Home Made Leek Low Rider Clip

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dent

Joined
May 2, 2012
Messages
9
Thought i would share in a short post. I prefer knives to ride low in the pocket. Bought the Leek 2nd hand on the cheap to be a user, so shelling out for a custom fabricated, unobtanium coated, forged in Mordor clip was not in the project budget, which was exactly 0 dollars. I took one of my OEM Leek pocket clips and got creative with some pliers and a blowtorch. The overall goal was to bend it over itself and reshape the bottom to clip without snagging. Sanded with the grain a bit to smooth out any tool marks. While the end result is certainly not for a showman's knife i was pretty happy with how it turned out. Enjoy some pics.

2012-06-09_23-09-12_850.jpg
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While the knife is discrete the clip still kind of glistens thereby defeating the purpose. Hoping to run across a handy sand or bead blaster for the knife/clip to dull it up a bit. Another day i suppose...
 
Looks good! I like the lock bar cuts/jimping, too.

You can use pcb etchant to dark the clip, whcih comes around $10 for a bottle you'll probably never run out of. I can take a snap of mine tomorrow if you'd like
 
kreole said:
You can use pcb etchant to dark the clip, whcih comes around $10 for a bottle you'll probably never run out of. I can take a snap of mine tomorrow if you'd like
Click to expand...
Thanks! Clever idea! I'm definitely interested in seeing a pic if you don't mind!
 
Good job. Repeatedly flaming the clip will darken it also
 
dent said:
Thanks! Clever idea! I'm definitely interested in seeing a pic if you don't mind!
Click to expand...

I didn't mean to do the back side of the clip, but some of the etchant snuck over. That kind of shows the difference between the factory finish and after (but you could make it darker if you wanted)

k32WW.jpg



I hit it with a carbidizer awhile ago (makes it grippy), so it appears mottled. I threw the knife into the pic, darkened the same way but not carbidized, to see how it would look without the carbidizing.

XTm1w.jpg
 
Looks great! I might have to try this with my Blur...
You could always spray paint the clip with krylon and bake it in an oven at 300 degrees for half an hour and you will have a very durable finish on the clip. If you are familiar with the old (past-2011) US produced Ka-Bar coating, then you will know that the coating is not very durable, but the baked krylon will wear about the same as the stock coating.

-orangish ducktape
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. Managed to give it to a buddy for a little sand blasting as i was wanting something a little more matte than the brushed look. Took it apart with the blade closed (tension on the spring).... SpROiNg... cr@p everywhere. No big deal though. Tracked it all down. I'll get some pics up a bit later.
 
Before:
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After:
2012-06-29_15-40-33_847.jpg
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You can still faintly see some of the scores from the earlier brushed finish but it came out pretty darn good. Might throw it back in for a heavier grit to make it a little more textured but i am happy on how it came out. I might even try using that PCB etchant that you guys mentioned earlier to darken it up a bit, but for now i took the shine off it which is exactly what i wanted.

On another note... I found out that the composite blade stains super easily. I had gotten some beer on it and despite wiping it off right away i was left with some slight discolorations. Most of it came off but still a little to go. I'll try to clean them off at some point but its not really a priority at the moment.

Hope you enjoy!
 
I really like that look! Did you throw it in a vibratory tumbler with some silicon carbide grit?
 
Nah it was a sand blasting chamber... Not sure of the blast media specifics as I had a friend do it.
 
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