I Flipped Out . . . or My Continuing Search For An Adequate EDC

Wowbagger

Wowbagger

Joined
Sep 20, 2015
Messages
6,975
My first flipper.
First knife in foreground

Isn’t she cute ? Skinnny but Oh MY.
Just look at those . . . scale holder-onner screws ! ! ! ! screwed into those Ti liners / frames.
Oh glorious day in the morning !
( Well more like glorious mid night in Dr Fankenstien’s laboratory and there is a frightfull lovely electrical storm predicted. Won’t be long now ! Won’t be long until I give my knife LIFE . . . LIFE I TELL YOU . . . LIYYYYEEEYYYYEEEEF )

(Gene Wilder I miss you man ! At least he is finally with Gilda )

But I am getting slightly ahead of my self in my enthusiasim.
. . . back to the photos. The stock Boker Urban Trapper . . .
Next to my other pretty-greats-but-not-quite-THERE EDCs.

I’m going to jump on the pile and see what pops out.

Kray-Ex handle is gripilishousness . . . but doesn’t fold (tired of the unsanitary and edge mangling cheap sheaths. To their credit the Moras are excellent; doesn’t dull the edge and suspends the blade away from the sides for the most part. Comes with a drain hole and washes cleanly. Good stuff.)

BUT must have . . . longer blade like the Urban Trapper . . . like the BM 710 . . . like my thin-ground Cold Steel Ti Lite 4 . . . lovely EDC that !
I want fatness of handle and ease of opening like the Case Stag. The green handled Boker I modded into a single blade knife is a little tough to open and the handle isn't bulky enough.



I'm moving up though . . . better VG10 steel of the Boker Urban Trapper (doesn’t patina but then we can’t have EVERYTHING). Yet . . .

. . . interlude where I dream of an M4 Boker Urban Trapper . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! ! ! ! ! . . . . . . . . . z z z z z z z

. . . . . . . . . WHAT ? ? ? . . . . . . . . .

no . . . . I was just resting my eyes . . . .

Well I guess we will work with what we are able to salvage. Edison’s adage “All an inventor needs is imagination and a good scrap heap” and like that.

Maybe all this will keep me from cutting the spay blade off my beloved Case Stag Trapper for a less cluttered and steadier purchase as I did on the green handled Boker Trapper . . . on the other hand I could snap at any moment and head for the abbrasive cut off wheel . . . or worse yet . . . start grinding and cutting hunks off my Benchmade 710 . . .
. . . must resist . . . just breath . . . just breath
. . . must get a grip !

But a grip is part of what I am missing. Ahhhhhh that lovely Kray-Ex . . .
but it doesn't fold. Why doesn’t it fold ? ? ? ?
WANT IT TO FOLD !
. . . must resist . . . just breath . . . just breath
. . . must get a grip . . .
 
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OK that's where I was at a couple months ago.
Next is where I'm at now.
There will be a lag in the final outcome. I needed the handle scales bellow in hand before I could order longer screws. I ordered longer screws today. Looks like they are coming from China (no indication before I placed the order) and they may not be here until January. I'm beating my head on my desk . . .

so anyway . . .
 
Here it begins. The next “Bagger Mod.
And how.

It’s simple . . . just carve away everything from this fixed blade kitchen knife that doesn’t look like a folding pocket knife. Then mate it with a Boker Urban Trapper.

Result : Thin long blade of good steel (VG10), titanium clip and liners, high traction-full size (thickness) handle.

It took three tries to get the right knife with the scales I needed but I did it. First Cold Steel Kitchen Classic I ordered; the handle was shorter than advertised. Supposed to be 4 inch but wasn’t.
Second one I ordered was the longer “Slicer”; 9 inch blade because the handle was 4 and 7/8ths . . .
but
the one that arrived was the new bad looking two tone handle with less traction, not the old all black with diamond pattern that I wanted.
E-mails to vendors found one older model handle so that’s how I wound up with the Boning knife.

