More Tweener Mods

tjswarbrick · May 12, 2012

First, I need to thank Clich for, um, Cliching and convexing this BK-16, and letting it go at a competitive rate.
And I've gotta give props to Bladeite (sorry) Thrillbilly for tips and Wasatchdan for tutorial on stippling.
Then to blt-2-drg and C_Tanner for sheath mod info.
Now, on to mine.
Other than smoothing the pivot washers on my Para2, this is my first knife mod. All you Beckerheads gave me the confidence to try it. I know it's not perfect, but I'm extremely happy with the outcome.

Most of the work was done with the either the BK-16, a soldering iron, WSKTS, or Dremel. Of course, a number of hand tools were involved, as well.

.060 Kydex shaped into liners, to fit my XL/XXL hands.
Ground down the finger area to enable the strap to snap.
Stippled the handles for traction. Then sanded with MX180 since the dimples were a little deep and sharp.
Replaced black hardware with stainless - cut down oversize screws.
Sheath trimmed down to match the handiness of the knife.

I saw someone recommend "grape" liners, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Besides, I prefer strawberry preserves - but nothing goes better with "peanut butter" than "chocolate"!
Funniest part was, I had just completed the stippling when my wife came to see what I was up to. I told her I was fixing the handles. She grabbed the one I had just completed, and said "good - it needs to be fixed!" I let her handle my remaining unmolested black one - she liked it better. Ah well, I don't expect her to understand.

Like I said, I'm happy - but if you see anything amiss and have recommendations, I'm open to constructive criticism.
Feel free to show yours, and share how you did it.
Plus, I'd love to find a good solvent/method for cleaning the scales.
Thanks for looking!

C_Tanner · May 12, 2012

Looks grape! I mean, Great! Thats exactly how I would have liked mine to have been.

Haze240 · May 12, 2012

I may have been the one tossing around the idea of grape jelly liners in between the peanut butter scales lol. I'll still be on the lookout for some suitable purple kydex or plastic material. I like what you've done though, looks great! I just gotta go get the proper screws so I can install some blu-ray case liners I made, not purple but it'll give me an idea of whether I want thicker or thinner liners when I make a good set.

tjswarbrick · May 12, 2012

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

Haze,
I don't know where he got it, but I've seen some azwelke sheaths done in purple kydex - I'd ask him where it comes from.
KK has purple bone and stabilized wood, but I didn't see any plastic.
I couldn't find right-length screws, so I got excessively long ones and cut them down to size. Just make sure you thread a nut or two on prior to cutting.
I'm thinking of stripping and etching, and forcing a patina on, some carbon steel hardware to complement the blade - but that will be a project for another day.

brewcitymike · May 12, 2012

what did you use to do that stippling?

Haze240 · May 12, 2012

tjswarbrick said:
Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

Haze,
I don't know where he got it, but I've seen some azwelke sheaths done in purple kydex - I'd ask him where it comes from.
KK has purple bone and stabilized wood, but I didn't see any plastic.
I couldn't find right-length screws, so I got excessively long ones and cut them down to size. Just make sure you thread a nut or two on prior to cutting.
I'm thinking of stripping and etching, and forcing a patina on, some carbon steel hardware to complement the blade - but that will be a project for another day.

Thanks man, that was a great idea! I contacted Azwelke and he is sending me some pieces of Kydex to play around with. I have a feeling once I have my knife set up the way I want it, it's gonna need a new sheath, so I'll probably be throwing some monies at him in the near future.

tjswarbrick · May 13, 2012

brewcitymike said:
what did you use to do that stippling?

I flattened the tip on my Radio Shack soldering iron with the Worksharp.
Once heated up, I held the tip at each spot for 1 - 1.5 seconds, (it sounded just a little crunchy as the plastic melted away) then moved to an adjacent one.
I thought I would get bored or frustrated, but I did a little the night before, to make sure I could - then just did it while watching Mentalist, and finished before the show was over.

wasatchdan · May 13, 2012

Nicely done, Warbrick. That's some good moddin'. :thumbup:

brewcitymike · May 13, 2012

This is as far as I've gotten with mine but I'm really leaning toward the stippling or at least some line grooves for better grip. I'm also thinking of doing a atina but only to the top of the blade near the spine though it might look goofy since mine is the FG and not the saber, so there isn't any defined line for choosing the "top" of the blade. Just typing and reading it I'm now thinking of squashing that idea,lol. I do however gotta try the scale dying. I actually like the PB since it goes nice with the sheath and I enjoy things that are color coordinated

But If I can get them to some other color that will still look good in the sheath then it may have to be done. If they get messed up I can always put the black ones back on and just dye the sheath a nice charcoal gray or something like that

brewcitymike · May 13, 2012

Oh and by the way, for you 'first' mod you did a great job.:thumbup: I know exactly what you mean about getting the 'push' into modding from our fellow Heads,lol. When I joined BF back in August I only owned a BK9 and just since X-mas I've added a BK2,11&16, with a BK14 and 15 in the works. This sh!@ is addicting,lol

tjswarbrick · Jun 15, 2012

I went a little beyond...
Layed up my own "mycarta", and ground down to fit my hand.
May not be the prettiest, but they feel great, and now they're flush with the tang.
Mod # 2 & 3 - and probably the end for now. Unless I'm not happy after using it for a while.