- Joined
- Mar 31, 2012
- Messages
- 3,379
Hello all,
This is definitely no a bragging thread, but I did want to show others what I did to my Griptilian in case anyone wants to try it out (and likely do a hell of a lot better job might I add).
So a little background first. A few years ago, I bought my wife a new Griptilian from the BM Custom Shop. I settled on the modified sheepsfoot blade, which I don't prefer, just because she was used to the "spydie" hole. I made several prototypes using their software and low and behold I ordered the wrong one. I wound up with a large instead of a small
Well, long story short, it was too big for her and she never really carried it or used it. It sat in a drawer in our bathroom for over a year being neglected. I never carried it because the handle scales were pink, it had hearts laser engraved on it, and like I said, I was never a big fan of the sheepsfoot. The other day I pulled it out and darn if it wasn't one of the smoothest Axis-locks I have ever handled. Locked up tight, was centered, and opened like it was on ball bearings. The hollow-grind also sliced like the dickens.
I figured that something needed to be done to get this in the rotation. I had previously considered sending it off for a regrind and then I would try and find some different scales. I also though about sending it back to BM to have the blade replaced and also upgrade to the new G10 scales while it was there. Well I am too cheap for all that, so I decided if I could just get it to a point that I would carry it myself.
So last night I tried to sand off the engravings. I didn't do a great job at that, but at least it wasn't noticeable as it was before. Then I did some sanding on the blade with some sand paper. The idea was to remove some of the "hump" on top of the spine as I never really cared for the look. I wanted to turn the modified sheepsfoot into more of a modified drop point. Today, I wanted to do something with the scales.
Pink just wouldn't cut it for me. I did some research on what color of Rit Dye to buy, but I wasn't really successful on figuring out a good color mix. I finally just bought something called "graphite" and figured I would just go dark with it. I followed the instructions and got a pretty cool color IMHO. My crappy pics wont do it justice, but its kind of a dark gray with a purple tint. If I had to do it over again, I would have took it out of the dye a bit quicker just to get more of the lighter purple tint. Anyway I am happy with it, a lot better that the pink to me.
Here it is now:
Again, I am not putting this on here to show what an awesome custom knife I made. The end result is still very rough. I just wanted everyone to see how easy it is to change the blade shape with just some simple sandpaper and to change the color with just some water and dye. like I said before, if someone wanted to spend more time with it, they could really do a good job with it, but it makes me happy
This is definitely no a bragging thread, but I did want to show others what I did to my Griptilian in case anyone wants to try it out (and likely do a hell of a lot better job might I add).
So a little background first. A few years ago, I bought my wife a new Griptilian from the BM Custom Shop. I settled on the modified sheepsfoot blade, which I don't prefer, just because she was used to the "spydie" hole. I made several prototypes using their software and low and behold I ordered the wrong one. I wound up with a large instead of a small
Well, long story short, it was too big for her and she never really carried it or used it. It sat in a drawer in our bathroom for over a year being neglected. I never carried it because the handle scales were pink, it had hearts laser engraved on it, and like I said, I was never a big fan of the sheepsfoot. The other day I pulled it out and darn if it wasn't one of the smoothest Axis-locks I have ever handled. Locked up tight, was centered, and opened like it was on ball bearings. The hollow-grind also sliced like the dickens.
I figured that something needed to be done to get this in the rotation. I had previously considered sending it off for a regrind and then I would try and find some different scales. I also though about sending it back to BM to have the blade replaced and also upgrade to the new G10 scales while it was there. Well I am too cheap for all that, so I decided if I could just get it to a point that I would carry it myself.
So last night I tried to sand off the engravings. I didn't do a great job at that, but at least it wasn't noticeable as it was before. Then I did some sanding on the blade with some sand paper. The idea was to remove some of the "hump" on top of the spine as I never really cared for the look. I wanted to turn the modified sheepsfoot into more of a modified drop point. Today, I wanted to do something with the scales.
Pink just wouldn't cut it for me. I did some research on what color of Rit Dye to buy, but I wasn't really successful on figuring out a good color mix. I finally just bought something called "graphite" and figured I would just go dark with it. I followed the instructions and got a pretty cool color IMHO. My crappy pics wont do it justice, but its kind of a dark gray with a purple tint. If I had to do it over again, I would have took it out of the dye a bit quicker just to get more of the lighter purple tint. Anyway I am happy with it, a lot better that the pink to me.
Here it is now:
Again, I am not putting this on here to show what an awesome custom knife I made. The end result is still very rough. I just wanted everyone to see how easy it is to change the blade shape with just some simple sandpaper and to change the color with just some water and dye. like I said before, if someone wanted to spend more time with it, they could really do a good job with it, but it makes me happy
