My modded BK-7, a WIP! - New pics, pg2!

M

maethor

Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
1,648
Howdy y'all :D

Without further ado, here it is.

My BK-7 arrived here a few days ago, and of course I almost immediately started thinking about the mods I want to do to this knife.

I like it a lot so far, feels a lot lighter than you would think, but still has enough heft to chop well. Of course, living on 450sq ft in the middle of a large city doesn't give me much opportunities to chop stuff, but I'll have a day off work on Friday, and I AM getting some dirt time, no matter how hard it pours with rain.

I've started with making the sheath somewhat usable, adding a drop leg loop and a leg strap. There's still some finishing work to do, a little bit of clean up, but all in all it's pretty okay (considering it's a stock sheath :D)

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And here's the knife. Drop-pointed, de-ramped, choiled and firesteel-notched.

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The blade shape kinda reminds me of the CS Trail Master. weird.

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More detail shots:

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I love the choil, makes it easier for me to choke up on the blade and do finer work. The firesteel notch is something that I first tried on my BK-2 and I've come to like it a lot. It's also super useful for shaving fatwood into tiny little fuzzies.

The next things I want to do:

- remove that piece of metal protruding from the handle just behind the choil. I don't really like the looks of it.
- convex that sucker. Maybe I'll try to Fisk it.
- round off the swedge, so I can grab it to hold the knife like a drawknife.

I'm contemplating stripping it when the coating really wears down some day, and re-coating it with Cerakote, probably a medium gray. Think Navy ship gray. The problem is, Cerakote has to be baked on at 120°C. I know knives are tempered at temperatures above 200°C, but if the tooooj could chime in and tell me it's safe, I'd really appreciate it.

Hope you like my mods so far, feel free to share your thoughts and ideas!

take care

meat
 
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You are way off on your Cerakote bake temp...it needs to cure at 250 for two hours. Fear not as this will not damage the temper on your knife at all. I do it for a living and have done TONS of knives. 250 degrees is nowhere close to ruin a temper.
 
I think he was talking about centigrade/celsius there, hence the difference.

Loving the mods man, they look great. I actually just got my first knife with a choil on it (was gifted a BK11 by someone here, and will be working on a review of it after finals), and I love it.

I'm digging the choils, and squared spines here. And the sheath looks great as well. I had never considered that.

Keep this thing updated :).
 
Every time I see those choils on the 7s and 9s I wonder, Does it dig into your finger while you are choking up on it? Ive never handled a moded one with a choil so I'm curious. Looking good so far man. I'm contemplating taking the ramp off of my 9...........maybe after I finish some other projects.
 
Looks nice. Do those fire notches really work that good? I'm debating adding one to my modded BK-9.
 
Awesome stuff meat. What not reshaped handle and wood scales? The bk2 needs a big brother



brewcitymike said:
Looks nice. Do those fire notches really work that good? I'm debating adding one to my modded BK-9.
Click to expand...

The fire steel notch works great. Grind it out for the width firesteel you have and when you strike it in the rounded notch there is more surface area being scraped thus more, bigger sparks
 
jforbush said:
You are way off on your Cerakote bake temp...it needs to cure at 250 for two hours. Fear not as this will not damage the temper on your knife at all. I do it for a living and have done TONS of knives. 250 degrees is nowhere close to ruin a temper.
Click to expand...

Is that Fahrenheit or Celsius? Cerakote Website states 120-150°C.

Thanks guys, I'll try to take better pics Friday.
 
that thing looks AWESOME!
Where are you making all that metal dust in a 450sq/ft apt??

-Daizee
 
Great work Meat. I LOVE the choil i put on mine. Makes it 2 knives in one. Does not cut into my finger at all because i softened the edges of the choil with some emery cloth.
 
daizee said:
that thing looks AWESOME!
Where are you making all that metal dust in a 450sq/ft apt??

-Daizee
Click to expand...

Nowhere. I have a small shop that I share with a few other people, it's 20 mins from my apartment. I really need to get a belt sander, convexing knives with a 2x1, a piece of leather and some 80 grit sand paper gets a pain in the ass after a while.

I rounded off all the edges near the choil (even the blade edge, to some degree) with a flat jeweler's file. It's very comfortable for a choil that's been cut into the blade.

250°F is exactly 121°C, so we were talking about the same thing, jforbush. Thanks for the input, I'll consider it.

Stripping is definitely a go, but I don't know if I'm gonna recoat it or give it some kind of cool finish, either a very light bead blast or stonewash... I'll have to think about it.

Thanks for the kind words guys, I'll put the knife through its paces tomorrow.
 
That paracord loop on the retention strap is a good idea! I can't believe I have never seen it before. Maybe I have... who knows.

I'll be adding that to my 7 and 9 sheath for the winter. Should work much better with gloves.

Great looking 7, I want to choil mine but i have no tools or skills.

Jeremy
 
Oh, I love the black coating on that blade. On the basic model it looks utilitarian, but with your mods it's heading toward classy. Of course it won't stay that way, so maybe stripping is better. (who am I kidding, stripping is always better.)

-Daizee
 
My father told me I have to split a lot of wood tomorrow (I'm heading out to our cabin in the woods). Stripping by batoning is where it's at!
 
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