- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 4,250
About a year ago I won a giveaway hosted by our friend Fausto and he sent me an Opinel #7 in carbon (thanks again Fausto!)
It was a very unusual knife for me and I wasnt exactly sure what to do with it. But i spent alot of time reading opinel threads and opinel modding threads and spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I wanted to do with it.
None of these mods are huge or anything, but modding knives is new to me, so i am pretty stoked about it...
First i shaved the handle to a more comfortable shape. I noticed in doing so, the clip point of the blade stuck out, so i had to carve the wooden liner down so i could get the blade to close. This was time consuming but finally worked.
Then i decided I wanted an easy open notch. Which i proceeded to carve out with my rough rider barlow
It actually looks like i took too much off, but i wanted to make sure I could pinch the blade open even with gloves on, so thats why its so big
Then I decided to sand off the finish, kinda orangish. I re-stained it with a rosewood stain i found at Ace Hardware. It took a couple of attempts, but i got it to where I am happy with it. Stained, sanded it with 0000 grade steel wool and re-stained and re-sanded. I think it brings out the grain pretty good
Finally, i decided to file down the clip point into more of a drop point shape. It was done by hand with a file. So its not perfect or anything, but it does fit inside the liner when i close it a little better and i like it
Oh and last night sanded down the blade attempting to sand out the grind marks, but i just didnt have the patience to do it right, but i dont think its going to affect use all that much, also i stuck it in a cup of apple cider vinegar for about 30 minutes to force a patina.
Anyways, it was a year in the making and I am pretty happy with it
so here is a few pics
It was a very unusual knife for me and I wasnt exactly sure what to do with it. But i spent alot of time reading opinel threads and opinel modding threads and spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I wanted to do with it.
None of these mods are huge or anything, but modding knives is new to me, so i am pretty stoked about it...
First i shaved the handle to a more comfortable shape. I noticed in doing so, the clip point of the blade stuck out, so i had to carve the wooden liner down so i could get the blade to close. This was time consuming but finally worked.
Then i decided I wanted an easy open notch. Which i proceeded to carve out with my rough rider barlow
It actually looks like i took too much off, but i wanted to make sure I could pinch the blade open even with gloves on, so thats why its so big
Then I decided to sand off the finish, kinda orangish. I re-stained it with a rosewood stain i found at Ace Hardware. It took a couple of attempts, but i got it to where I am happy with it. Stained, sanded it with 0000 grade steel wool and re-stained and re-sanded. I think it brings out the grain pretty good
Finally, i decided to file down the clip point into more of a drop point shape. It was done by hand with a file. So its not perfect or anything, but it does fit inside the liner when i close it a little better and i like it
Oh and last night sanded down the blade attempting to sand out the grind marks, but i just didnt have the patience to do it right, but i dont think its going to affect use all that much, also i stuck it in a cup of apple cider vinegar for about 30 minutes to force a patina.
Anyways, it was a year in the making and I am pretty happy with it
so here is a few pics
