Mods I have done with Mr. Dremel, let's see...
Starting with my original Gerber LST I put on some fingernail grooves along the spine so I could open the thing. How Gerber forgot to do it I will never know. Where the blade meets the choil I used the cutting wheel to put in a wire stripping notch that also helps make short work of heavy monofilament fishing leaders. Due to some damage on the butt of the handle, I ended up putting finger grooves on it, and sanded them smooth. I reprofiled the tip after I broke it. I ended up wearing my LST to a nub, and the blade is only about an 1 1/2" long.
My next knife was a serrated SOG auto clip. THE first thing I did was pull out the pin that fastened on thclip, and ditched the thumbwheel. I had some small stiif coil springs lying around, and one just so happend to fit in the hole where the thumbwheel used to be. This has been the absolute best plastic clip I have ever seen or used. It is always under constant tension, and despite having been snagged on several occasions, it has never broken. I also removed the blade from the handle, and polished the radius that the lock rides on, as well as the flats where the zytel handle makes contact in the hinge area. This smoothed up the action considerably. To make adjusting blade tension a little less of a chore I used the cutting wheel to cut slots in the heads of the hex screws that hold the pivot pin. I put my now beloved wirestripping notch in the blade, and removed the last 1/8" of the tip of the blade (it was too skinny for my tastes and would have broken anyways
) and reprofiled it. This knife has been a constant companion for three years, and has never let me down. If you ever want a cheap knife to beat the %^$# out of, the SOG auto clip is it. I have thrown it into hard wood floors, at squirrels, missed squirrels and hit trees, thrown at walls, dropped on floors, hammered on the spine to split small logs, hammered it from the end to remove rusted on heater hoses, used it as a screwdriver, pryed, poked, stuck, stabbed, sliced, diced, smeared peanutbutter, cleaned fish, birds, rabbits, etc. , cut, chopped, stirred my coffee, and amazed my friends with this knife. Not bad for 440a, I can't wait to see what this ATS34 Ascent will do.
For my next trick, I Dremeled the heck out of my large Ascent. I posted those mods under my review of the Ascent & Goddard already, so I won't waste bandwidth by repeating myself. I will say that My Ascent turned out pretty darn nice. After I polished it, it cut way better than before, and the reprofiled tip is much more useful to me than the original point. Polishing the blade also removed all of the writing & logos (I hate that stuff, it is a knife, not a !@#$%^& billboard). I did not put a wire stripping notch in it because I now have a Leatherman. I may put some grooves along the topstrap of the handle, as someone had recomended in a post under my review (I can't remember who right now, but THANKS!). But for now, I think I am done.
For the record, I must admit that My work on the ascent was the first time that I was actually trying to make the knife look better. My daily carry knives suffer alot of abuse, but the ATS34 was screaming to be buffed up. It is a really bright colored steel. It has been my expreience that 440a has a duller gray color, but I might be seeing things.
Oh, I almost forgot my VG. As the knife butcher that I am, I have performed some of my most brutal work to my VG, but I think that it is better because of it. I used the grinding wheel, and re-serrated the blade, every spot that suffered from those infernal microserrations, I attacked with the 1/2" grinding wheel, and made them into a single, deeper, serration. The new edge is just flipping wicked. For just general whacking purposes, it is the bomb, and it still makes short work of onions in the kitchen too. I also attacked a clip to it (clip donated by my ill fated Apache, and the threaded brass ferrules came from my STIFF kiss's sheath). I drilled an 1/8" hole aproxamately where I wanted the clip, and used my soldering irn to heat up, and force the ferrule into place. After the area cooled, I attached the clip, and with a 3/16" drill bit, marked where the other two holes would go. I removed the clip, drilled out the hole, and repeated the process. It has been on there for three months now, and has yet to fail me. The best feature is that only a small portion of the handle protrudes from my pocket, and does not hint to the 6" of steel I am carrying hehehehehe.
This brings me to my Stiff KISS. Basically, I buzzed the sheath down to its bare essentials. I did not plan to carry it any other way than as a neck knife, so all of the other holes were useless. Also, in its original form, the sheath did not ride comfortably under my shirt, the edges rubbed against my pecs and made the whole thing protrude so it was easily seen under my shirt. It is now smothed out, and does not show unless I stretch, even when under a t-shirt (YMMV, I am not very skinny, and I have larger than average pecs).
I use my dremel on everything. I do not own a gun that has not seen the polishing wheel (I gave my Ruger 22/45 stainless a full polish job, it looks sweet!). I do not know what I would do without it.
YeK
[This message has been edited by Yekim (edited 28 January 1999).]