OK . . . now we're talking.
I let it sit around for a week while I stared at it off and on.
A couple days ago I started in. The white pencil works with a little rubbing alc (dipped from the stainless bowl) to act like a white magic marker and I laid out some guide lines the width of my little morticing chisel. Used the super thin carving knife to slit the soft layer of the handle down to the hard plastic core along the lines and chiseled out the strip of soft material . . . all around.

Next started scoring the sides of the mortice into the hard plastic core and chiseled out the waste. This was a push cut kind of thing. Never needed a mallet. In fact I did it all at the dining table until I got down far enough into the handle I could begin to see the metal tang. At that point I wanted to clamp it in a vise for safety.











You can see the partial length tang down in the slot here


The woodworking vise helped greatly with this and while sawing through the end of the handle where there was no metal tang.





Long story short and much careful paring and resharpening the little carving knife and chisel because they collided with the tang from time to time . . . and we are ready to begin prying the scales off the tang. I was about to give up for the night due to a head ache and slow progress for a while there. I didn’t want to make a mistake and get hurt. Note the blade cover for safety. I learned the hard way on a folder mod. Cover that edge and point.



Anyway I was about to give up for the night when . . . with continual prying and excavating . . . finally the thing said “POP” and the handle was separated from the blade. I took some more pics and quit for the night quite content with my progress.



 
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, maybe you should look into picking up one of the thicker (3-4 + layers) SAKs, that way you'd have the bulk that you want, a blade that's a perfect 5 to open, and you get a bunch of tools to boot!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
maybe you should look into picking up one of the thicker (3-4 + layers) SAKs, that way you'd have the bulk that you want, a blade that's a perfect 5 to open, and you get a bunch of tools to boot!
Click to expand...

Since there is a full moon in Gemini, according to The Chef, I will give two equal and opposite replies to your reply :

1. Nah dude, nah.

2. Oh do you mean like these in the photo or do you have something else in mind; with a longer blade ?

What do you like . . . ? Photo ?





PS: I like the width of the two knives on the right : a Case Stag Trapper and the Cold Steel Ti Lite 4 and handles about that long or a little longer. But more traction.
Did I mention I wanted more traction; gripalishous, diamond pattern, texture ?
 
Not finished but call it a progress report:

First I planed the rough saw marks off the back of the scales with my little woodworking block plane. Note paper and plastic shims to help keep sculpted scales from flexing while planing. You probably guessed it but the black curls that look like electrical tape . . . are shavings the plane took off. Mirror polished blade; hair whittling sharp.






Then I marked and drilled the scales for the torx screws that hold on the scales.

Yah . . . that is starting to look the way I imagined . . .
Screws too long but first fitting of the scales. See bellow for a surprise about the screw heads.


See the hole in this photo ? The lower larger one. There is a stop pin that goes in there.


Don’t loose the little pin it sits between the scales and runs in the circular slot in the blade near the pivot. It acts as the stop pin for the blade so it does not pivot back too far like this. When you take the scales off the pin will drop out.
It dropped out.
I didn’t realize it for a while. I was working at two stations and going back and forth between them with the knife in my hand.
I lost the pin.
Sure is skinny with no scales.



Rule number one when you loose an ultra tiny part. Do not look for it. You won’t find it. Just ignore it and go on with the next step. Sooner or later the hiding part will get so fed up with being ignored and “forgotten” that it will show its silly self just to remind you that it isn’t where it should be and then you can pounce on it and wrestle it back where it belongs.

Works every time.

Except this time. I kept not finding it on accident. Then I started looking for it out of the corner of my eye. I am embarrassed to say I didn’t follow my own advice and was after all down on my hands and knees in the saw dust with a magnet on a stick poking around trying to pick it up.

