Soldier rig: Mightor and Little Rok

[Storm Crow]

This was a commission from a soldier who ran into up close and personal trouble the last time he was in Afghanistan and wanted to be better prepared the next time he goes. We discussed this project for a good while, and I have to say that if I was a soldier stationed in the rockbox, I'd want him to be the guy in charge of me.

He wanted a pair of blades, a big fighter that could reach out and touch someone and a smaller utility that would still be good in a scrape. He wanted the big one to have an exposed pommel and wanted both of them to have fully sharpened clips.

This is what I sketched out:

He approved and I got on it when I could. Somewhere along the way they got named Mightor and Little Rok as a nod to his time spent living in caves in Afghanistan. Mightor ended up with a 9 3/4" blade that is 2 1/8" wide and an overall length of 15 3/8". Little Rok has a 4" blade and an overall length of 8 3/4". The steel they were forged from was 1/4" 5160, triple normalized, triple hardened, and triple tempered.

Here they are forged out:

Little Rok has lightening holes to keep it from being overly handle heavy (though it ends up balancing at the first handle pin), but Mightor needed to balance out that long blade so only the rivet holes were drilled. With the handle slabs on, it balances right at the touchmark.

Here they are after stock removal, ready for heat treatment:

Natural brown canvas Micarta was the choice for the handle slabs and olive drab Kydex for the sheaths.

Along the way, he decided he needed a flat prybar. I suggested a roller head prybar as well (his term for such is a cat's paw; he gets the name from his grandpa and I get roller head from my dad) and he agreed. I wasn't quite sure about how to sheath those, but came up with this:

And all together:

After sharpening it all up where both blades will shave coming or going and oiling everything down, it was time for some nicer pictures.

I really like the shape of Little Rok. When I get a chance, I need to make a single edged version for my EDC. As a double-edge, it would work quite viciously with pikal techniques.

He's a lefty like me, so the roller head prybar is built for use with the left hand.

He's done some rearranging of the rig now that it's in his hands. I'll get those uploaded and posted later on.

 

[nikoknife48]

Total package, it should serve him well ! Be safe.

 

[Lorien]

sweet.

 

[Bill Siegle]

Cool blades and tools! Really diggin the big Bowie

 

[BladeScout]

Very nice rig. I like that a lot. Especially, as Im having a knife like the Mightor made.

But having been to Afghanistan a few times, I would think it a big and heavy rig to carry around.

I of course dont know the guys MOS, but in general nobody wants to carry any unneccessary weight. In general, if it doesnt go bang, boom or can be eaten, the guys dont bring it.

But then again, if the guy is repeatedly in a situation, where he is too close to the enemy for comfort (and it sounds like he is just that), I can understand, why a big quality fighting knife is a priority.

Most going there like the concept of big knives, but I see few big knives actually being carried in the field especially by troops doing a lot of walking and climbing.

Again, I like the knife a lot. Its beautiful and no doubt an excellent fighter.

One more thing; very nice pry bar thingy. But why not make it a one-opiece prybar for better leverage instead of two small ones?
There might bea perfectly good reason and I guess you guys have thought the thing through.

 

[Storm Crow]

Thank y'all!

BladeScout - I hear you about the weight thing, and all together it is a bit heavy (got it in the mail before I remembered I wanted to weigh it, so I don't have numbers). But, it's what he requested and so far he's happy with it.

As for the prybars, he requested one similar to one available from CountyComm but with a point on the back, 6" long. Along with my suggested roller head, that gives him four different options for prying in a fairly small package. They won't have as much leverage as a full-sized prybar, but also won't take up near as muc room and will save the knife points from abuse. They're very much in line with the kinds of small prybars I've seen listed amongst other military gear, bigger than some and smaller than others.

Here are the changes he's made so far:

The handle on Mightor felt a bit small to him, so he wrapped it in paracord. The previous Micarta handles I've done felt a bit thick to me, so I stepped the size down; this one felt fine to me. I've offered to take off the handle slabs and put on thicker ones if he prefers but haven't heard back yet. We'll see what he decides.

He's wearing the rig attached to his belt with it stuck down into his pocket. He decided the roller head prybar would be used the most, so used the sheath for the flat prybar to cover the end and has the flat bar stowed in his go bag and arranged the sheath so it would fit in the pocket (which must be rather deep!). He also took Little Rok and attached it at a cant to the back side of the main sheath, allowing quick and easy access. I've also offered to build an enclosed sheath specifically for the roller head prybar so the flat prybar can keep its own sheath. Like I said earlier, I wasn't sure how the prybar sheaths would work out and was figuring there might be some tweaking to get everything situated.

He took part of an old rigger's belt and cut a long enough loop to hook onto a wide pistol belt and let the rig ride at the appropriate height in his pocket and then attached it with some Chicago screws.

After that, he added some paracord to the outside to smooth things up and add some extra cordage.

And here it is as worn.

I like modular gear; it's like Legos for big kids.