- Joined
- Jan 6, 2007
- Messages
- 1,379
Since you Beckerheads make me feel envious and inadequate because of my unmodified Beckers, I decided to go ahead and start off my custom BK&T collection with my BK-2.
First off, I know nothing about metalwork. I pretty much suck at working with my hands, which is an intolerable state of affairs I seek to remedy.
I suck at paint stripping, too.
My first try at stripping the finish didn't go so well. That factory finish is tough stuff. I got some Citristrip and put it on, letting the thing sit for ninety minutes. This did absolutely nothing. So I let it sit some more. Nope. Six hours later and the finish on the BK-2 was unfazed. I couldn't take it off with a scraper and a wire brush. The only thing I could figure is that it was too cold outside for the Citristrip to work.
The directions say 65-85 degrees is the range you want for Citristrip to work right. So I set it aside and went back to the store to get something different, and wait for the weather to heat up. Yesterday would have been a perfect day to start modding my knife, since is was sunny and warm, but my training group decided to get together and hit the mountains for some black-rifle-and-Glocktastic shooting, so I bundled up my gear and headed out. By the time I got home in the late afternoon, I just wanted to take a nap and get my weekly Claudia Black fix by watching Farscape reruns on Netflix. So I did that instead. No regrets.
Well, I put my mind to getting this thing stripped today and finally got the BK-2 down to bare metal this afternoon. I used some really hot paint stripper and let it sit for an hour before I took a plastic scraper to the knife. Most of the finish came off pretty easy, but there were still stubborn spots all over that wouldn't let go, so I poured some more stripper on the knife and let it sit for another hour. Nearly everything came off by then, so I called it good and took the knife inside to work on it some more.
Turns out that underneath the finish is a lot of imperfections, which are par for the course, of course.
Possibly because of the stripper being applied twice and left on for two hours, there was a weird kind of orange and blue patina already being formed on the blade, with the rest of the knife pretty rough-looking as well. There were the usual tiny pits in places and machine marks all over, especially the spine around the grip. I didn't need to remove them all. Like most of you guys, I kind of like the imperfections. They give the knife a little character. But I did want to get the metal on the cutting surface as smooth as possible so it will move through the things I'm cutting with ease.
First, I used some 100 grit paper on the knife to get all the remaining finish off the BK-2, running the paper in the same direction every time to get a brushed look going. The 100 grit made the blade pretty rough-looking, so after I used the 100 grit for about twenty minutes I switched to 400 grit. This worked pretty well and made the secondary bevel nice and smooth. I finished off the whole knife with some #0000 steel wool, which really put a shine on it.
I like how it turned out. Gonna have to take a better pic tomorrow in the daylight. My house has crappy lighting for pictures.
Since the sanding and other stuff had dulled the edge somewhat, I free-handed the knife across my Norton stone a few times before making a few passes through my Smith's pocket sharpener. Then I used the back of a notebook to hone the edge and finished it off by stropping it on the palm of my hand a dozen times. Scary sharp. I used the knife to cut my marinated and grilled chicken for dinner tonight. You wouldn't think a knife that thick could slice through such tender meat without tearing it, but the edge sailed through it like a razor. Very good steel. That Campanion is a man's knife.
Still, I need to have somebody give this thing a Fisking, since I don't have a belt grinder. Can you do the Fisking method without one?
It's not finished yet. I'm going to add a choil and probably some jimping to the back of the blade. I'm also going to cut some decorative file work on the spine at the handle area before I round the spine of the blade area with a file. I'll replace the nuts and screws with stainless hardware. The grivory scales will get a grooved texture (I'm only keeping them for backup parts), and the whole knife is going to be blued when I'm finished. I might put a clear coat on the grip section after that to protect it from rust. We'll see.
Finally, I'm looking at some cocobolo or micarta scales and a nice leather sheath from Skystorm to complete the package. I love his leather work.
This is going to take a few weeks, probably, unless I start feeling the bug to hurry it up. I can't do any of the real work at home, since I don't have enough of the right power tools to get the job done. Most of the file, grinder, and Dremel stuff is going to happen in the shop at work, so I'll probably just do my mods at lunch and after I clock out for the day.
