New Sebenza Owner....Question about handle finish

P

preston087

Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
166
Greetings all,
I just took the plunge. I saved for a while and just bought a Small Classic from the Chicago Custom Knife Show on Saturday. After carrying it daily for about a week the handle finish has scratches all over it. I am currently taking machine shop at college. I want to refinish my own blade but I am afraid of ruining my $300 knife? Is there anybody out there who can put a better finish on my knife handle? I dont have that much money since I just spent weeks saving for my new sebenza. Can anybody help me out?
Thanks,
Preston
 
by better you mean less prone to scratching?

the scales are ti, so are very durable. but the bead blast tends to show marks readily.

i had a large that i polished myself with 400-2000 grit sandpaper, then metal polish. wasnt quite a mirror polish, but was very smooth. scratches showed far less after i did the mod.

only problem is, you may void the warranty if you do any mods yourself.

perhaps call crk and see if they will do a polish job for you.
 
Ti's some pretty soft stuff. You MAY be able to polish it up with some steel wool and serious elbow grease and not worry about the warrantee. Like Mark says though, it's not hard to polish yourself. If you do, just make sure YOU DON'T TOUCH THE UNDERSIDE of the scales as that will not only ruin the warrantee but mess with the tight tolerances as well.

That said, it'll look great after a while of carrying and will wear on it's own and take up a cool finish if you have the patience.
 
Give it the Green-Scrubbie treatment. Then all you need to do is touch it up when needed. ;)
 
The easiest (and probably best looking) finish to maintain is to just allow the factory blast to continue to patina. Once it has a nice, uniform distribution of scratches, it looks great. You could accelerate that process by taking the knife apart, taping off the insides of the slabs and the lock bar, and applying a scratched finish - say with coarse Scotch-brite. Of course any blast or rubbed finish could also be maintained that way.

Any polishing or anodizing is going to be just as prone to scratching as the blast finish, because the substrate is still just as soft. To mitigate the softness, you would have to add another, harder material - like Micarta inlays, for example.

Another option would be to get one or more G10 top slabs made up. You could rotate them. The G10 has a harder surface, and is also easy to machine or blast texture into.

Honestly, I think the factory finish looks great as it starts to wear. That's the most "honest" finish, in which the knife's appearance tells the best story about the history of its use - assuming you don't falsify the story as described above.
 
that patina on some sebenza s pictured here on bladeforums is one reason in plus for me to get one
leave it as is, "scars" are good reminders of things ...
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. I think I'm gonna keep the Sebbie the way it is. I think I'm gonna start saving for G10 or carbon fiber top slabs.
 
A lot of knife makers stonewash the titanium lock bar side of thier knives (Hinderer-Strider). I would love to see a Sebenza with a stonewashed finish on both the front and back sides of the handle...
 
I love how a few Tanquerays turn words like warranty into warrantee :P

WHO WOULD DO THAT? :D
 
tsiloics said:
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Any polishing or anodizing is going to be just as prone to scratching as the blast finish, because the substrate is still just as soft. To mitigate the softness, you would have to add another, harder material - like Micarta inlays, for example.
Click to expand...


to be clear, it wasnt that my polished scales were more difficult to scratch, but they did not show scratches as readily as the factory finish.
 
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