Ka-Bar Mod. Lots of pics!

[BJE]

I had a Ka-Bar Short laying around that I never used becuase, the handle was too small to get a good grip on, the edge was way too thick to cut well, and I didn't want to scratch the black coating and make it ugly. Well, I decided I need to use what I have instead of bying a new fixed blade for camping and hiking. I looked up some ideas on BF and went to work. First, I reprofiled the edge with the coating on, so it would be easier to see how far I was going up on the blade and it made it easier to make both sides even. Then I cut off the top guard with a hacksaw and filed off the sides so they would match the rest of the handle. I then started to sand the coating off, but that was way too much work, so I bought some Citristrip (as reccomended by a fellow forumite) and let it sit overnight, the next morning, I scraped off the coating with a butter knife and cleaned it all up. It left the blade with a light patina, I took off the patina and under the patina was a beautiful dark stonewash finish! I waterproofed the sheath and added a lanyard for decoration and emergency cord. Here are the pics I promised.

Thanks for looking and let me know what you think.

 

[Dakki]

I've been wanting to do something like this too. Great looking knife, man! :thumbup:

A couple of questions for you:

Are you using the standard sheath? Any problems with retention? I heard the top guard was necessary on the factory sheath.

What angle did you use on the edge? Someone told me I should zero-bevel a ka-bar but that sounds like way too much work, plus I don't know how long it would hold that edge.

Have you given any thought to doing a little filework on the spine foa a thumbrest?

 

[fdd19]

can you get clearer picks so we can see the finish better?

 

[BJE]

I've been wanting to do something like this too. Great looking knife, man! :thumbup:

A couple of questions for you:

Are you using the standard sheath? Any problems with retention? I heard the top guard was necessary on the factory sheath.

What angle did you use on the edge? Someone told me I should zero-bevel a ka-bar but that sounds like way too much work, plus I don't know how long it would hold that edge.

Have you given any thought to doing a little filework on the spine foa a thumbrest?

Thanks for the kind words, I like it much better now than I did new. Yes, it is the standard sheath that came with the knife and there aren't any retention problems, the top guard doesn't effect it at all, the thickness of the handle keeps it from sliding past the strap. I reprofiled on a SiC stone by hand, so I don't know exactly what angle it is. If I had to guess, I would say it is about a 17 degree angle, I sharpened it on the 40 degree setting on my Sharpmaker. I wouldn't want to grind it all the way to zero unless I had a very course waterstone, it would be alot of work and it cuts just fine the way it is. I might do some filework, and if I do I will post pics.

 

[BJE]

can you get clearer picks so we can see the finish better?

I will try to take some clearer pics later, but with my cheap 4 megapixel camera, it won't be much better. I am looking into getting a better one soon.