Hey everyone,
Not sure if this is the right forum but i decided it fit better in the Spyderco forum than in any other. This wont interest many, but I just wanted to share my first scale making experience. Boy was it a journey.
Recently, I got the Native 5 that i had been wanting for some time. It was my first REAL spyderco and i was completely blown away by the quality. It was incredibly well made and felt absolutely perfect in hand.
BUT, i couldnt help thinking that it would be so much better with a little carbon fiber on it. I guess its just the "grass is always greener" syndrome i seem to posses. i thought hey, maybe i could find someone who makes custom scales, they cant be THAT much can they? WRONG. Everyone i asked quoted their price at well over $130. So... seeing that i had just dropped $124 on the knife, i wasnt quite willing to pay more for just the scales. I decided instead while browsing the web that i would make them myself. I found a place in the UK that sold a small peice of carbon fiber that was the right thickness and large enough to give me enough room to make 2-3 sets. I thought to myself, why do people charge so much for making these things anyway, it cant be THAT hard can it? Wrong again.
When it arrived, i was extremely excited and immediately got to work. I first outlined the knife on the back of the carbon fiber sheet to give me a general idea of the shape, and proceeded to cut it out within a few millimeters of the drawn edge. Using a dremel it didnt take too long, but it was somewhat difficult to keep on the right path when following the curves of the handle. That was something i hadnt really taken into account: the fact that i would have to precisely follow all of the curves and bevels to make it look and feel right. Ill be honest, it was pretty intimidating, but i plowed on anyway. I was determined to make it work
Eventually, i had dremelled it to the point where it was within 2 millimeters of the lines i had scribed onto the material. Now came the sanding. Boy was that fun
It took me three days in total to make the scales, two and a half of which were spent sanding it to perfection. I used 100 grit for the bulk of the sanding, but quickly realised that that wouldnt cut it for the fine tuning. So i transitioned to 220 and 400 grit for the finer stuff and eventually worked my way down to around 1000 grit for polishing the edges. Then the last step was to drill the holes. I decided to go with the no pocket clip holes design to make it look cleaner and more gentlemanly. But man was it hard to get the holes for the screws just right. That alone took me a couple of hours due to how difficult it was trying to make sure i was drilling in the exact right spots and then having to taper and countersink each one properly so that the screw would sit flush. With only a drill press and a terrible harbor freight drill bit set, this was incredibly annoying. After a few minutes, the right sized drill bit broke and i had to go down a size and widen the holes with a thin round file. Yeah that took some time and is the reason why in the pics you might see that around the screws, it looks a bit off.
But finally, at some ridiculously late hour of the night, i stumbled out of the tool shed, ripped off my dust mask and held up my almost perfect scales triumphantly shouting "It's ALIVE!"
They sure werent pretty to any casual observer, but after working for 3 days on them and watching them slowly develop into the scales i wanted, they were the most beautiful things in the world. They were not quite lined up with the liners when i first tried them on, and were extremely uncomfortable due to the sharp corners i had forgotten to radius, but i still loved them
These pictures were of the original product, and youll notice MANY imperfections, but i have since fine tuned them much further and they now line up properly and feel great in hand (not perfect, but since theyre so unique and i made them myself, they are still way better that the original G10). They also unfortunately have zero traction, but are still ok since their intended use is for a somewhat dressy edc knife and something to take to places like Canada where i want to make sure the police dont give me trouble (places where i wouldnt want to take my 586)
Sorry for the long winded post. Most probably wont care about my story, but i figured why not share it anyway?
Here are some pics of the "rough draft" before finalizing. I dont have any pics of the final product but these will at least give you an idea. First time posting pics so they might not work
Not sure if this is the right forum but i decided it fit better in the Spyderco forum than in any other. This wont interest many, but I just wanted to share my first scale making experience. Boy was it a journey.
Recently, I got the Native 5 that i had been wanting for some time. It was my first REAL spyderco and i was completely blown away by the quality. It was incredibly well made and felt absolutely perfect in hand.
BUT, i couldnt help thinking that it would be so much better with a little carbon fiber on it. I guess its just the "grass is always greener" syndrome i seem to posses. i thought hey, maybe i could find someone who makes custom scales, they cant be THAT much can they? WRONG. Everyone i asked quoted their price at well over $130. So... seeing that i had just dropped $124 on the knife, i wasnt quite willing to pay more for just the scales. I decided instead while browsing the web that i would make them myself. I found a place in the UK that sold a small peice of carbon fiber that was the right thickness and large enough to give me enough room to make 2-3 sets. I thought to myself, why do people charge so much for making these things anyway, it cant be THAT hard can it? Wrong again.
When it arrived, i was extremely excited and immediately got to work. I first outlined the knife on the back of the carbon fiber sheet to give me a general idea of the shape, and proceeded to cut it out within a few millimeters of the drawn edge. Using a dremel it didnt take too long, but it was somewhat difficult to keep on the right path when following the curves of the handle. That was something i hadnt really taken into account: the fact that i would have to precisely follow all of the curves and bevels to make it look and feel right. Ill be honest, it was pretty intimidating, but i plowed on anyway. I was determined to make it work
Eventually, i had dremelled it to the point where it was within 2 millimeters of the lines i had scribed onto the material. Now came the sanding. Boy was that fun
It took me three days in total to make the scales, two and a half of which were spent sanding it to perfection. I used 100 grit for the bulk of the sanding, but quickly realised that that wouldnt cut it for the fine tuning. So i transitioned to 220 and 400 grit for the finer stuff and eventually worked my way down to around 1000 grit for polishing the edges. Then the last step was to drill the holes. I decided to go with the no pocket clip holes design to make it look cleaner and more gentlemanly. But man was it hard to get the holes for the screws just right. That alone took me a couple of hours due to how difficult it was trying to make sure i was drilling in the exact right spots and then having to taper and countersink each one properly so that the screw would sit flush. With only a drill press and a terrible harbor freight drill bit set, this was incredibly annoying. After a few minutes, the right sized drill bit broke and i had to go down a size and widen the holes with a thin round file. Yeah that took some time and is the reason why in the pics you might see that around the screws, it looks a bit off.
But finally, at some ridiculously late hour of the night, i stumbled out of the tool shed, ripped off my dust mask and held up my almost perfect scales triumphantly shouting "It's ALIVE!"
They sure werent pretty to any casual observer, but after working for 3 days on them and watching them slowly develop into the scales i wanted, they were the most beautiful things in the world. They were not quite lined up with the liners when i first tried them on, and were extremely uncomfortable due to the sharp corners i had forgotten to radius, but i still loved them
These pictures were of the original product, and youll notice MANY imperfections, but i have since fine tuned them much further and they now line up properly and feel great in hand (not perfect, but since theyre so unique and i made them myself, they are still way better that the original G10). They also unfortunately have zero traction, but are still ok since their intended use is for a somewhat dressy edc knife and something to take to places like Canada where i want to make sure the police dont give me trouble (places where i wouldnt want to take my 586)
Sorry for the long winded post. Most probably wont care about my story, but i figured why not share it anyway?
Here are some pics of the "rough draft" before finalizing. I dont have any pics of the final product but these will at least give you an idea. First time posting pics so they might not work
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glad that you could smile and be happy when you where done. Hopefully you wore some good respiratory masks. Carbon fiber is tiny tiny dust that gets everywhere. Especially your lungs. Very dangerous stuff. 
