Keep worn blue lugs or replace with silver?

Lone_Wolfe said:
You're right, it's not anymore. It used to be $5.75 to mail a small flat rate at the post office, $5.25 to do it online. Now prices are the same.
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Now they are at $6.15 or something already for a small flat rate box. They increased starting January 1st I believe...
 
ice_man said:
Now they are at $6.15 or something already for a small flat rate box. They increased starting January 1st I believe...
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Let me check something I shipped recently....


ETA: The small flat rate shipping was $6.80, plus the insurance I always add if it's a CRK.
 
Get yourself some mothers mag a q-tip, and a few toothpicks. You'll save a ton of money and I promise it'll look just the same with a bit of effort. I've done this numerous times. CRK is going to replace with the exact same lug without anodizing. Why not remove it yourself?
You won't harm the blade either.
Save on shipping, insurance, lugs...wouldn't even be a question for me unless I wanted to change out for double lugs!
 
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Just to answer the thread starter, I polished the blue off my sebbie, both stud and spacer(I've taken out the lanyard pin), and kinda regret it. To me it took away the natural wear of the knife and I wish I could have taking it back. On the other hand, the reason I did the polishing was that the stud was wearing a lot faster than the spacer and so the whole look of the knife looked kinda "wrong" to me. Each to his own I guess, it looks good with an all silver/grey knife but also looks good natural worn..
 
uofaengr said:
Well if I do just single silver on my PJs then those would only be $11.50 apiece. As for printing out labels online, do you have a scale or do you guess the weight? I'll definitely check that out, thanks.

In the Inkosi thread there are a couple including mine that I polished and another member's that was sent in for a swap. I like it much better along with the TNK 25 which I almost ordered a couple years ago.
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After seeing the pics of the Inkosi with silver lugs, yep, do it.....verrry nice.
 
Nice. Did you do it this evening? I tell you I've been tempted to get one and remove the blue myself, but I'm committed to waiting it out for the TNK version. You did a good job on that one!
 
Fantastic job, they turned out nice. Looks like factory lugs.
 
Thanks everyone! I actually did 98% of it last night. Dremel polishing wheel on lowest speed, tiny dab of Flitz, carefully taped off blade, and a steady hand. It got late and there was still a tiny bit of blue near the base. Tonight I cut the end off a Q-tip and whittled it to a point and applied a very small bit of Flitz to that area and polished with the cotton end. No blue left and it's even shinier than my small micarta Insingo stock silver lugs.

There's 2 knives I think silver lugs just set off and that's the micarta Sebenzas and the Sebenza 25/Inkosi. The TNK 25 is one sexy knife and I don't know how I kept from buying one. I like the Inkosi probably 10x more now and love the way it turned out.

Silver sisters...

 
How do they decide what gets blue and what gets silver? I just ordered a WC Starbenza 25 and it has silver, and honestly....I think I like the silver better. Not sure why I don't like the blue, I didn't mind blue hardware on my Microtechs, but on a Seb....silver all the way. IMHO.
 
Blue is the standard option usually seen on PJs. Silver is standard for anything micarta. Gold is standard for wood inlays, I think. Not sure on UG, CGG. Of course you can special order from CRK whatever you want. If I ever want a wood inlay, I'll have it special ordered so I can have silver hardware.

Anything goes with dealer exclusives. TNK has silver lug PJs and 25s and blue lug micarta models. The WCs are silver. KA carbon fibers are blue. BHQ carbon fiber inlays are blue. Of course you can send these in and have them changed. For example, a carbon fiber with silver would be hot IMO.
 
uofaengr said:
........... Not sure on UG, CGG.............
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UG's come in gold, silver, or blue, depending on the color of the graphics. A lot of the are blue, but there's plenty of silvers and golds, too. For CGG's, CRK will pick which stud color is complementary and stick with it for that design.
 
kgajewsky said:
So what's the process to do this? I didn't quite understand wtlj's post.
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My apologies for the quick response last time. Basically all you need is a polishing compound, a rag, q-tips, and toothpicks. My favorite polishing compounds are mothers mag polish and flitz. Vigorously apply the polish to all areas of the stud and agitate with q-tip. Wipe off polish with the rag and re apply the polish. Take a toothpick and work he lines, crevices and base of the stud. The toothpick also works excellent for the rear side of a single stud. Simply repeat these steps until all the blue anodizing is gone.

I'm sure the OP's dremel method works much faster but I'd be worried about getting a shiny polished spot on the blade around studs. Also the dremel will put a mirror shine on the stud quickly, I like a more satin finish like factory silver studs.
If blades taped off I'm sure it would be just fine.

This process works for any color anodizing on any part of the knife: studs, lanyard pins, spacers, beads etc.

Lots of ways to do this process, I've just found this to work the best for me. Ymmv

OP: that turned out great! I bet your glad you didn't send it in!
 
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As mentioned in another thread, decided there was no need in sending in the Inkosi so the large 21 stayed home too. I'm glad because I don't think I really wanted it to get reblasted. Yeah it's got a few larger stupid marks that my phone made, but I was looking at it, and the edges and corners are just wearing/fading so nicely that I didn't want to ruin that. Also glad I stuck with the blue. I like the worn look on that particular knife, and I like the variety.
 
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