Making your own blades for SAK?

[G-son]

I hope I'm in the right place now... and I tried to search, but didn't come up with a whole lot.

Anyway, I've got a few cheap 9 & 11 blade SAK knockoffs, I mostly like the basic design and size but the tools are made of way too soft stainless and most of them I just never use. The knife blade, scissor, saw and both screwdrivers get used, and at the very least I'd like to make a new knife blade and saw blade out of carbon steel (I have suitable size spring steel that I have made successfull heat treating tests with). The scissor works well enough after some modification and seems too difficult to make a replacement for, the philips screwdriver is okay, but for the rest of the blades I'm trying to find some inspiration. As I said, I don't use them, replacing them with something else that I can make myself would be the basic idea. The can opener would likely be replaced by a short knife blade, but the fish scaler is also ready to go, just like the cork screw and three tools next to it and I don't have any good ideas for those yet.

I'm guessing there are lots of people here who have made this kind of modifications, but I don't find alot of it on the forum, if anyone can point me in the right direction to threads about it I'd apprechiate it. Also any useful ideas or suggestions ofcourse!
By the way, I already know I'm crazy for even thinking about putting work into such crappy knives, but I've got them and I like them despite their flaws. Besides, I'm not counting on perfect results on my first attempt, and I much rather f*ck up something cheap than an expensive one that still needs some modification to be perfect. Call it a practise project.

 

[Nap]

I applaud your spirit.

I've tinkered with this, myself, but I think the reason you aren't finding much is that SAKs just aren't that expensive. Modding SAKs isn't exactly easy, with Victorinox not wanting you to do it and the knock-offs just not being worth it.

Best of luck, though. I recommend that you start by getting a vise.

 

[G-son]

I've got a couple of small bench vises, I think one of them will do the job. Thanks for the help!

Spirit, madness, potato, potato.

 

[G-son]

First attempt. Not perfect in any way, but it should fit where the can opener was after a little tweaking.

 

[gadgetgeek]

Its a good start!

 

[Rat Finkenstein]

I guess it could be a learning experience, tinkering with stuff, But fake SAKs will always belong at the bottom of a trash can.

 

[znapschatz]

I guess it could be a learning experience, tinkering with stuff, But fake SAKs will always belong at the bottom of a trash can.

:thumbup: With no exceptions. Fake SAKs pollute the knife world and are not to be tolerated. They exist only to be discarded. I'd sooner eat a bug than own one.

 

[gadgetgeek]

Well, at least no matter what happens, he's improving them!

 

[Nap]

I don't think "fake" is the right word, here. Is this a "fake?"

(I can cite many other examples, but I think you get the idea.)

Victorinox doesn't have a monopoly on multi-function knives. At best, you can call it a knock-off, but in this case nobody's pretending or acting in bad faith.

 

[G-son]

I don't think "fake" is the right word, here.
Victorinox doesn't have a monopoly on multi-function knives. At best, you can call it a knock-off, but in this case nobody's pretending or acting in bad faith.

The ones I have are cheap chinese interpretations of what a SAK is. Or at least, what can be sold as one.

Well, at least no matter what happens, he's improving them!

I hope so. Don't think you could make them any worse even if you tried. You could break them, but that's about it.

I guess it could be a learning experience, tinkering with stuff, But fake SAKs will always belong at the bottom of a trash can.

The way I look at it it's a cheap collection of useable parts and/or templates for parts to make. The idea of making a SAK from scratch did cross my mind, but that's a project a bit out of my leage. Starting with a butchered cheap knockoff you get all the springs that would be time consuming and a challenge to make yourself (those springs might actually be the best parts on those knives), and you get all the plates between each layer of blades. What's left is a bunch of blades made of too soft steel, some might be reused and most can be used as templates either for making exact/improved copys in better steel or just to see the general shape you've got room for in the knife when you design a new blade to put in there.

Sure, you can go buy a Victorinox and be done, but what's the fun in that? Anybody could do that.

 

[DocT]

I don't think "fake" is the right word, here. Is this a "fake?"

(I can cite many other examples, but I think you get the idea.)

Victorinox doesn't have a monopoly on multi-function knives. At best, you can call it a knock-off, but in this case nobody's pretending or acting in bad faith.

It is not, of course, a fake. A Camillus made knife for issue to the US Army. I had one until I broke it. The company also made the Cub Scout and Boy Scout knives of similar design. They were good knives. I still have my Cub Scout.

 

[afishhunter]

I don't think "fake" is the right word, here. Is this a "fake?"

(I can cite many other examples, but I think you get the idea.)

Victorinox doesn't have a monopoly on multi-function knives. At best, you can call it a knock-off, but in this case nobody's pretending or acting in bad faith.

Great knife. I have a couple of the Camillus, and the new made Marbles rendition.
I've never understood why the Government required "CAN OPENER" to be stamped on that blade. I guess maybe the generals thought the enlisted were (are?) idiots?
The Marbles, while made in China, are just as good, if not better than the Camillus made knives, for fit, finish, edge holding, and ease of sharpening in the field, in my experience. Also, Marbles thinks we be smart enuf they don't need to put "CAN OPENER" on the can opener blade.

 

[znapschatz]

I don't think "fake" is the right word, here. Is this a "fake?"

(I can cite many other examples, but I think you get the idea.)

Victorinox doesn't have a monopoly on multi-function knives. At best, you can call it a knock-off, but in this case nobody's pretending or acting in bad faith.

That's a good question, but I don't think these qualify as fake, nor most of the others that use the original SAK tool load out. My first, purchased as a 12 year old Boy Scout, was a Kamp King made by Imperial Schrade, and it was only one of several very similar makes with identical sets. But none of them were passed off as SAKs, and didn't really resemble them. Mine had an imitation jigged bone handle, the Camillus in your photo was also different and so forth. Fake SAKs are made with the intention of fooling the uninformed. Fake is Fraud.

 

[znapschatz]

Great knife. I have a couple of the Camillus, and the new made Marbles rendition.
I've never understood why the Government required "CAN OPENER" to be stamped on that blade. I guess maybe the generals thought the enlisted were (are?) idiots?

At the time these came into existence, the answer was probably yes, although that may not have been the reason for labeling the can opener. According to my dad, who had served in the pre-WW2 cavalry, officers thought little of the enlisted ranks, considered them tramps in uniform and had contempt for their capabilities. Yes, there were exceptions among the officers, but there was definitely a rigid class hierarchy in that army and attitude to go with it.

BTW, Dad was an enlisted man who joined the cavalry mainly because of his love for horses and his limited access to them during the Great Depression. In his third year, the cavalry detachment at Camp Knox was disbanded and the troopers transferred to infantry.
He didn't re-enlist.