- Joined
- Mar 14, 2023
- Messages
- 18
Preface: This will void your warranty and can be dangerous.
I was doing research on if this was possible, and was having trouble finding a solid answer one way or another, so I figured I’d make a post about it.
The tl;dr is that the swap works, albeit with some potential for clearance issues with how blades/lock bars were fitted from the factory as it pertains to the ball lock engagement (you may have to file down a bit of metal where the blade meets the lock bar). I don’t think that issue is specific to this swap though, I’d imagine it would be any Blade into another frame. Also, it is a pain in the ass, and takes time.
I picked up the Blade HQ M4 Manix 2 and really wanted that blade in a G-10 Manix 2 so I could customize it with a different ball cage, spring, and maybe down the road, scales. I also didn’t want to just waste the LW Manix.
The first thing I want to say is before you do this, dull the blade in your LW Manix and wrap it up. Don’t be dumb like me and end up with bandaid hands.
The first thing you want to do is to get items to help you wedge the scales apart. Guitar picks work well.
Place them between the copper bushings and the inner metal “frame”. The composition of the LW Manix (described like a sandwich):
1) bottom scale
2) bottom metal frame
—-> place guitar pick here
3) bottom copper bushing
4) blade
5) upper copper bushing
—-> place guitar pick here
6) upper metal frame
7) upper scale
Once your picks are fully inserted you will be able to pop the blade out. This process of pick insertion took me about 45 min - 1 hour to complete, as I was trying to be careful not to break the scales or cut myself.
After popping the blade out of the LW version, simply install it in the G-10 version.
The process for installing the G-10 blade in the LW version can be accomplished by following the disassembly steps in reverse order. A couple of notes.
The pivot is keyed, don’t worry about this, it doesn’t really matter. It will just make you swear when you almost have it in and it spins. Just focus on getting the pivot mostly in place and once it’s there you can work the blade open and closed to “set it”
Another thing that you may or may not experience. With the G-10 blade installed in the LW version, my lockup was very poor. It seems there is some extra material on the G-10 blade. To fix this you can file down the lock bar where it meets the top of the blade.
All done!
I was doing research on if this was possible, and was having trouble finding a solid answer one way or another, so I figured I’d make a post about it.
The tl;dr is that the swap works, albeit with some potential for clearance issues with how blades/lock bars were fitted from the factory as it pertains to the ball lock engagement (you may have to file down a bit of metal where the blade meets the lock bar). I don’t think that issue is specific to this swap though, I’d imagine it would be any Blade into another frame. Also, it is a pain in the ass, and takes time.
I picked up the Blade HQ M4 Manix 2 and really wanted that blade in a G-10 Manix 2 so I could customize it with a different ball cage, spring, and maybe down the road, scales. I also didn’t want to just waste the LW Manix.
The first thing I want to say is before you do this, dull the blade in your LW Manix and wrap it up. Don’t be dumb like me and end up with bandaid hands.
The first thing you want to do is to get items to help you wedge the scales apart. Guitar picks work well.
Place them between the copper bushings and the inner metal “frame”. The composition of the LW Manix (described like a sandwich):
1) bottom scale
2) bottom metal frame
—-> place guitar pick here
3) bottom copper bushing
4) blade
5) upper copper bushing
—-> place guitar pick here
6) upper metal frame
7) upper scale
Once your picks are fully inserted you will be able to pop the blade out. This process of pick insertion took me about 45 min - 1 hour to complete, as I was trying to be careful not to break the scales or cut myself.
After popping the blade out of the LW version, simply install it in the G-10 version.
The process for installing the G-10 blade in the LW version can be accomplished by following the disassembly steps in reverse order. A couple of notes.
The pivot is keyed, don’t worry about this, it doesn’t really matter. It will just make you swear when you almost have it in and it spins. Just focus on getting the pivot mostly in place and once it’s there you can work the blade open and closed to “set it”
Another thing that you may or may not experience. With the G-10 blade installed in the LW version, my lockup was very poor. It seems there is some extra material on the G-10 blade. To fix this you can file down the lock bar where it meets the top of the blade.
All done!
