Next Up CQC14 frame lock conversion with a twist

[STR]

I have had this one here like a lot of these now, for quite a while.

It is next on the chopping block so to speak, so may as well try to convey what I intend for this one.

I will if I succeed not only convert this one to a frame lock in .140 thickness but I will also be tweaking the handle shape again with this one for yet another first.

In the end it will be a redesign of the pivot end of this folder effectively doing two things at the same time at the request of the owner, Friz.

I will be extending the front of the handle to cover the blade more where it exposes the lock contact area. Many of you 14 owners will be familar with this area if you have noted a sharp area near the contact where the blade just barely hangs over the liners and scales when the blade is closed. (see pic).

My new scales for both sides will extend farther out and more than is needed because the end result will be enough to make the blade measure at or very near a true 2.5" blade length which will hopefully make it a legal carry folder in the city limits for the owner where he resides.

Stay tuned. Lots of work but it should be unique and challenging if I have my way here with yet another Emerson in a long line of them.

You'll have to excuse the fact that I'm using my own 14 for the pic here to show that area that sticks out the front of the folder. In person it is much more noticed in my opinion. Anyway, I've already disassembled the folder I'm working on and it was easier to just snag a pic of my own.

Thanks for watching.

STR

 

[STR]

Well underway with this 14 today.

Turned out to be pretty nice here. Got up to like 76 degrees at one point. Nice day to air out the shop and open up all the doors blasting all the fans on high. I like!

Anyway, here are some shots showing this one nearing completion. I'll mill the lock out tomorrow, and probably finish it out unless I run into something.

Both sides measure out to be .138 thickness. One the slab lock side of course. The other the non lock which is two pieces of .069 material. One titanium for the liner and the other some of that teal green textured G10 I snagged from Halpern. Nice stuff. First time I've used this one in this thickness.

Love the texture on this G10 too. That makes a lot of diff in the handling so I'm glad I decided to use this for you Friz.

Blade measures just a hair under 2.5" opened now which is what the owner of this knife needs and wants. You can see the difference from the original to what I did in these shots. Just a slight tweak to make it legal is all it took. Personally if it were mine I'd take that point back a bit more but for his request it has to stay.

Weighs in at 5.3 ounces which is up from 4.6 before starting this project. Not a bad trade off since its not really all that noticed at all handling it.

STR

 

[biogon]

Very interesting.

I am picking up a '14 for exactly the same reason (Chi-town legal).

I am going to send it to Tom K to get the edge and tip reground down so it's 2.4"... although I always thought it was a matter of the length of the sharpened edge presented, not the distance from the tip to the front of the bolster -- I didn't think it could be altered in this fashion.

Hmm, interesting.

-j

 

[STR]

Its always up for debate when you are stopped and the ruler is pulled out. If its a nice knife nothing is keeping a LEO from just taking it and they may not like hearing that but it has happened.

Many officers have an idea of how long is legal by a finger, or from the top of a finger to a point in their palm. The idea was that if a ruler was used or one used a finger that it brought the handle out farther to make the blade shorter. The length of the blade is usually what I've seen them look at and if they are nice and you are too many times they'll look at it differently and consider the cutting edge for you. Not always though.

It may or may not work for the owner of this folder but that is what the owner wanted. I try to please.

STR

 

[biogon]

*nod*

Kind of sad that this is how enforcement works in the practical world, but it is the truth.

Take care and I wish the best of luck to your client, especially in Chi-town.

-j

 

[Lycosa]

Looks Great, Steve!! Had to check this one out!

 

[STR]

Well the CQC14 city knife is all but done. I now get to play with it for a few and work it in. Bead blasting all the small parts including the pivot, and then putting a new bead blasted lock side and liner side on it requires a new break in to smooth it all down all over again, and also the detent ball on the lock is activated now since that other one is something I cannot duplicate with my equipment that Ernie uses on the non lock side from the factory knives.

Final weight is 5 ounces for the new frame lock rebuild compared to my own 14 in factory clothes which is one of my Waveless ones beside it here in these comparison scans side by side which weighs in at 4.6 ounces. I assume if my 14 still had the Wave on it it'd be heavier by a little but not sure it would be enough to cause it to tip 4.7 ounces. Maybe. If so its not a bad trade off at all either way. Final thickness of my lock cuts to spring the lock are .064 each at the middle on each one.

