My ultimate Military

GronK

GronK

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2001
Messages
19,396
I've been thinking about trying this for some time. I poured a big glass of liquid courage and went for it tonight.




Ended up with a CTS-XHP blade with RIL Titanium lock side and brown G10 back side. I was thinking about using my Orange one for the back scale but decided, with the way the value on that one is increasing I'd leave it alone. Sooo no filing or smoothing necessary, everything went right together. A bit of extra gap on the liner lock version due to operator error, crimped one bushing in the process. I suspect by tightening it up more than usual it will come back in line. Both lock normally and no sticking when thumbing to close. Altogether I'd say not a job for the neophyte. Easy to get things wrong during reassembly. My main goal was weight. The TI is just too heavy at 5.8 oz. The regular is 4.2. My orange weighs in at 4.4. The RIL with CTS and brown is now 5.3 oz and the leftover is 5.1 oz. Doesn't seem like much but it really can make a difference.
 
Looks good...maybe you can email me some pics? My set up just won't go this way...maybe G10 set up are different from my CF set ups? Dunno...I can get the M390 onto the Ti frame no problem...but I can't put the S30V blade into CF frame and make it work or even lock up...
 
GronK said:
My main goal was weight. The TI is just too heavy at 5.8 oz. The regular is 4.2. My orange weighs in at 4.4. The RIL with CTS and brown is now 5.3 oz and the leftover is 5.1 oz. Doesn't seem like much but it really can make a difference.
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Nicely done.

I have both the Military C36G weighing in at 4.2 ounces and the Military Titanium C36TI weighing in at 5.8 ounces.

That's why I'm awaiting the Military Fluted Titanium C36TIF weighing in at 5.1 ounces while looking great!

C36TIF_L.jpg


The Ti Mil Fluted features the original's ergonomics and function with an artist's eye aimed at making it as attractive as it is practical. Its titanium front scale is channeled in a seashell pattern. Exposing titanium to heat alters its' natural color, transforming it into shades of bronze, blue, purple and gray. Handle scales are heated by hand individually, resulting in a completely unique-colored scale for each knife.
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1SHOT1KILL said:
Looks good...maybe you can email me some pics? My set up just won't go this way...maybe G10 set up are different from my CF set ups? Dunno...I can get the M390 onto the Ti frame no problem...but I can't put the S30V blade into CF frame and make it work or even lock up...
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See post #8 below!
 
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I've been lucky I guess, and that my swaps have gone well. I've really only had one Ti Military, and the blade from my M390 went into that one. I had a CPM-M4 Military whose framelock side I kept, and I was able to get a Ti non-lock scale for it from a fellow member who used a brown G10 scale on his Ti Military. The black S30V blade from my Digicam went into the CF/M390 handle, and the satin S30V from the Ti Military went into the Digicam. Lockup and centering is also pretty much perfect on them too. Also eventually upgraded the screws to T8's and put standoffs in all of them.

militaries.jpg
 
Awesome Gronk! So do you like it better that way?
I think I would actually prefer the liner lock version. Because my only complaint about the G10 version is it's relative flexxy-ness.
 
1SHOT1KILL said:
Looks good...maybe you can email me some pics? My set up just won't go this way...maybe G10 set up are different from my CF set ups? Dunno...I can get the M390 onto the Ti frame no problem...but I can't put the S30V blade into CF frame and make it work or even lock up...
Click to expand...

Whoops! My bad. I went to set up the knives this morning and discovered the LL version pivot was not screwing down properly. The liner lock insert has the flat for the pivot index 180 out from the titanium side and was crush fitting against the end of the pivot pin. I removed the liner, rounded the hole, smoothed the pin and all is well. There is plenty of index provided by the ti side! I suspect this may have been your problem with the CF.
 
Yessir. I've been drinking some expensive single malts but broke out my bottle of Bulleit Rye last night. Only a couple of drams but that's some potent stuff. Interesting side note is that the liner lock version, now that it's modified to go together properly has the best blade centering I've ever seen on a Mili!
 
1SHOT1KILL said:
Looks good...maybe you can email me some pics? My set up just won't go this way...maybe G10 set up are different from my CF set ups? Dunno...I can get the M390 onto the Ti frame no problem...but I can't put the S30V blade into CF frame and make it work or even lock up...
Click to expand...
Each blade is fit by hand with the lock bar was my understanding. That would explain the difficulty.
 
Always possible I guess. My sample of 2 (not statistically significant) matched up pretty close. The LL engages at what I consider to be the minimum safe amount, a bit more than the width of the liner, and the RIL goes a bit past 50%. Close enough for me!
 
A little more information I've come up with. While playing with adjustments to smooth and lighten the action to be close to the unmodified orange I discovered the indents for the retaining balls are different sizes. I'm not equipped to start machining and drilling and searching for a proper ball bearing so I returned all to original configurations. They would work as they were modified but not perfectly. Oh well it was an interesting experiment and I learned some things in the process. At my age that's a good thing!
 
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