Spyderco Delica w/profile MODIFICATION...

mattmanyam said:
Email sent, Sir!

What's the story with the micarta scales "experiment"?
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Ah... the experimental aspect was the Micarta back spacer. Micarta just doesn't have the stiffness that G10 has. G10 is fiberglass fully saturated with resin... and is fully plasticized whereas Micarta uses natural fibers and a thermoset resin that never fully saturates all of the fibers. Because it doesn't fully plasticize... it doesn't have as great a structural stiffness.

The Spyderco knives using FRN molded back spacers... Delica being one of them... have the same stiffness issue. With the back spacer there are two protruding molded nubs on the lower tang. These nubs index with holes in the stainless liners to capture that lower tang and provide the solid resistance the spring bar requires to store and deliver the bending energy for the back lock bar.

My machined G10 back spacers ARE stiff enough to not require the indexing nubs... BUT our forum brother desired a Micarta back spacer. Never employing the weaker Micarta as a back spacer material for these knives... I reluctantly machined one and cobbed up an inelegant solution for lower tang nubs. I made the caveat that this was totally experimental.

I've since gone back and did some redesign to the back spacer and I hope to soon machine this in Micarta. It's all about the nubs and the necessity to capture solidly that lower tang. Spyderco's molding solution is perfectly simple. My machining solution uses two separate parts. Attempting to machine a monolithic piece would be prohibitive for materials and time.

I'll know more once I can get the MKII version machined and out in service.
 
I decided to put everything else aside to get the redesigned Micarta back spacer machined out. I had the CAD/CAM files already worked up so it was just loading the maching and pushing the big green START button.

I really do not like Micarta... it's expensive... smells badly when machined, too fussy a material that demands NEW tooling bits for a good outcome. If the bit isn't razor sharp you end up with fuzzies from the tearing of the unsaturated fibers and usually a ruined end product. NOT my favorite stuff...!

Anyway... I machined the new back spacer and in order to check fit... I installed it with a pair of toxic lined GrindMod scales I happened to have on the finish bench. I was thinking I needed to solve the stiffness issue in order to offer these to the future Micarta scales crowd... but once I had the knife assembled I saw just how awesome the Micarta end grain looks... I think these could be popular with certain G10 colors. The Micarta looks fantastic paired up with the toxic green...!!! Possibly I might machine Micarta back spacers as an upscale option.

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^ I really like how that Micarta back spacer looks!! The coyote brown isn't my favorite color but I think that back spacer would look great with it.
 
Sharp Guy said:
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I think the scales turned out great!! A big shout out to Steve for doing fabulous work!

For those interested in the grind mod version of these scales but are hesitant to cut the corner off the liners for the choil, it's very easy. All I did was lay one of the uncut liners in the new scale and pushed the d-pins through holes in the scale and liner to line everything up. Then I took small scale ruler and laid it on the liner and drew a line from corner to corner of the liner recess in the scale below with a fine-point Sharpie. I taped both liners together with electrical tape and used a couple quick clamps to hold it to the front of my work bench. I cut the liners with a cut off wheel on my rotary tool then I used a 7/8 dia. grinding wheel to grind the radius. You can cut the liner straight but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and wanted it to match the contour of the scale inside. Modding the liners only took about 15 min total including prep work.

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Nice write up. Thanks.l

@BOOMER52 Do you know if a Waved Delica has any issues that would prevent the choiled scales from fitting?
 
Manek said:
@BOOMER52 Do you know if a Waved Delica has any issues that would prevent the choiled scales from fitting?
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GOOD QUESTION...! I did not know the answer so I did a quick photo overlay of a stock Delica FFG and a stock waved Delica... matching the blade's physical geometry. You can see there is an exact match at the critical pivot region... so the answer is NO issues for a waved blade.

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BOOMER52 said:
GOOD QUESTION...! I did not know the answer so I did a quick photo overlay of a stock Delica FFG and a stock waved Delica... matching the blade's physical geometry. You can see there is an exact match at the critical pivot region... so the answer is NO issues for a waved blade.

XSbVbEO.jpg
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Great news. I aim to be one of the first with a Waved Lil'Para.

I sent an email via BF's email option. If you don't receive let me know.
 
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Just had a request from a forum brother (Tulku) where he wanted the lanyard hole to better replicate the PM2's hole size in his GrindMod Delica/Lil'Para.

I never considered that... but it is easily accomplished in the machining of the scales... it will just require some additional effort to grind the semicircular relief to accommodate the larger lanyard hole.

