Suggestions for flipper delete/thumbhole mod?

K

kthay

Joined
Feb 22, 2021
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3
First time considering a mod...wish to delete the flipper (making way for forward choil) and drill in a spydie hole for deployment. Any suggested options short of sending off to Way of Knife for ~$150 and waiting weeks?

This isn't the fanciest of knives so I was hoping this might be something that a local sharpening or machinist can do (I live in a big city though googling knife mods has not turned up much).

Also, after deleting flipper, I assume I need to re-wash to make blade appearance consistent, and then resharpen?

Curious what folks would suggest? This is getting a bit more complex/pricey than I presumed.
 
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Not set on professional, but yeah, I just have a regular home tool kit. No dremel to take off flipper, and while I have a decent handheld drill and bits, I suspect doing a spydie hole handheld is not a good idea. Would think this is ~10 min job for someone with a drill bench. I can re-stonewash and sharpen myself.
 
I don't know what type of drill bits you have, but you're not going to drill through hardened steel with standard bits. You're going to need carbide bits, and those are expensive. The larger the bit, the more expensive they are. And if you're wanting to produce a hole large enough to use as a thumb hole, then that's going to be a large bit. Carbide-tipped bits are less expensive than full carbide, but still expensive.

I measured the hole in my one Spyderco knife (Military), and the hole is 9/16's of an inch. I get my bits from McMaster-Carr.com, and the one carbide-tipped bit they sell in that size is $53. +tax and shipping.

Carbide bits are also a lot more brittle than standard bits, increasing the chances of breaking them.

And one of the best ways to break a carbide bit is to use it in a hand drill. Drilling through hardened steel with carbide bits is best performed with a drill press due to the stability and precision a drill press offers.

I'm not saying it's impossible to perform such a modification using a hand drill, but it does increase the chances of breaking the bit, and damaging the blade if you're not experienced drilling hardened steel by hand.
 
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Yeah, I agree. Not worth buying the items, renting machines, and even then, I don't really know what I'm doing. Happy to pay someone, just wondering (particularly as I'm not requesting crazy knife mods, just some metal work) if there might be a kind of store (hardware, knife, etc) that I likely can bring it to. Or if I want to do this, I just need to suck it up, find a modder on instagram, and ship it out for $150?
 
I don't believe any store will offer this service. You could check with machine shops but I doubt they will drill the hole and almost certainly not refinish the steel after grinding off the flipper. Also which knife is this? A spydie hole may not be ergonomic for it. You could do all but the refinishing with a dremel but it would take time.

There's a subforum here too for requesting and offering mids you can look at
 
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