As is usually the case whenever I can I have pulled another one off that is not permanently modified. This folder can go right back together as it came from EKI and no one would ever know it had anything other than use done to it.

I did make a new ti clip for this one copying the EKI clip at the owner's request so it would match the bead blast better.

Here are some teaser pics for you until the sun shines. Raining here in Oklahoma presently so digitals not an option at this point. My flash is a waste of uploading so its gotta be sunlight to get those. Friz give me a call. We'll go over some things I want to ask you about.

Thanks.

STR

 

[DaveReb]

Beautiful job Steve!

I just got another CQC14, and once I'm back too work I plan on sending this one in for your frame lock conversion. The blade length is why I keep coming back too this knife, as well as the fantastic handle ergo's. The frame lock will give me a nice sense of security over the LL. I may also have you remove the wave nub. I'm not a fan of the wave feature, and if I'm not thinking about how I'm drawing the knife out of my pocket it will partially open. This knife bit me a couple times when this happened.
Anyways as usual beautiful work:thumbup:

Davereb

 

[STR]

Thanks. A conversion like this one with both sides liners redesigned and replaced with titanium, and some G10 fit to the non lock side, as well as a new pocket clip is higher $ to do compared to just the lock side I've been doing.

With this one though I eliminate that overhang off the end like shown in the first post where you can see the bump stop area and lock contact area of the blade when its closed in the handle. At the same time I legalize the blade length for most every major city so you can carry your folder there and lastly I also get rid of that unsightly detent ball trail left on the blade from opening and closing it that is plainly visible before my redo.

Basically I fix all the things that I feel EKI dropped the ball on in the drawings of this one. I thought of doing this a long time ago to be honest but I knew not everyone would want to pay for it.

On the Wave. For what its worth. I feel that my 14s took on a whole new character once I removed the Wave from them. I can get my thumb in behind the blade to use them now to really lean into it for a cut that the Wave used to make uncomfortable if not impossible to do and I really like that.

Also, I can't say I've missed the Wave on this model at all because, well, frankly the 14's Wave is not the easiest one to work of all Ernie's knives IMO. In fact its among the worst and one of the ones that requires the most effort on the part of the user to successfully pull off if you ask me and one that when it does catch its usually a partial opening at best. Like you I have a lot of issues with ones like this one that end up being a general nuisance instead of a feature.

STR

 

[STR]

Here are those reference shots of the blade length before and after for you Friz. This visually demonstrates the fine line between legal and illegal quite nicely. Not a big difference seen here at all but just enough to get you in trouble in some cities. Reduced from 2 and 5/8" open to 2 just a hair under 2.5" as requested and I even did it without permanently modifying the folder or the blade. :thumbup:

Thanks

STR

 

[DaveReb]

I'd definitely be in for the blade length reduction....so I'll have to peel off more cash...lol While longer folders are legal here in Ohio, alot of municipalities I work in, or travel through have 2.5" max blade lengths on the books. This would make the 14 a legal go anywhere knife for me. I also have to kick in a few more bucks to kick in since I have the black coated blade, I'll probably need the blade bead blasted as well:barf:...lol.

Davereb

 

[STR]

Yeah bead blasting would be needed either for satin or the black blades but with the satin at least its only where I cut the Wave off.

My blade shown above was a black blade also.

Many states have one limit but major cities within the state have their own laws as you state. Chicago is one like this with a 2.5" max blade limit yet the state of Illinois is 3". Many fall prey to this traveling into the inner cities not realizing if they are caught with it they could be fined or at the least lose their knife. I don't need to point out that if that happened to one of us with our choices in folders it would be a bit of a hurt to the wallet.

That is why the PrySTR I've been making is so popular I think and not just from me but from anyone making them. Its a sheeple friendly alternative to use for environs that do not allow or frown upon the use or carry of a blade of some kind. Some work places you would be fired for being caught with a knife of any kind. Teachers, students, court workers and stuff like this all seem to zero in on things that are not going to be deemed a 'weapon' but still do some of the things folks use their knives for so its worked for some.