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Just wanted to give a :thumbup: to Boomer52 for the awesome scales he produces. While I did not go with the "Para Style" scales, I thought it appropriate to show a couple photos of his great work. The scales and back spacer are a perfect fit. The assembly was a breeze. Probably took me 10 minutes start to finish?

If anyone is on the fence with these, just get them. They make an already amazing Delica into the perfect Delica. So glad I went with these scales. Amazing product and a great value.

** Again, these are the standard G10 Delica scales, not the Para Style. No mod needed for these. **

Album: http://imgur.com/a/h17j5

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aleforme said:
Just wanted to give a :thumbup: to Boomer52 for the awesome scales he produces. While I did not go with the "Para Style" scales, I thought it appropriate to show a couple photos of his great work. The scales and back spacer are a perfect fit. The assembly was a breeze. Probably took me 10 minutes start to finish?

If anyone is one the fence with these, just get them. They make an already amazing Delica into the perfect Delica. So glad I went with these scales. Amazing product and a great value.

** Again, these are the standard G10 Delica scales, not the Para Style. No mod needed for these. **
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Just to clear up which scales these are... I machine two versions of the Delica/Lil'Para... a NoMod version and a GrindMod version. James (Aleforme) went with the NoMod version which has a slightly different profile... due to the unmodified stainless liners.
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BOOMER52 said:
Just to clear up which scales these are... I machine two versions of the Delica/Lil'Para... a NoMod version and a GrindMod version. James (Aleforme) went with the NoMod version which has a slightly different profile... due to the unmodified stainless liners.
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The NoMod version was extremely easy to install. The scales/liners and back spacer fit perfectly. No mod or adjustments needed at all. Probably the hardest part was getting the lock bar back in place. But, this is due to the design of the knife, not the G10 scales. Just took some contorting of the fingers to get the lock bar in place and the pin dropped in. As I mentioned above, the whole process took about 10 minutes and this was my first time taking a Delica or lockback style knife apart.
 
Now this is the perfect mod.

Big lanyard hole.



BOOMER52 said:
Just had a request from a forum brother (Tulku) where he wanted the lanyard hole to better replicate the PM2's hole size in his GrindMod Delica/Lil'Para.

I never considered that... but it is easily accomplished in the machining of the scales... it will just require some additional effort to grind the semicircular relief to accommodate the larger lanyard hole.

aOAFLYA.jpg
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OK... a bit of a teaser...

I had a request for a lanyard hole that more paralleled the Paramilitary 2 on the GrindMod Delica/Lil'Para. To do that you have to further modify the liners and remove a small crescent at the heel of the stainless liners. Pics one and two show that modification.

I was further requested to machine something along the lines of the Wilson Combat blast texture using hunter orange G10 for the scales and back spacer. This is the result...

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^ I really like how those are textured!

I've been loving my Lil Para/Delica. It's become one of my favorites.
 
Can you do the fluting on the color lined black g10 deep enough to show the colored liner?
 
T.L.E. Sharp said:
Can you do the fluting on the color lined black g10 deep enough to show the colored liner?
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Not with the black medium texture G10 I'm currently using. The fluting is only .015" in depth... the black G10 is .092".

I've been wanting the G10 manufacturers to come up with a bi-color sheet having a thin surface color layer and a contrasting underlying layer to do just as your are inquiring about. They do make layered G10's... however they are 1X1 and 2X2 alternate layering that is not up to the task. I'd like to see a three or four layer color surface with the remainder as substrate color.

I've attempted to epoxy G10 liner material to the upper surface of G10 sheet but the results were too variable due to the trapping of air bubbles. Laminating two hard sheets will always have that potential. With no consistent bond seam you can't reliably mill the nice aesthetic designs or textures.
 
Those orange fluted scales are awesome.

I know it would require some doing but it would be way cool to have some big block lettering milled into them that said Spyderco or Delica. Like big letters that took up the height and length of the scales and curved with them end to end. Might be some Tm issues though. :cool:
 
aleforme said:
Those orange fluted scales are awesome.

I know it would require some doing but it would be way cool to have some big block lettering milled into them that said Spyderco or Delica. Like big letters that took up the height and length of the scales and curved with them end to end. Might be some Tm issues though. :cool:
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Steve did some letters/numbers for me, within a pattern, and it looks great, so I don't think it'd be an issue...?
Maybe just with the TM names.
 
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