Modding a cold steel knife. Very basic questions. New guy.

[feralhuman]

I'm planning to modify a couple of my cold steel knives. My first question is how do I remove the grivory material then make it look acceptable? Next, what is the cheapest yet reliable way to drill new holes in the liners in order to move the pocket clip? I have a variable speed belt machine and a few powered stones, tormex etc which might help with the grivory. I'll probably have to buy something to drill and tap the holes, but it is most probably a machine I should have anyway.

Thanks!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

This is a basic - "If you have to ask how, you probably can't do it" question.

The liners may be hardened. If so, they won't drill and tap easily for moving the clip.
Removing handle scales and then reattaching them successfully often requires some skill.

Some photos and sketches of what you plan would also be helpful.

This might get more response in "Tinkering and Embellishment". I'll move it there.

 

[feralhuman]

Ok, thanks. I can have help from a friend who is a gunsmith with a small shop. Or if it becomes necessary I have a friend with a full metal machine shop. But if the scales are hardened, that could be a real problem. I'll try to get some pics.

My gunsmith friend has a drill press with a vice thing that holds the work and moves as you crank the handles. I was thinking of using this.

I still have the same questions about finishing the "plastic" handles.

Thanks again.

I have a lot of years experience as a copier technician taking apart and putting back together tiny parts where 3 hands are needed. So I'm not totally in the dark. I do some gun work as well.

 

[feralhuman]

This is a pic of a mod to a spartan I found on the web. I would like to do almost exactly the same thing to my spartan. And also a very similar mod to a Rajah 2. Which looks like this. But I would want the clip lower.

Rajah 2.

 

[fishface5]

You will need a drill press to drill straight holes for tapping. BUT if the liners are hardened, you will need special bits to drill through, and then tapping them will be a nightmare.
Fir the grivory, it should be easy enough to to with hand files and less likely to male a mistake that way. To do the final polishing maybe a dremel buffing wheel with compound would do it, but try it first on the flat inside face of the scale to see what the result looks like.

 

[feralhuman]

Ok, first order of business is to find out if the scales are hardened. IF the scales are hardened, I can't reasonably move the clip. And if that's the case I may not want to change anything and so I need to rethink the idea. If the scales are not hardened, I can plan to go to my gunsmith friends house for the clip moving work. I may just pay him to do the work, this kind of thing is nothing new for him. The rest of the scales and plastic can be done by hand mostly.

 

[killgar]

I'm in the process of modding a different Cold Steel knife (TiLite), and for what it's worth, the liners on this knife are not very hard. I base this on the fact that I can easily file them with a standard file.

Even if the liners on your knife are hardened and you can't tap new threads there is another option for moving the clip. Basically it's a reversal of the screws. What I mean by that is- you drill a new set of holes, then run the screws from the inside of the knife out and use nuts to secure them. Instead of seeing screw heads on the surface of the clip, you would see nuts. Using this method there is no need to tap the holes.

It might be possible to use low-profile button-head screws for this method if there is enough clearance between the blade and the liners that the blade won't hit the screw heads when the knife is closed.

But if there isn't enough clearance, you could always chamfer the holes using a chamfering bit (this gives the holes a V shape), and then use flat-head (V head) screws. The V head fits into the V-shaped hole making the head of the screw flush with the surface of the liner.

If your liners are hardened you will likely need a carbide drill bit to drill the holes. Cobalt might work, but carbide will easily cut through hardened steel. And if the liners are hardened, and you need to chamfer the holes, then you will likely need a carbide chamfering bit.

Of course all of this drilling would need to be done with a drill press.

Even if the liners aren't hardened, tapping stainless steel using such a small tap can be dicey. And small taps can be easy to break. If you don't have experience with small taps, and if you know someone who does have a lot of experience, I would advise that you either let them tap the holes, or have them give you a good tutorial.

 

[feralhuman]

Even if the liners aren't hardened, tapping stainless steel using such a small tap can be dicey. And small taps can be easy to break. If you don't have experience with small taps, and if you know someone who does have a lot of experience, I would advise that you either let them tap the holes, or have them give you a good tutorial.

I'm fortunate in that my gunsmith friend is willing to work and tell me what he is doing. I pay him for the job, he lets me watch and I try to learn and stay out of his way.

Thanks a lot for all the good info. Counter sinking the screws does sound like a good way to go if I have issues with the taps. Just getting the correct taps might prove to be difficult.