Polishing G10

jeswa · May 17, 2006

Greetings All,
I just took delivery of a stonewashed S30V Kershaw Leek (166g10st) with "Grippy" G10 scales. I'm very happy with it, but the scales are way too grippy to be an edc for me, I can barely get it clipped into my pocket without looking down and fiddling around a bit.

I'd like to either:
sand it down a bit
or
polish it to a finish similar to the "Polished" G10 Leeks.

How would I go about it?
The sanding, the polishing?
Sorry if these are basic questions. I'm pretty handy but my current knife skills only consist of cutting things.

Thanks.

jeswa · May 17, 2006

One more thing.
I heard that I could remove the "Made In Taiwan" from the blade of a CRKT knife with sandpaper? What grit?
I'm afraid of scratching through the "non-reflective fine bead blast finish", could this happen?

Gryffin · May 17, 2006

Good ol' sandpaper works fine. I don't have that Leek, but I'm guessing you could start with plain ol' aluminum oxide 120 grit, then 220, then wet-or-dry 320, then 600 if you want it really glassy.

I built one of those DDR-3 kits from KnifeKits.com, with black-and-green G-10 scales, and did exactly that. Polished G-10 has a nice, silky feel to it.

One precaution: wear a respirator if you plan to sand a lot of G-10, since the fibers are really bad for your lungs. For just sanding your one set of scales, a fiber dustmask and a well-ventilated work area should be sufficient.

Zuchus · May 18, 2006

Nice thread, thanks. I've been wondering the same. I am partial to aluminum handled knives, but I got one of the polished G10 Leeks and I do like it. It was actually a little too polished for my liking, so I ran some sandpaper over it just to take the glassy feel off of it.

But I just picked up another G10-scaled knife, a Benchmade 880, Elishewitz Dark Star. Great knife, but that grippy texture is too much for me. So thanks for bringing the topic up and thanks to Gryffin for the info!

jeswa · May 18, 2006

Thanks Gryffin, I polished it like you said. The wet sandpaper was definitely the trick to getting it smooth as silk. I like it more now, but regardless the G10 is a little weird. I like micarta much better. Either way, thanks!

Gryffin · May 19, 2006

Zuchus said:
But I just picked up another G10-scaled knife, a Benchmade 880, Elishewitz Dark Star. Great knife, but that grippy texture is too much for me. So thanks for bringing the topic up and thanks to Gryffin for the info!

ACK!!! I must like mine grippier than you, becuase I think the Dark Star is just about perfect as is! It's one of my favorite Benchmades, in fact. If only they coulda made it with an Axis lock, then it would've been truly perfect...

Gryffin · May 19, 2006

jeswa said:
I like it more now, but regardless the G10 is a little weird. I like micarta much better.

G-10 and canvas micarta are fairly similar; G-10 uses fiberglas fabric instead of canvas. But you're right, paper or linen micarta can be polished smoother than G-10.

Zuchus · May 19, 2006

Gryffin said:
ACK!!! I must like mine grippier than you, becuase I think the Dark Star is just about perfect as is! It's one of my favorite Benchmades, in fact. If only they coulda made it with an Axis lock, then it would've been truly perfect...

I agree about the the wonderfulness of the Dark Star! I had been wanting a Benchmade 732, which is quite similar but does have the axis lock, but I got outbid on several on ebay. My first impression when I got the Dark Star was that it was too light -- must be the titanium liners -- and it felt "cheap" somehow. But now I've really warmed up to it. For a liner lock the action is pretty sweet.