First off, I know nothing about metalwork. I pretty much suck at working with my hands, which is an intolerable state of affairs I seek to remedy.
I suck at paint stripping, too.
My first try at stripping the finish didn't go so well. That factory finish is tough stuff. I got some Citristrip and put it on, letting the thing sit for ninety minutes. This did absolutely nothing. So I let it sit some more. Nope. Six hours later and the finish on the BK-2 was unfazed. I couldn't take it off with a scraper and a wire brush. The only thing I could figure is that it was too cold outside for the Citristrip to work.
The directions say 65-85 degrees is the range you want for Citristrip to work right. So I set it aside and went back to the store to get something different, and wait for the weather to heat up. Yesterday would have been a perfect day to start modding my knife, since is was sunny and warm, but my training group decided to get together and hit the mountains for some black-rifle-and-Glocktastic shooting, so I bundled up my gear and headed out. By the time I got home in the late afternoon, I just wanted to take a nap and get my weekly Claudia Black fix by watching Farscape reruns on Netflix. So I did that instead. No regrets.
Well, I put my mind to getting this thing stripped today and finally got the BK-2 down to bare metal this afternoon. I used some really hot paint stripper and let it sit for an hour before I took a plastic scraper to the knife. Most of the finish came off pretty easy, but there were still stubborn spots all over that wouldn't let go, so I poured some more stripper on the knife and let it sit for another hour. Nearly everything came off by then, so I called it good and took the knife inside to work on it some more.
Turns out that underneath the finish is a lot of imperfections, which are par for the course, of course.
Possibly because of the stripper being applied twice and left on for two hours, there was a weird kind of orange and blue patina already being formed on the blade, with the rest of the knife pretty rough-looking as well. There were the usual tiny pits in places and machine marks all over, especially the spine around the grip. I didn't need to remove them all. Like most of you guys, I kind of like the imperfections. They give the knife a little character. But I did want to get the metal on the cutting surface as smooth as possible so it will move through the things I'm cutting with ease.
First, I used some 100 grit paper on the knife to get all the remaining finish off the BK-2, running the paper in the same direction every time to get a brushed look going. The 100 grit made the blade pretty rough-looking, so after I used the 100 grit for about twenty minutes I switched to 400 grit. This worked pretty well and made the secondary bevel nice and smooth. I finished off the whole knife with some #0000 steel wool, which really put a shine on it.
I like how it turned out. Gonna have to take a better pic tomorrow in the daylight. My house has crappy lighting for pictures.
Since the sanding and other stuff had dulled the edge somewhat, I free-handed the knife across my Norton stone a few times before making a few passes through my Smith's pocket sharpener. Then I used the back of a notebook to hone the edge and finished it off by stropping it on the palm of my hand a dozen times. Scary sharp. I used the knife to cut my marinated and grilled chicken for dinner tonight. You wouldn't think a knife that thick could slice through such tender meat without tearing it, but the edge sailed through it like a razor. Very good steel. That Campanion is a man's knife.
Still, I need to have somebody give this thing a Fisking, since I don't have a belt grinder. Can you do the Fisking method without one?
It's not finished yet. I'm going to add a choil and probably some jimping to the back of the blade. I'm also going to cut some decorative file work on the spine at the handle area before I round the spine of the blade area with a file. I'll replace the nuts and screws with stainless hardware. The grivory scales will get a grooved texture (I'm only keeping them for backup parts), and the whole knife is going to be blued when I'm finished. I might put a clear coat on the grip section after that to protect it from rust. We'll see.
Finally, I'm looking at some cocobolo or micarta scales and a nice leather sheath from Skystorm to complete the package. I love his leather work.
This is going to take a few weeks, probably, unless I start feeling the bug to hurry it up. I can't do any of the real work at home, since I don't have enough of the right power tools to get the job done. Most of the file, grinder, and Dremel stuff is going to happen in the shop at work, so I'll probably just do my mods at lunch and after I clock out for the day.
