Modified Production Knives (traditional only)

Rose and Thistle Custom said:
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Very cool.

JohnDF said:
Jack Black's SFO 2019 Guardian came with a very squared-off finish on the Ironwood.
It looked very nice but I didn't like the feel in-hand all that much. So I set out to fix it.
After a little sandpaper and a good oil rub-down, I'm liking the smoother profile much better.

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Nice work. That’s how it starts, next you’ll tighten up some blade wobble, start fixing some of those imperfections and then you’ll start doing some recovers not long after that.

Signalprick said:
I finished up this old little GEC 25 today. Cleaned up the blade and gave it a satin finish. Recovered in old 60's era linen micarta I salvaged from junk railroad battery rectifiers. She's a smooth and snappy operator now!
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That’s some nice work, cool that it’s salvaged micarta.

Terdl76 said:
A bit of B&W ebony on a #85
https://imgur.com/a/om0yMfW
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Very nice. But B&W ebony? I’m sure I’ll feel foolish when you answer, but what is B&W?

hornetguy said:
Very nice... but depressing. After seeing you guys' work, I realize just how far I have to go.... great job!
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I saw your recover a couple pages back it was very good, so I’d say that you don’t have far to go.
I’m also glad this thread is getting some more traffic

Here’s one I worked on last night. Switched out the blade and it’s position and put in a nail nick cutout.
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Thanks Josh, I’ve been wanting to do it for a while but i was nervous to break the acrylic which I like and it took a minute to get the sunbrite acrylic version. Something about it just seems to lend itself to a bar type tool. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Some of the older GECs can be really difficult to get apart (which this one was) like they just peined them more before.
 
hornetguy said:
Very nice... but depressing. After seeing you guys' work, I realize just how far I have to go.... great job!
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I’ll take that as a complement. I used to feel the same way. I’ve really only been modding knives for about a year. Actually, started quite a few years ago, but life happened and put any and all things to do with knives or any hobby on hold for a while. Don’t get discouraged. Keep plugging away.
 
My second rebuild... started life as a Kutmaster electrician's knife.. somewhere down the line, the screwdriver blade was broken. I acquired it for the princely sum of about $8, with the intention of modding it. I took it apart, got rid of the broken blade, and put it back together as a single spear point. I was disappointed that after attaching the scale on one side, there was a slight gap, from the bolster not being "square". Live and learn.
This was also my first time to put a pin through the liner only, not all the way through. The pin close to the bolster is a liner pin. The pivot pin was slightly undersized for the hole in the blade, but it doesn't seem to affect the blade operation at all.
To be honest, I cannot remember what the wood is I used... I thought it was zebra wood, but I think it's a little tight grained for that. I need to go back to the vendor and find out what it was I bought.
Anyway, here are a few before and after pics.

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I got started on this #93 last week then had to put it on hold due to some big projects at my "real job". Just got those all finished up last night so I'm looking forward to spending some time on the bench the next few days! Whaddya guys say? Black paper, double bomb and some hand rubbed goodness? My first shield Inlay. I'm excited for this one!!
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mrknife said:
everyone doing mods, how are you guys dealing with the centering issue?
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I’ve only done a handful of rehandles, so I’m pretty naive. I just go for it and hope for the best. So far it has worked out well. I’ve had one that rubbed the liner and I think my pivot pin was too long and got a slight curve when I peened which moved things a bit and put the blade off center.
 
Signalprick said:
What is the issue? You mean just getting the blade to center? I use .002 shims on either side of the blade and peen away.
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oo i dont do any modding or not serious modding any more since the 48 two blade debacle where I sent Glennbadd a bag of parts. im more curious to see how modders are fixing the centering issue once they finish rehafting.
 
mrknife said:
oo i dont do any modding or not serious modding any more since the 48 two blade debacle where I sent Glennbadd a bag of parts. im more curious to see how modders are fixing the centering issue once they finish rehafting.
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mrknife said:
oo i dont do any modding or not serious modding any more since the 48 two blade debacle where I sent Glennbadd a bag of parts. im more curious to see how modders are fixing the centering issue once they finish rehafting.
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If the blades were centered before rehafting they should be after as well. It's usually operator error that results in them being off I would think. Sacto Sacto is correct. Dont leave your pivot pin too long and obviously dont peen too tight. It's definitely an art form in and of itself. One that I am personally continually learning myself.
 
Signalprick said:
If the blades were centered before rehafting they should be after as well. It's usually operator error that results in them being off I would think. Sacto Sacto is correct. Dont leave your pivot pin too long and obviously dont peen too tight. It's definitely an art form in and of itself. One that I am personally continually learning myself.
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i hear that, I once worked with a modder who did such a terrible job I ended up selling the knife cause it was so poorly done.
 
That's a noble and lofty goal, especially for production knives. While I am a big fan of well built precision knives, many of the knives I work on, especially older ones, do not have centered blades. Far from it, in fact. I understand that we get spoiled by well crafted knives from makers like GEC, but we do the best we can with what we are given. Anything other than a custom, I think may be an exercise in frustration. At the end of the day, if you end up with a knife that has good action and no side to side play, that's a solid win.
 
mrknife said:
everyone doing mods, how are you guys dealing with the centering issue?
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Sacto said:
I’ve only done a handful of rehandles, so I’m pretty naive. I just go for it and hope for the best. So far it has worked out well. I’ve had one that rubbed the liner and I think my pivot pin was too long and got a slight curve when I peened which moved things a bit and put the blade off center.
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I think these are correct if it’s just a recover and everything is done right, it should fit together more or less the same as before. If you are doing blade swaps and such, things are less likely to fit together from the centering to the spring thickness (I’ve had the springs where they came from theoretically the same knife and they were at least a sixteenth off everywhere). Sometimes it seems that the original knife had centering issues that were adjusted for and they come back when the knife is put together again. You can put the blade in a vise a little less than a quarter inch from the bolsters and bend it. This does any combination of three things though and needs to be taken into account. It can bend the blade and/or loosen the joint and/or bend the frame. You can reduce the amount that the joint gets loosened by putting a small clamp where the pin is. As far as bending the blade or the frame, I think the knife should choose, but whichever one is bending I think you need to go in opposite directions to get the centering correct. It’s a lot of minor adjustments or it ends up making the blade wobble and you are piening the pin again.
Edit: p.s. I don’t necessarily recommend it, I have a 72 that I got that was pretty far off center and I hadn’t tried blade straightening too many times. It is now sitting in my basement because I couldn’t get it quite right and also tight and wasn’t that jazzed about the knife to begin with so I got annoyed and walked away.
 
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