I have immersed myself in the magical world of SAK modification. After poring over Swiss Bianco, EDC forums, customizers sites and google images, I have come to the following conclusion about how these things go together:
Alox knives have rivets peened into metal scales. Cellidor knives have rivets peened into bushings over a thin liner.
The reason that is interesting to me, is that you don't need the bushings if you are okay with exposed rivets, like all the Alox knives have.
My plan, at this point, is to pick up a used Wenger or Victorinox cellidor handled knife with a saw, pop the scales, drill the rivet heads and remove the tool layers I don't want.
For scales, I'll choose or make some relatively thin micarta scales, drill them the same diameter as the liner holes, put a small counter sink in them, then assemble them to the liners and peen the old rivet pins directly into the micarta countersinks. Then I'll sand the rivets flush. I may use epoxy - but I shouldn't need to. The only new materials I'll need is the scales, because the old rivets will be plenty long after removing a tool layer.
My primary concern is whether precise rivet tension is a problem, or if the smooth liners insure that you can't end up with too much blade tension from peening.
In the end, my goal is to duplicate the thinness of the Alox knives by using only the outer liners and thin micarta scales. This avoids most of the pitfalls of adding 84 or 91 sized tools to existing 93 Alox knives (like the popular Farmer scissor mod), and is dirt cheap because you can simply start with a knife that has everything you want already, and paring it down to what you want to keep.
Does anyone see a problem turning a used Hunter or Camper into a "Bushcrafter" two layer in this way?
Thanks.
Alox knives have rivets peened into metal scales. Cellidor knives have rivets peened into bushings over a thin liner.
The reason that is interesting to me, is that you don't need the bushings if you are okay with exposed rivets, like all the Alox knives have.
My plan, at this point, is to pick up a used Wenger or Victorinox cellidor handled knife with a saw, pop the scales, drill the rivet heads and remove the tool layers I don't want.
For scales, I'll choose or make some relatively thin micarta scales, drill them the same diameter as the liner holes, put a small counter sink in them, then assemble them to the liners and peen the old rivet pins directly into the micarta countersinks. Then I'll sand the rivets flush. I may use epoxy - but I shouldn't need to. The only new materials I'll need is the scales, because the old rivets will be plenty long after removing a tool layer.
My primary concern is whether precise rivet tension is a problem, or if the smooth liners insure that you can't end up with too much blade tension from peening.
In the end, my goal is to duplicate the thinness of the Alox knives by using only the outer liners and thin micarta scales. This avoids most of the pitfalls of adding 84 or 91 sized tools to existing 93 Alox knives (like the popular Farmer scissor mod), and is dirt cheap because you can simply start with a knife that has everything you want already, and paring it down to what you want to keep.
Does anyone see a problem turning a used Hunter or Camper into a "Bushcrafter" two layer in this way?
Thanks.
