RC-5 mods

NorCalMtn2

NorCalMtn2

Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Messages
650
Here are a few mods I did to my 5 to further tailor it to what I wanted in a field/survival blade.
Carry weight was a real issue for me with this knife. After reading that Ethan Becker had made the decision to skeletonize the handle of the new BK2 I decided to give it a try. My green coating was pretty much gone so why not. I don't have machining tools so I settled for two pairs of 1/2" holes cleaned up with a grinding wheel on a Dremel. The result was a noticeable reduction in weight and improved balance. The strength of the knife does not seem diminished in any practical sense and it still has enough blade weight to be a good chopper.
To finish I sanded everything with 1200 grit wet/dry and convexed the edge.

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ncie work.. it did the job you wanted.. i do not share the same point of view but i can recognize the work.. :thumbup:

i prefer my RC5 heavy, since i use it as a chopper.. i ordered an RC6 to have a large but lighter blade. I dont have the tools to do that kind of work tho.. maybe i would have think differently ;)
 
DocBurN said:
ncie work.. it did the job you wanted.. i do not share the same point of view but i can recognize the work.. :thumbup:

i prefer my RC5 heavy, since i use it as a chopper.. i ordered an RC6 to have a large but lighter blade. I dont have the tools to do that kind of work tho.. maybe i would have think differently ;)
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actually if you only take weight out out the handle it moves the balance foward increasing chopping preformance.
 
theamazingdrew said:
actually if you only take weight out out the handle it moves the balance foward increasing chopping preformance.
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i think i didnt speak correctly (im french, my english suck) i am not refering to battoning the knife, but the weight of the knife giving you more power on your strike/swing.. as a chopper/battoning, i do agree that the weight doesn't really matter (the 1/4 back will make a difference on battoning)
 
Chopping performance doesn't seem to be reducing by lightening the handle. It might even be increased by a pendulum effect. The motive for lightening the 5 was to make it a better candidate for long distance hauls since around camp or vehicle most would prefer an axe anyway. It's out on the trail where you wouldn't want to be carrying an axe that a good knife is truly appreciated.
 
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texastonydobbs said:
Looks cool , not for me but good job.....
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=698101
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Tony,
I never saw that link before. If posting about a mod is against the rules please feel free to delete this post.
I would like to add that I gave thought and consideration to all factors of this mod before doing it. I also did the mod fully accepting that if any weakness or failure was created that it was my responsibility. If I ever had an issue caused by something as simple as removing a coating ESEE would never hear about it.
The new BK-2, a knife VERY comparable to the ESEE-5 now has a skeletonized handle. Obviously Mr.Becker of Becker Knife and Tool thought it was a good addition to a 1/4" steel blade.
The changes made an excellent knife more field practical without issue . If I had seen Jeff's post I wouldn't have posted at all.
After reading the post that you provided the link to I couldn't help but wonder if the "no questions asked" warranty isn't the real issue. After all, anyone who owns a ESEE knife knows that the chances of a warranty claim are slim to none without abuse.
Again, delete the post if you wish. I certainly wasn't trying to make waves.:)
 
No issue at all... just posted incase you missed it ...
No Waves brother and ESEE5 looks cool ... just an FYI moment is all ! :D
 
I don't feel Tony was telling you that modding your -5 and posting about it was bad.
I suspect he just wanted you to be aware of that previous thread, because there's a lot of good stuff in it. (like discussion of stress risers)
It sounded more to me like he was saying exactly what he said -- you did a good job. Even so, it's not somehting he would do.
Cutting round holes the way you did shouldn't cause problems - hopefully you thought to chamfer them on both sides (even if only to lessen your chance of cutting yourself on a wire edge) - especially if you don't go out of your way to abuse and stress test the blade to see what it takes to break one. :)

While I like the idea of the last ditch fire started hidden away, I doubt you really removed a significant amount of the total mass of the blade - although I do not doubt that you changed the balance point significantly.

thanks for the thread and the pics!
 
that looks like a cool mod, but for me it would be a no go. acid hands suck :( :D :thumbup:
 
Do not think that I would ever do it but looks like a very nice and well thought out mod. It's your knife and you can do as you wish with it.

I commend you on being one of the honest people who accepts responsibility for their actions and would not try to get a new knife do to a failure which you ultimately caused (as you stated). Attributes like this is a main reason that I visit this site daily and contribute sometimes. 99.9% of all the people here share the same belief in honesty. Even though I know if I used a knife as a pry bar and broke it I could get another for free, I would not use the warranty that ESEE puts forth. It served it's purpose and would just buy another one to replace it.
 
Personally, I don't see a reason to turn an ESEE handle or any other knife handle into swiss cheese like that, which decreases the overall strength of a knife by a great deal.

ESEE knives are heavy duty, survival/working knives, and as such extreme durability under survival type conditions is necessary. To me the strength and durability of ESEE knives are their strongest selling points, and I see no reason to sacrifice strength for weight savings in situations where your life could very well depend on the tools you have at hand. Any extra weight is easily worth the returns on overall strength and durability in my opinion.
 
NorCal that looks awesome! I'd sure love to handle that baby and see what the balance is like.

I have a really hard time believing that that mod will in any way weaken your RC-5. At least not in a way that you or I would ever notice or experience. I'm no physicist and I'm no knife maker but I do know that there are many well known and respected knife manufacturers that use skeletonized tangs (the Bravo-1 by Bark River comes to mind). I know Mike Stewart said it costs a good deal more to have the tangs skeletonized and he certainly wouldn't spend it if he though it would compromise the knife in any way. I'd love for someone more knowledgeable about this stuff to explain the details of what might be at risk strength wise. Just out of curiosity.

That being said, it's awesome that you would own up to it if you somehow managed to destroy it:)

Great mod. Hope to see some more pics of that one in the future!
 
smcclown05 said:
NorCal that looks awesome! I'd sure love to handle that baby and see what the balance is like.
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The balance is excellent, it's noticeably lighter and yet it chops with the same force as before. I got the idea when I read that the new BK-2, a knife very similar to the ESEE-5, is being changed from a solid handle to a skeletonized handle. Ethan Becker said the production cost was higher but he felt it made the knife more efficient with no sacrifice of structural integrity.
So far I'm absolutely pleased with the change. I've been running it through all kinds of realistic tasks and haven't detected any flex or decrease in performance. In the absence of ridiculous non real world torture tests, I really don't think you could create a failure.
 
Your clean up job is interesting. I keep looking at the pic and my eyes pay tricks. Did you do a full grind on the blade?
Slugger
 
That looks really nice, well done. I doubt you'll ever have an issue. That's still a HELL of a lot of steel between those scales.
 
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