need some to grind my knife tip down - Seattle area

T

TooManyFolders

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Sep 23, 2003
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I bought a CRKT Bear Claw 2510 (http://www.crkt.com/bearclaw.html) with the tear-drop tip a long time ago, and at the time I didn't realize that what I really wanted was the sharpened tip. It's been unused in the closet for years, so too late to return for an exchange.

I looked around in the yellow pages for some knifemakers in my hometown of Bellevue, WA without much luck. I'd like to either get the tip ground down to a sharp point by someone that knows what they're doing, or maybe I should just trade or unload it and buy the 2515 with the sharp tip, I dunno. They're only $40 new...

Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
Since you're obviously not acquainted with a knifemaker who would do this for a small fee, you should probably buy a new one.
You'd have to pay for shipping twice and the result will be a smaller knife (or a weaker tip section if he grinds down the back of the blade).
 
It's not very difficult to do it yourself. A garage tool shop can be used to modify and even make knives. If you have a belt sander and a cup of cold water, you can do it. Work on the spine with the sander and dunk frequently to keep the heat down. Use a fresh coarse belt only, the other ones just generate heat and don't remove metal fast enough. The finish is bead blast, and you'll end up with a shiny spot on the spine near the tip, but that's just cosmetic. Don't get it too hot. If you see colors appearing on the steel, that's way to hot, don't let that happen. Use a finer belt later on if the coarse grind lines on the spine bug you, but again watch out for heat and don't use dull belts.

bearclaw.jpg
 
awesome graphic Chang!

but a more pedestrian approach is simply to slap the thing in a vise and go at it with a file, for those of us without belt-grinders. I find that small jeweller's-type files seem to work best when modifying knives. It should take 5-10 minutes & will leave a shiny spot in the finish where the metal was removed. Be careful!

Oh hey, if you don't want to risk your own fingers, I think knifemaker Rod Chappell has a shop in a gunshop/gunrange up in Montlake Terrace, around 220th on the I-5.
 
The gun range (Continental Sports…or something like that) has been closed for about a couple years (or more). But SOG Specialty Knives is only about half a mile down the road from there (in Lynnwood). Ask for Vinny, but the catch is whether he’ll work on a non-SOG knife. You might need to sign a waver releasing him from responsibility if you’re not happy with what he does. I trust him to touch any of my knives...anytime...for any reason!
 
I have modified the tip of my Puma hunters pal from drop point to clip with a half round file and finished with a Dremel, took some elbow grease but came out just fine.

I you do it yourself don´t forget to cover the edge well with tape to prevent serious accidents.
 
A Dremel or a file should work just fine. I modified my Kershaw Random Task with a Dremel and file and it looks great (well, I think so at least)!

~Mitch
 
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