"Rat style" Para 2

[James Longstreet]

Hello,

an idea about a littlle "pimping" project was "crawling" through my head for some time. I wanted to do kind of a used style folder, based on a brand new folder. I decided to take a new paramilitary 2 for this project. Here how it looks brand new out of the box:

I asked Cuscadi to make some scales out of "black vintage micarta" and a glow in the dark backspacer which should glow in blue color. After receiving the Para 2 back from Cuscadi with new scales and the GTD backspacer, I sent it to a person who is a dealer for Zero Tolerance, Extrema Ratio and Chris Reeve in Germany, but also well reputed for his metall finish skills. He did a stonewash job to the blade and blasted the liners and the screws. Finally I bought a cool Terminator bead, made by Genadijs.

This is how it looks now:

Let me know what you think.

Best,

 

[kershawguy13]

Looks great, but I miss the Spyder logo on the blade. The scales are very nice.

 

[mobilerd]

Way cool. I too am a slave to aesthetics. Quality and performance is a must, but looking good is the icing on the cake. Dare I ask how much to duplicate?

 

[asmith001]

Very nice. I like it a lot.

 

[James Longstreet]

@ mobilerd,

sorry, I am not a native English speaker. Did you ask about the costs ? The scales including the backspacer are approx. 100 Dollars. The metall finish job was approx 80 Dollars. The bead is quite expensive. It is made of silver and copper. It costs approx. 120 Dollars. Plus approx 80-90 Dollars for the Para 2 you are ending up at close to 400 Dollars ....... were you could buy a nice folder for. But this is a unique piece.

 

[Liquid Cobra]

That looks amazing.

 

[Navitimer]

Looks great - really like the micarta!

 

[Ken44]

Looks great !
I love the blade finish and the Micarta.
Micarta is my favorite handle material, and I wish more production companies(folder) would use it.

 

[johnny_boy02]

Looks great! I really like the scales.

 

[Evany]

It looks fantastic! Is it heavier with the new scales?

 

[singularity35]

Great job but personally I'm not a fan of scales that cost more than my the knife itself.

 

[cigarrodog]

The execution of your vision is superb. Well done. I'm one of those who isn't counting the costs to get the knife you wanted. Kudos.

 

[shady A.M.]

I could care less about the cost, it looks amazing! I love the look and feel of micarta over G-10 or CF any day. Great pics too!

 

[BOOMER52]

Superbly handsome Para 2... and fantastic pics!

 

[BladeBug]

I think that's one of the best looking knives I've ever seen.

 

[Sal Glesser]

Hi James,

Welcome to our forum.

sal

 

[James Longstreet]

Thank you very much for your comments and thanks for welcoming me at the Spyderco forum, Sal. I hope you are not "mad" about the modifications. Unfortunately after the stonewashing of the blade it was not possible to "restore" the Spyderco logo and I felt any attempt to try this would have led into something poorer than the original logo. So its better to leave it as it is. Fortunately due to the typical Spyder hole and the famous leaf blade everybody recognises the knife as a Spyderco.

I fully accept opinions saying that spending triple the prize on customizing is strange. My opinion is that the Para 2 is one of the best knife designs arround. Such an excellent slicer. A very universal blade style and a very secure and comfortable locking system. So perfect preconditions to make something special.

@ Evany, I will pick the weight later today and post it here so that we can compare with the catalogue data.

 

[cigarrodog]

What you did with your Para 2 only reinforces what I'm preparing to do. Since joining BFs, I have bought 5 Para 2s, and am already queued up to do something similar with one of them. For me, Para 2s rule.

 

[James Longstreet]

Regarding the weight. The Spyderco catalog indicates 3.9 oz. My para 2 has 3.7 oz, without the bead. As my Para 2 does not carry the clip I am not sure whether the micarta material is the reason for being less heavy or the missing clip ..... Or whether the stonewashing took of a considerable amount of blade steel )

I would say the weight after the modification is more or less the same as before.*

 

[Backwoods10]

Wow...that looks amazing. Really classy stonewash.