By the way, this redesign could be done using .070 liners on each side with new textured scales over them to save a few $ leaving it a liner lock if one wanted to go that route. This would still upgrade the lock to a new thicker beefy feel and look and give all the same benefits.

STR

 

[DaveReb]

I do like the idea of G10 on both side so I just may go for the thicker liner for the lock side:thumbup: Hopefully I'll be back to work shortly, now that the weather is getting nicer(construction) then I'll be definitely be sending the 14 out for your spa treatments..

Thanks
Davereb

 

[FRIZ]

I sent this CQC-14 last November to STR. I gave him strict instructions not to take the CQC-14 to the shop until he was in the “zone”.

I had the privilege to inspire Ernest Emerson to design the CQC-14. As a thank you for the inspiration Ernie presented me with the CQC-14 prototype in Las Vegas during the 2006 Shot Show.

I asked STR to take this CQC-14 to the next level. (This is not the prototype. I own six CQC-14 not counting the prototype.) Now look at the results. STR turned my CQC-14 into a piece of art. I tip my hat in deep admiration to the Maestro.

Please send the puppy home.

Thanks.
Regards,
FRIZ

 

[STR]

It was a little hard to pull this one off my pocket and pack it up to ship home I must admit. The 14 is my favorite handle of all Ernie's designs to date. In fact I'm toying with the idea of putting this 14 handle design or something close on my M-Wave when I rebuild it into a tank built frame locker.

Not to take anything away from our friend Ernie Friz but when I can purchase the 14s like this I'll own six or more of them also! I should have rebuilt more of them this way but the idea was late coming to me. Better late than never as the saying goes though. :thumbup:

STR

 

[biogon]

Hm.

Yeah, I like it with the Wave chopped off too.

Great idea. I should try that on one of mine... or maybe get myself a beater to practice on.

Do you just hit it with a cutoff wheel on a Dremel?

It looks like you reground in some traction grooves?

Thanks,

-j

 

[STR]

Yeah I cut it off with a dremmel and a cut off disc taking it real slow so it never even got luke warm to my bare hands.

Once I got it off I simply evened it down to the traction grooves left and then recut in what was missing. For cuts like really leaning into the knife to slice through hemp rope or push cut something like rope or wood you can't beat this Waveless one. In fact you can't even do some of the same cuts as well or as effortlessly with the ones that are Waved so if you use the little thing for all kinds of jack of all trade things and can live without a Wave on one its not a bad deal. There are times when the Wave just hurts the thumb because its in the way. I've noticed this with a lot of them.

I really like this Waveless Commander I'm making into a frame lock right now also. I wish Ernie would offer the 14 in a Waveless version in limited numbers even. I hate voiding the warranty if I can help it. Cutting off the Wave certainly does that. Throws it right out the window. My frame lock mods on the other hand don't usually affect that unless I make them a south paw folder or have to do one differently for some other reason. That I live with quite well. :thumbup:

STR

 

[biogon]

Thanks for the info. I may have to try that. The cutting was all done freehand, with the blade in a vise? No real problems keeping a straight line?

Personally I carry in my off-side rear pocket so I can't even physically use the Wave... no big loss to me.

Heh, one of the days maybe I'll just send her your way.

I usually figure that historically, with the mods that modders have been kind enough to do for me, there isn't much left of the original knife to warrant at the factory except the blade, and to be honest, I'll go back to the modder/pimper for "warranty" work. If I trash it up THAT bad that even the blade isn't salvageble, it was probably used to save me life and limb, and it was a justifiable investment to ask him to make me another.

-j

 

[STR]

Actually truth be told I did it holding it bare handed free hand. It isn't so much needed to worry about a perfectly straight line. The main thing is to stay on the side of the line you draw that is toward the part you are discarding. Any of the overhang that isn't exactly straight can be taken down on your bench sander or a course sanding drum with a dremmel. Anytime you work with hardened steel the real key is to be patient, don't let yourself get in a hurry and to let the tool do the work without forcing it through. So long as you focus on that and safety you can usually walk right through anything and actually have fun. :thumbup:

STR