like the bare metal look.

The micarta for it came in the mail today and I also ordered a set of stainless bolts on the bay... those should be here early next week I think. Maybe I'll post some pics tomorrow.

I'm really liking the 7... kinda surprised it took me so long to get one. Great knife!

CamH_16 · Sep 7, 2012

The 7 is quickly becoming one of my favourites and I'm neglecting my 2s more and more...At this rate I'd have sold them off to pay for another 7

. Pics please

!

Uncle Malice · Sep 8, 2012

Well, it's late... and it's dark... so here's a couple of crappy pics. Stripped, patina'd, micarta'd, and stropped. Stropped the edges too after the patina to give it a little bit of accent.... I think it works.

I'll try to get some outside tomorrow. I'm really happy with the way this thing turned out. Can't wait to get the stainless screws...

I think it may need some Sagewood dangler fancy pants... that'll probably have to wait until next week though.

Uncle Malice · Sep 9, 2012

Finally got outside to take a few pics out in the yard. Still just done with my phone... but it takes okay pics. I do need to get a new digital cam though. The one I have is from like 2006...

Enjoy! Did I mention, I'm REALLY liking the 7...

DJG097 · Sep 9, 2012

I really should get a 7 sometime...Looks nice

bullet08 · Sep 9, 2012

can i get some details on what you use to strip it and how long you left in the white vinegar?

Uncle Malice · Sep 9, 2012

can i get some details on what you use to strip it and how long you left in the white vinegar?

Yeah sure!

I use Kleen Strip chemical stripper. Not because of any personal preference, it's just what I saw at the store and picked up... worked fine so I didn't have a reason to get anything else. Be sure to use rubber cleaning gloves. If this stuff gets on yoru skin it will itch and burn... not terribly... but enough to be annoying, and water won't do much to neutralize it.

I remove the scales so it's just the blade.. lay it down on a cookie sheet out on the back patio and spray the blade down. Get a good coat on it.. on both sides.. and let it soak in for about 15 min or so. I start off with a nylon brush... I use one of my gun cleaning brushes... but it's similar to a stiff toothbrush... you should have a few spots that are loose enough to easily peel right off... just scrub around on the blade a bit... both sides.

Give it another coating and let it soak again. This time, let it rest on the other side. Let it soak for another 15 min. Then go back and scrub with a brass wire brush... or whatever you want really. I use the brash brush to get the majority of the coating off. Some blades will strip easier than others... if yours is sticking a bit, use a small blade to scrape some of it off. It should scrape off fairly easily if the brush isn't pulling it off. If you still have trouble.. give it another spray and let it sit again... no big deal. It will come off eventually.

Once your done, rinse it off with the hose and then go back over the blade with a bit more detail to make sure you've gotten all of the coating off. The tang cut outs will usually need to be scraped, in my experience.

Once you're done and you have a clean blade.. rinse/wash/dry the cookie sheet... and probably the blade too.

Then I get out the white vinegar and soak a paper towel. I don't do the submersion that a lot of people do. I just give it several sets of wipe downs with the vinegar paper towel. The vinegar will evaporate fairly quickly and form the patina.. so I wipe it down, making sure to get it everywhere... and let it sit for 5 min or so. Wipe it down... let it sit... repeat for 4-5 sessions and you should have a mild grey patina. You can switch off with apple cider vinegar as well to make it just a little bit darker if you want.

Rinse the blade every once in a while, especially if using the apple cider vinegar. You'll notice a bit of a sticky film on it after the evaporation. You can scrub it with steel wool or a scouring pad to smooth it out a bit if you want as well... in case you get some darker spots and you want it more uniform. Patina isn't permanent, so you can scrub it away if you want.

Once I got a good coating that I was comfortable with, I rinsed it off and dried it. Put the grips back on it and ran it through the sharp maker. Just to bring back the edge after scrubbing the blade with that brass brush.

Once it was all done, I sat down on the couch with the strop for about a half hour. Did the edge stropping to give it that scary hair-popping edge... and also stropped it on the clip edges and primary bevel edge to give it a little bit of polish along those lines.

Turned out pretty sweet I think.... really making me want to go ahead and strip my BK9 finally!

I think I might scratch out my BH# into the finish on my BK9 and use the PCB etchant to etch the number into the blade before I strip it... I think that would be pretty cool. I'll look at fonts tomorrow that I can use for stencil.

dramos1 · Sep 9, 2012

I used that same stripper and it a real pain to get it on your skin. The 7 looks amazing also

bullet08 · Sep 9, 2012

i think your 7 looks awesome. simple and elegant. i think i'll go the way you did with my 16 when it gets here. and use the heck out of it.

jukrui · Sep 9, 2012

I love it. Your 7 looks like my 14's older relative. Looks great.

Uncle Malice · Sep 10, 2012

Thanks guys! Final set of pics here (for now anyways).

Got my stainless screws and nuts so I put those on today. Smeared a dab of grease on the tang of the blade before I put the handles back on to help keep any rust away under the scales. When I was done I had some residue on my finger so I worked it into the micarta and it smoothed out into the deep brownish red here.

As far as I'm concerned, this blade is done. There's nothing else I need to do to it except get it some fancy dangler moo pants from Goose. Friday is pay-day.