Of course that didn’t work.
I was sitting around taking a lets look in to the knife forum break when it occurred to me the most ridiculous place it could be. Or said in Sherlockien deductive reasoning . . . same thing . . . :
I have eliminated all other possibilities it could be no where else.
or
after eliminating all other possibilities the one remaining, no matter how unlikely must be the solution.

The cuff in my pants. I looked and it was in my right cuff. The first one I looked in. I guess that makes sense / I’m right handed.


Not much of a cuff just folded up not sewn. Keep in mind I was crawling all around the shop on my hands and knees with that in there and it didn’t fall out.


OK , great, I don’t have to make another pin out of drill rod. Moving on.

The Boker Urban Trapper is pretty skinny without scales huh ?

And talk about short screws ! and thin scales.


Anyway I think I am done for the night. I wanted to take a milk and cookies and old sci fi movie break. The cookie meter was low and my feet were getting cold in the shop so enough.

The knife isn’t done by any means. I just put the scales on with some chalk on the main pivot so I can tell where to make a cut out to recess the pivot into the scales. I need to grind both ends of the scales even and the lower edge needs to be ground to match the Ti scales. The knife is usable though. Pretty thick; I may take some more off the thickness of the scales but the holes for the screws are drilled and the screws cut to length. Turns out buying extra long screws made it easier to grip them in the vise to saw them to length.

A bonus; I may be able to have the heads of the screws be swallowed up by the soft rubber diamond textured coating and so the means of attachment may be all but invisible unless you know what to look for; a little distortion in the rubber where the screw head popped through. Nice.








 
From what was once a mass of inarticulate, lifeless metal and KrayEx, may I now present a cultured, sophisticated, knife about town.





I cut the recess for the pivot so the front of the scales would lay flat and I chiseled out a recess for the lock bar . . . then ground the scales close to the Ti liners. A bit of cosmetic fooling around yet to do but it is basically finished and a success.

And yes I will probably just keep posting photos of it until the second coming.
My old boss and his wife were not really into kids . . . in fact about as close as they ever wanted to get was a jack russell terrier named Fartneggle. When ever friends would come over and start showing them endless baby pictures they would let their friends know they had had enough by busting out a giant stack of photos . . . all of them of a squirrel that hangs out in their yard.

I suppose when I see enough squirrel photos posted here I will at least slow up some with my posts of my latest exploits with the KrayEx trapper.

[video=youtube;w1FLZPFI3jc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1FLZPFI3jc[/video]
 
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That's pretty cool bagger!

I don't know if I'd have what it takes to Franken something like that together. I think I'd sooner commission a full on custom!

Pretty funny about the missing part taking you for a ride!
 
Cool mods bagger. I'm currently doing the same thing, crawling all over looking for a dropped screw from the pocket clip. I'm wondering.. what size screws did you order for your replacements? I know it's a T6 head, but not sure about the thread size..
 
I'm a simple man, with simple needs!:)

I bought a Spyderco Military in S90V and sharpened it until it will dry shave facial hair. It served me well for years as an edc.:thumbsup:
The past year, It has been replaced with a Manix ll in Maxamet. That will serve me for years!:thumbsup::)
 
connor pritz said:
Cool mods bagger. I'm currently doing the same thing, crawling all over looking for a dropped screw from the pocket clip. I'm wondering.. what size screws did you order for your replacements? I know it's a T6 head, but not sure about the thread size..
Click to expand...

Hmmmm . . . well the screws holding the scales on my Urban Trapper were these :
M2 Torx Screws Countersunk Head,Torx Flat Head Screws,Pack of 100-piece (M2 x 10 mm)
all for eight bucks shipped
Some one the other day here said the clip screws on a knife were M2 - 56
Was that 56 threads per inch for the thread pitch ?
The 10mm on mine is the length of the screw. I think they start about 3mm.

