- Joined
- Apr 19, 2005
- Messages
- 5,533
I showed a knife I rescaled a while back but I gave it away and thought it was about time to do another. Here is a picture trail of what I have accomplished.
I dig thru junk boxes of knife supply sellers at shows looking for thin enough slabs of stablized wood. Usually burls and I like the looks of CA Buckeye or Walnut. Other stuff would work also like fake pearl or linen micarta.
The first thing you need is a knife. My other attempt was a black sawcut pre-date stamp 303 and boy was it hard to get off the slabs. The Red Chuck Buck Chairman series has only two scale rivets on each side and the spring rivet is already fixed under the scale. All the other models take more work, so I will go with the red. I am going to EDC this knife. Unless I give another one away...
All you have to do is grind off the rivet heads and the scales will pop right off, no glue. The rivet can then be lightly tapped back into blade well once you open the blades out of the way. In the photo showing the loose rivets you can see where I ground on the tip of the tang 'kicks' to lower the spey and sheepsfoot blade into the blade well more. I then gound a small cut-out for the spey blade nic to show 'MO BETTER'. This was just a personal thing.
Next you outline the scales on your new material, in this case a thin slab of walnut burl wood. Use a sharp pencil. Cut out you new scales carefully. ONLY if you are expert with scroll saw or band saw get close to your line. I leave at least a 1/16 or more outside the pencil mark. You will remove the rest after glue is dried.
Now scratch carefully with sharp file or chisel the liner in order to rough surface for the glue to grab. BE CAREFUL near the edges. I you run off or if you use a dremel and grind over the edge it is NOT repairable. Clean liner well with Alcohol and let dry. Now cut small pieces of tape and place inside blade well over rivet holes so glue won't get inside blade well. You can see my careful scratching, this doesn't have to be deep to work well. You can see how I cut out scale from big slab. Note the almost mistake from inexperienced bandsawing. That is why you don't get close to line. Be careful with dremel cutting also.
Fitting the rough scale against and inside the bolsters is VERY critical. GO SLOW, sand the ends slow and careful and straight to let your cutout slab slide down over liner and be tight against both bolster edges. DO NOT HURRY, ALLOW NO GAPS. Sand slow, check fit, sand slow, check fit and so on, Then you can glue. Use good epoxy. Mix just enough. I place it only on knife then put wood down and carefully clamp. You can use small clamps or rubber bands. I glue one slab at a time. LET IT DRY, don't rush this or you will be sorry. Here is photo of slab glued down and with initial rough sanding. I like to wrap tape around blades for protection and put a layer over bolster to protect it from the dreaded 'Slip monster'.
Glue both slabs tight. In the past I used small files and sandpaper glued to flat stick for shaping. I polished with dremel but was very carefull. The use of burrs and stones on your dremel means you have to be good or you WILL be sorry. I am very careful with dremel. I do buff with small felt or cotton wheels and paste. Photo shows I cheated this time and used my new worksharp sander/sharpener. I have belts 80,220, 600, 800, 1600 and 6000. This worked ok for the first time but with any electric tool you need to go slow and careful. I covered the bolsters with tape when sanding and especially with this little belt sander. Earlier I adjusted the two smaller blades by slightly grinding on the tang foot to lower there profile and make the spey hide its point in blade well and lower sheepsfoot blade spine to level of clip blade top. So everything is nice an even with the knife closed.
And this is pretty much it. The red rouge used for buffing with dremel darkened the wood and then some tung oil, stock finish or paste wax is all you need. I will polish it just a little more, especially the metal to fix my mistakes. Here you go, if I can you could also. Number one rule is take your time and think it out..........This is now my new trout fishing knife.........300
Think I need to inset the blue Buck shield from the old scale.......?
Late PS Edit - You need to realize doing this voids your Buck warranty........
I dig thru junk boxes of knife supply sellers at shows looking for thin enough slabs of stablized wood. Usually burls and I like the looks of CA Buckeye or Walnut. Other stuff would work also like fake pearl or linen micarta.
The first thing you need is a knife. My other attempt was a black sawcut pre-date stamp 303 and boy was it hard to get off the slabs. The Red Chuck Buck Chairman series has only two scale rivets on each side and the spring rivet is already fixed under the scale. All the other models take more work, so I will go with the red. I am going to EDC this knife. Unless I give another one away...
All you have to do is grind off the rivet heads and the scales will pop right off, no glue. The rivet can then be lightly tapped back into blade well once you open the blades out of the way. In the photo showing the loose rivets you can see where I ground on the tip of the tang 'kicks' to lower the spey and sheepsfoot blade into the blade well more. I then gound a small cut-out for the spey blade nic to show 'MO BETTER'. This was just a personal thing.
Next you outline the scales on your new material, in this case a thin slab of walnut burl wood. Use a sharp pencil. Cut out you new scales carefully. ONLY if you are expert with scroll saw or band saw get close to your line. I leave at least a 1/16 or more outside the pencil mark. You will remove the rest after glue is dried.
Now scratch carefully with sharp file or chisel the liner in order to rough surface for the glue to grab. BE CAREFUL near the edges. I you run off or if you use a dremel and grind over the edge it is NOT repairable. Clean liner well with Alcohol and let dry. Now cut small pieces of tape and place inside blade well over rivet holes so glue won't get inside blade well. You can see my careful scratching, this doesn't have to be deep to work well. You can see how I cut out scale from big slab. Note the almost mistake from inexperienced bandsawing. That is why you don't get close to line. Be careful with dremel cutting also.
Fitting the rough scale against and inside the bolsters is VERY critical. GO SLOW, sand the ends slow and careful and straight to let your cutout slab slide down over liner and be tight against both bolster edges. DO NOT HURRY, ALLOW NO GAPS. Sand slow, check fit, sand slow, check fit and so on, Then you can glue. Use good epoxy. Mix just enough. I place it only on knife then put wood down and carefully clamp. You can use small clamps or rubber bands. I glue one slab at a time. LET IT DRY, don't rush this or you will be sorry. Here is photo of slab glued down and with initial rough sanding. I like to wrap tape around blades for protection and put a layer over bolster to protect it from the dreaded 'Slip monster'.
Glue both slabs tight. In the past I used small files and sandpaper glued to flat stick for shaping. I polished with dremel but was very carefull. The use of burrs and stones on your dremel means you have to be good or you WILL be sorry. I am very careful with dremel. I do buff with small felt or cotton wheels and paste. Photo shows I cheated this time and used my new worksharp sander/sharpener. I have belts 80,220, 600, 800, 1600 and 6000. This worked ok for the first time but with any electric tool you need to go slow and careful. I covered the bolsters with tape when sanding and especially with this little belt sander. Earlier I adjusted the two smaller blades by slightly grinding on the tang foot to lower there profile and make the spey hide its point in blade well and lower sheepsfoot blade spine to level of clip blade top. So everything is nice an even with the knife closed.
And this is pretty much it. The red rouge used for buffing with dremel darkened the wood and then some tung oil, stock finish or paste wax is all you need. I will polish it just a little more, especially the metal to fix my mistakes. Here you go, if I can you could also. Number one rule is take your time and think it out..........This is now my new trout fishing knife.........300
Think I need to inset the blue Buck shield from the old scale.......?
Late PS Edit - You need to realize doing this voids your Buck warranty........
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