Making my own full serrated byrd crossbill, am I nuts?

J

jzmtl

Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
434
Well, since spyderco dosen't offer a fully serrated crossbill, I ordered a plain edge.

Am I nuts to think I can make it into a fully serrated version? What I'm thinking is I can grind away most of the edge (except 3/16" or so at the tip), losing around 1/16" or so of blade. Then from there, use a dremel with chainsaw sharpening stone (two sizes, so I can make it one big scallope, two small scallope like spyderedge) to grind on the serration, then sharpen it with sandpaper wrapped on rods with appropriate diameter (how I usually do my serrated knife). What I'm not sure about is how well would hollow grounded blade work with this, and if I should remove the edge or just directly add serration on top of it.

So what do yall think, am I gona ruin my brand new knife, or will I have a cool $20 harpy wannabe? :o
 
Buy a serrated harpy. Don't know about your, but my time and effort for what it would require to make the serrations is worth a whole lot more than the $30 difference between the two knifes. :D
 
I think it all comes down tot he level of your craftmanship.
You can try it on a ordinary strip of steel to get the hang of it first.
Could be a lot of fun alltogather.
Pics are appreciated.
 
I did remake the serration on my old gerber after I chipped most of them. Did it freehand and it was okay, if I do this I'd use a vice and fasion up some sort of angle guide.

sixstrings101 said:
stop being cheap an buy a harpy:rolleyes:
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Okay, maybe harpy wannabe is a wrong way to put it. I don't want a harpy, I want to know my own capability, and I enjoy tinker with stuff.
 
Of course you can do that. It all depends on your craftmanship. I mean, if Spyderco can make them, why can't you.
Maybe try it first on a cheap knife, to get the feeling:)
 
jzmtl said:
Okay, maybe harpy wannabe is a wrong way to put it.



I don't want a harpy, I want to know my own capability, instead of having to buy every simple thing like most people do.
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Now that is the spirit.
There is a lot to learn about knives when you start to work on them yourself.
It eventualy leads to making the whole thing.
Knives are like milk nowadays, most people believe it must come from factories, but it doesn't have to.
You can milk the cow yourself if you learn how.
 
Hi Jzmtl,

It's possible to do as you suggest.

Take your time, be accurate and keep it thin.

FYI, we do have a fully serrated version planned for the future, Also in G-10.

sal
 
Sal Glesser said:
Hi Jzmtl,

It's possible to do as you suggest.

Take your time, be accurate and keep it thin.

FYI, we do have a fully serrated version planned for the future, Also in G-10.

sal
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Sal, is there any rough estimate for when these or the G10 Flights will be available?

To the OP: I say go for it. Sounds like something that could be fun. A while back I did the opposite, I took a SE Endura 3 and made it PE. It's fun changing a factory knife to better suite your needs IMO, like re-shaping the handle or giving it a different blade finish.
 
Sal Glesser said:
Hi Jzmtl,

It's possible to do as you suggest.

Take your time, be accurate and keep it thin.

FYI, we do have a fully serrated version planned for the future, Also in G-10.

sal
Click to expand...

Well I guess that will be my very first Byrd that I'll buy then:D

Thanks for the good news Sal:thumbup::thumbup:
 
Vivi said:
Sal, is there any rough estimate for when these or the G10 Flights will be available?

To the OP: I say go for it. Sounds like something that could be fun. A while back I did the opposite, I took a SE Endura 3 and made it PE. It's fun changing a factory knife to better suite your needs IMO, like re-shaping the handle or giving it a different blade finish.
Click to expand...

Man, that hurts!!! Even only reading about it:eek::grumpy::D
 
Sal Glesser said:
Hi Jzmtl,

It's possible to do as you suggest.

Take your time, be accurate and keep it thin.

FYI, we do have a fully serrated version planned for the future, Also in G-10.

sal
Click to expand...

Sweet, now I'm not sure if I'll do it since you guys are making it. :D
 
Sal Glesser said:
Hi Jzmtl,

It's possible to do as you suggest.

Take your time, be accurate and keep it thin.

FYI, we do have a fully serrated version planned for the future, Also in G-10.

sal
Click to expand...

I too will get one of those. I've held off an getting a Byrd because I want to get an all serrated version.
 
jzmtl said:
What I'm thinking is I can grind away most of the edge (except 3/16" or so at the tip), losing around 1/16" or so of blade. Then from there, use a dremel with chainsaw sharpening stone (two sizes, so I can make it one big scallope, two small scallope like spyderedge) to grind on the serration, then sharpen it with sandpaper wrapped on rods with appropriate diameter (how I usually do my serrated knife). What I'm not sure about is how well would hollow grounded blade work with this, and if I should remove the edge or just directly add serration on top of it.
Click to expand...

I do stuff like this all the time. Lock your knife in a vise with soft jaws, and put on some good leather work gloves and safety glasses. Use the dremel tool as you described, but grind your serrations right over the existing edge. Go slow so you don't overheat the steel and ruin the temper. A light touch is preferred as a heavy hand may cause the dremel tool to want to jump around.

Complete each serration to full depth before moving on to the next. Align them so the edge of your stone just touches the previous serration when its at full depth (a practice piece, or trying this on a POS knife first may be a good idea to get a feel for the proper tooth spacing and angle).

There will be a burr on the back side of the blade directly behind each serration. Use your Spyderco Sharpmaker stone (assuming you have a sharpmaker) to remove this burr and clean up both the front and back of each serration (I do this freehand).

There may be small, ultra thin jagged flakes of metal that drop out of the edge of the serration during cleanup. It looks ugly at first, but don't let this freak you out, as the serrations will clean up just fine with the Sharpmaker stone. There is little need to sharpen the serrations after cleanup. A few passes down the Sharpmaker rods installed in the base should do the trick

Good luck!
Scott
 
I just tried this on a steak knife. Not factory looking, the serration seem to be deeper into the blade, but looks pretty neat nonetheless.

However, it took FOREVER, and it was on a steak knife from dollar store with probably the crappiest stainless steel available. I'm NOT looking forward to doing something on a RC61 steel. Besides with all the dremel stone I'll have to buy (they wear down pretty fast), it probably cost the same to just buy a new serrated version.

Oh well, at least I tried, and now have a steak knife with cool serrations.
 
You could probably get somebody to do it for you at a reasonable price if you look around.

Any pictures of the steak knife?
 
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