Hey all. I thought I would share my first attempt to customize a knife with you and get/give some tips.
First, a little about why. One day I found myself perusing youtube knife videos and I stumbled on a guy named Gavkoo. He was demonstrating from start to finish how to modify a BK7. Well, I live in the middle of 50 acres of woods and have been using $10 walmart machetes and the like forever. I had decided it was time to look into getting some quality steel so after seeing the magic that Gavkoo was performing fairly easily, I decided to give it a go. (At the end of this project, I learned that Gavkoo is extremely gifted and this was not as easy as he made it look). After much consideration, I decided upon a Becker BK9 because from what I could gather about large knives, this one was one of the best "Bang for the buck" behemoths. I picked up a new one on ebay for about $70.
The first thing I did was to strip the paint using some paint stripper from walmart. If you ever decide to use this stuff, wear a mask and gloves. Its nasty. I used a stiff plastic wire brush to get the remaining paint out of all the nooks and crannies. Next thing I did was to try my hand at some forced patina work using frenchs mustard. Left it on for 40ish minutes and got a somewhat decent pattern.
I had planned this all out beforehand and had purchased some red/black micarta from USAKnifemaker for a new set of handles. Now please have mercy here as I have never done much fine wood work, so it was a little rough going at first.
Just roughing in the basic shape.
Then fine sanding for a nice smooth shape.
Old handles vs. new red/black micarta.
All done. nice and smooth.
While I was shaping the handles to be smooth with the tang, I decided to remove the breaker/hammer on the end of the hilt. I didnt have much use for it and it kind of got in the way of what I felt was comfortable.
Now that I was mostly done I took a long hard look at it and was not happy with my work at all. The patina was a little funky in spots and the finish left by the paint stripper and patina process was not at all what I had hoped for. I almost pitched the knife and vowed never to try this again. But I figured if I was going to fail at this, then I might as well get better on the knife I already jacked up.
First thing was to remove the handles. The color sucked. I found this awesome website that sells stabilized blocks of all sorts of wood. Ordered me some spalted timarand. I had never heard of this tree before but from what I could gather, it was a fairly decent hardwood.
Sliced up.
Shaped a set of handles.
Just after applying tung oil. WOW. Those colors are awesome! Yeah, I like these much better.
Now that I had a set of handles I liked, I still had to do something to that blade. I tried a whole blade vinegar patina for about 10 minutes and that just made it worse.
At this point, I didnt know what to do so the only option was to strip the blade but I had no idea if that patina would come off. I worked each side of the blade for about an hour with a heavy grit on the buffing wheel. That took care of 99% of the patina. The only thing left was an extremely faint ghost of the original mustard patina. Good enough for what was to be a hard use knife anyway.
Now that I had surprised myself and managed to turn this disaster into a nice looking project, I figured I had better quit while I was ahead. I applied a clear coat to the handles for some extra protection and ordered a sheath worthy of this miserable project. Sagewood Gear KCR Scout sheath to the rescue. What a piece of craftsmanship that sheath was. Finally done and learned a lot in the process. I still had to sharpen this beast because due to my extensive lack of skill and knowledge, I had pretty much rounded the edge to a spoon-like usefulness. That is going to be another thread because I also apparently suck at sharpening. Well, not anymore, but I will save that for later.
Sorry for the extremely long post, but I felt the need to share my frustrations and successes. If you have any tips or questions, feel free to fire away. Thanks for viewing.
First, a little about why. One day I found myself perusing youtube knife videos and I stumbled on a guy named Gavkoo. He was demonstrating from start to finish how to modify a BK7. Well, I live in the middle of 50 acres of woods and have been using $10 walmart machetes and the like forever. I had decided it was time to look into getting some quality steel so after seeing the magic that Gavkoo was performing fairly easily, I decided to give it a go. (At the end of this project, I learned that Gavkoo is extremely gifted and this was not as easy as he made it look). After much consideration, I decided upon a Becker BK9 because from what I could gather about large knives, this one was one of the best "Bang for the buck" behemoths. I picked up a new one on ebay for about $70.
The first thing I did was to strip the paint using some paint stripper from walmart. If you ever decide to use this stuff, wear a mask and gloves. Its nasty. I used a stiff plastic wire brush to get the remaining paint out of all the nooks and crannies. Next thing I did was to try my hand at some forced patina work using frenchs mustard. Left it on for 40ish minutes and got a somewhat decent pattern.
I had planned this all out beforehand and had purchased some red/black micarta from USAKnifemaker for a new set of handles. Now please have mercy here as I have never done much fine wood work, so it was a little rough going at first.
Just roughing in the basic shape.
Then fine sanding for a nice smooth shape.
Old handles vs. new red/black micarta.
All done. nice and smooth.
While I was shaping the handles to be smooth with the tang, I decided to remove the breaker/hammer on the end of the hilt. I didnt have much use for it and it kind of got in the way of what I felt was comfortable.
Now that I was mostly done I took a long hard look at it and was not happy with my work at all. The patina was a little funky in spots and the finish left by the paint stripper and patina process was not at all what I had hoped for. I almost pitched the knife and vowed never to try this again. But I figured if I was going to fail at this, then I might as well get better on the knife I already jacked up.
First thing was to remove the handles. The color sucked. I found this awesome website that sells stabilized blocks of all sorts of wood. Ordered me some spalted timarand. I had never heard of this tree before but from what I could gather, it was a fairly decent hardwood.
Sliced up.
Shaped a set of handles.
Just after applying tung oil. WOW. Those colors are awesome! Yeah, I like these much better.
Now that I had a set of handles I liked, I still had to do something to that blade. I tried a whole blade vinegar patina for about 10 minutes and that just made it worse.
At this point, I didnt know what to do so the only option was to strip the blade but I had no idea if that patina would come off. I worked each side of the blade for about an hour with a heavy grit on the buffing wheel. That took care of 99% of the patina. The only thing left was an extremely faint ghost of the original mustard patina. Good enough for what was to be a hard use knife anyway.
Now that I had surprised myself and managed to turn this disaster into a nice looking project, I figured I had better quit while I was ahead. I applied a clear coat to the handles for some extra protection and ordered a sheath worthy of this miserable project. Sagewood Gear KCR Scout sheath to the rescue. What a piece of craftsmanship that sheath was. Finally done and learned a lot in the process. I still had to sharpen this beast because due to my extensive lack of skill and knowledge, I had pretty much rounded the edge to a spoon-like usefulness. That is going to be another thread because I also apparently suck at sharpening. Well, not anymore, but I will save that for later.
Sorry for the extremely long post, but I felt the need to share my frustrations and successes. If you have any tips or questions, feel free to fire away. Thanks for viewing.
