The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Well,that bad is my disease, just saw it and I pulled the trigger, have to do something soon, if I keep buying Becker's impulsively thought. So the camillus bk7 is the latest one for you?how do you like it, is it true that they pick up rust more easily than the early's ones?
Today's afternoon I found it on eBay, it was a user, but seems ok, I'll post some pics soon ,the good thing was that they threw a extra set of zebrawood scales.Man where did you find a first production run on the bk16. I really want one. Heres my latest one and only.
Tommy's beautiful rosewood scales.
Are you planning any modifications on them?I should have a 21, a 5, and a 15 by the middle of next week.
Are you planning any modifications on them?
A couple pics of my last purchase
Before :
After :
Okay ladies and jelly spoons, did some more work for my BK2 mod today, its been a long process but I wanted to do a bit of experimentation with the stock grivory scales using a process I have not seen done before with the scales... Stonewashing! Forgive the photography its fairly slapdash this time around. I made this a project for kiddos and I...
First things first I scrubbed the scales with 500 grit wet and dry just to give them a glazed up look and sort of "level the playing field" so to speak. Then I laid the tang side out with some blue painters tape and cut around the scales. I did this to mitigate any edge damage that might occur to the scales, I dont think it helped too much, I would probably recommend duct tape. Next I found a old coffee can/jug/container thing, and went outside with the kiddos. We are in the processes of demolishing an old BBQ pit in the backyard so for the stones for the stonewashing I used pieces of concrete and broken bricks. Me and the kiddos dug around and hunted for the perfect ones. Next I threw the scales in, covered them in the rock and went to town shaking it up... or shaking it off and T Swift says
Just to kinda check for a baseline of the "damage" here is just after less than a minute of shaking it off, or up... whatever. Made a heck of a noise which the kids thought was hilarious and we also took turns throughout the process. Here they are washed up after the short little shimmy shimmy.
Threw them back in the can and then gave them a good couple minutes of shaking and baking. This is what they look like coming straight out of the rocks... covered in dust. Actually kind of neato looking.
and here they are after washing them up with soap and a scrub brush...
Some close ups of the damage... like they have been living on a gravel country road for a couple years
To finish these up I went ahead and hit them up with a little bit of fire, and then gave them a rub down with some beeswax. I then wiped off any excess until they were dry.
The end result is pretty cool. They are roughed up, but they still feel soft, almost like hard rubber not abrasive just frosty not quite tacky. I have stippled scales before and did not end up liking it all that much, this adds grip without the roughness. I also took some "loupe" shots to get some close ups of the texture.
I got closer but I think you get the idea
Here is a comparison between my BK5's stock scales. Next time I am at the hardware store I am picking up stainless hardware for the BK2, but I may do something a bit different, dunno yet.
There is a big difference here in traction. I am not huge on needing traction on scales, but I am modding this BK2 out as a "kit" knife so I figured some extra grip would not hurt. Plus people are always looking for ways to improve grip on the Becker scales, so I wanted to make/try something that was cheap (uhhh free?) easy, and effective. Plus its an option that doesnt destroy the ergos of the handle or provide so much grip that it ends up being abrasive. I want to experiment with this more with some different materials like micarta/zytel etc. Also it might be cool to stonewash it, paint it, and then stonewash again for a sort of distressed look.
And here it is sans sheath. FYI regrinding the 2 was the best thing I have done for it... it cuts like a mora with its BK2 backbone. I have also battoned it with this geometry through knots with no edge damage. The geometry is really stable and cuts so well.
Picked this guy up not too long ago. He's gonna need some grind work and a heat treat bath before I can use him but I'm still excited about it.
This is quite original idea,I guess I'll give it a try, but a little bit concerned how is gonna affect the inner side and perhaps some gaps between the scales and the blade,I don't know, just my thoughts!!!
That's a very nice camillus ,never had one, but I assuming have to be a little bit heavier since the tang is not skeletonized, had the opportunity to buy one but for some reason I just let it pass, then another bk7 pop out (stamped version)and pulled the trigger on that one, it was my first becker.Finally got this! My first BK7!
Camillus made, gotta say that now I get the appeal. Never considered this model since I have a 12, but they really are quite different. Maybe it's the micarta scales on the 12 that makes it seem heavier or just the balance. This 7 feels very nimble compared to the 12. After holding both in each hand and swapping them back and forth, they really seem to weigh about the same.
I dunno, maybe just because it's new is why I'm gushing over it. Haven't gotten to work it yet so these are just initial impressions.
It seems smaller than I had imagined. I thought it would be more or less a shorter clipped 9 but its slightly smaller, approx 1/4", from spine to edge.
Thought I'd read somewhere that it was thicker than the Ka-Bar, its exactly the same.
The edge was meh and the coating was pretty marred so I took some 80, 120, and 4/0 steel wool to it. Looks pretty awesome now and is smooth.
The edge...I'm working on it. The factory edge was a bit uneven and somewhere around 25° per...I'm taking it down to what my Smiths calls 20°.
Well, i do have a camillus campanion and a brute both aren't skeletonized,that's way I was supposing the bk7 wasn't either, my bad