Mine , further down in the description, say :
  • Thread Dia. 2 mm, Thread Pitch 0.4 mm, Stainless Steel, Metric
I hope that helps
 
Standard coarse M2 is pitch 0,4mm. 56TPI would be pitch 0,454mm and that is coarser and I really doubt that's the case.
 
Wowbagger said:
My first flipper.
First knife in foreground

Isn’t she cute ? Skinnny but Oh MY.
Just look at those . . . scale holder-onner screws ! ! ! ! screwed into those Ti liners / frames.
Oh glorious day in the morning !
( Well more like glorious mid night in Dr Fankenstien’s laboratory and there is a frightfull lovely electrical storm predicted. Won’t be long now ! Won’t be long until I give my knife LIFE . . . LIFE I TELL YOU . . . LIYYYYEEEYYYYEEEEF )

(Gene Wilder I miss you man ! At least he is finally with Gilda )

But I am getting slightly ahead of my self in my enthusiasim.
. . . back to the photos. The stock Boker Urban Trapper . . .
Next to my other pretty-greats-but-not-quite-THERE EDCs.

I’m going to jump on the pile and see what pops out.

Kray-Ex handle is gripilishousness . . . but doesn’t fold (tired of the unsanitary and edge mangling cheap sheaths. To their credit the Moras are excellent; doesn’t dull the edge and suspends the blade away from the sides for the most part. Comes with a drain hole and washes cleanly. Good stuff.)

BUT must have . . . longer blade like the Urban Trapper . . . like the BM 710 . . . like my thin-ground Cold Steel Ti Lite 4 . . . lovely EDC that !
I want fatness of handle and ease of opening like the Case Stag. The green handled Boker I modded into a single blade knife is a little tough to open and the handle isn't bulky enough.



I'm moving up though . . . better VG10 steel of the Boker Urban Trapper (doesn’t patina but then we can’t have EVERYTHING). Yet . . .

. . . interlude where I dream of an M4 Boker Urban Trapper . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * . . . . . . . . . ! ! ! ! ! ! ! . . . . . . . . . z z z z z z z

. . . . . . . . . WHAT ? ? ? . . . . . . . . .

no . . . . I was just resting my eyes . . . .

Well I guess we will work with what we are able to salvage. Edison’s adage “All an inventor needs is imagination and a good scrap heap” and like that.

Maybe all this will keep me from cutting the spay blade off my beloved Case Stag Trapper for a less cluttered and steadier purchase as I did on the green handled Boker Trapper . . . on the other hand I could snap at any moment and head for the abbrasive cut off wheel . . . or worse yet . . . start grinding and cutting hunks off my Benchmade 710 . . .
. . . must resist . . . just breath . . . just breath
. . . must get a grip !

But a grip is part of what I am missing. Ahhhhhh that lovely Kray-Ex . . .
but it doesn't fold. Why doesn’t it fold ? ? ? ?
WANT IT TO FOLD !
. . . must resist . . . just breath . . . just breath
. . . must get a grip . . .
Click to expand...

Dude just complete your quest and get a Boker Exskelibur Ti framelock. I have neve seen such a thin a thin modern folder. Lightest 3.5 inch blade I know of and thd blade is ground ultra thin.

Just make surs you get the Exskelibr 1. The Exskelibur 2 is garbage.
 
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Lapedog said:
Dude just complete your quest and get a Boker Exskelibur Ti framelock
Click to expand...
That would be . . .
Unknown-1.jpeg
I posted this photo because it shows how thin the handle is.
Perfection in the pocket.
. . . compared to my Grail (in hand / in use) the Exskelibur = Poo Poo
I have this (see photo below) and it is similar to the Exskelibur so I wouldn't be going with the thick grippy handle I did if I wanted a thin, slick, Ti handled knife. It is a Boker as well. Sure, the Exskelibur and my Ti shown below are a pile of very nice compromises and over all very nice knives. It is just that my Grail is a whole 'nother world better. ;) . . . in hand IN USE !
IMG_3534.jpg
 
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