Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
I have done a fair amount of work on my #7 Basic for various reasons so that it suits me better. Most of these would void the warrenty on any knife and Jerry has commented on this in forum so if you are planning to do anything like this, read his post (<a href="http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum39/HTML/000202.html">reference link</a>) and consider dropping him a line for clarification. Details follow :
The easiest modifications was to the grip. The handle has too acute a profile on the bottom. When chopping from the shoulder the low contact area creates high pressure during impacts which is especially significant just under the first joint on my pinky finger. This became more noticable as of late because I sliced my finger open in that area awhile aog so it is now hypersensitive. Fixing this was really easy, I just used a Bastard file and flattened out the bottom of the handle thus widening the contact area and lowering the pressure during impacts. This made a difference I could readily note doing some chopping.
Another handle modification is a bit more complicated and I could not finish it as it would require more material, not less on the grip. While the handle is very secure when my hands are wet or dry, if they are lubricated with either blood / oil / soap, my hand will ramp over the guard on a full powered stab. To remedy this I ground out the handle just below the guard, however this was not quite enough although it did help some. To be complete the guard would need to be slightly extended.
A more time consuming alteration was fixing that little cutout just before the edge. It is very common on a lot of knives and it irritates me as it gets in the way on long slices and can cause hangups. Solution - put in an index finger cutout similar to that on my Battle Mistress. With this change I can shift my grip from one where it is blade heavy to one where it is handle heavy. The latter is excellent for most detailed work as the blade is very stable in your hand and of course you can exert more force on the cut as you have to fight less counter torque. You are also working with a functionally shorter blade so you can be more precise. Plus I just think it looks better.
Another change was the removal of the coating, I had taken about 50% of it off during use and my brother sanded the rest of it off and left the blade with a 600 gritfinish. It looks much better and seems to cut smoother, but that is a really small effect. If I went to a mirror finish the cutting efficiency would be significantly increased but I doubt I will do that any time soon. You are losing some corrosion resistance by taking off the coating, but I never relied on that anyway.
One other modification needs to be carefully considered, as it currently stands the Busse Combat blades are very clean, no extra "features" on the knife, just a strong cutting edge. One thing that I did want on occasion was a wire breaker so I cut one into the spine of the Basic just in front of the grip where the blade is the strongest. Note that this has to be done very carefully leaving a rounded out groove and polished cut so as to not leave any stress risers in the blade. I tried it out on some coathangers and it worked decently well.
The last modification was to the edge grind. I had been doing some whittling with the Basic and using it to benchmark the performance of a Project I from Chris Reeve. The Project was significantly ahead with the Basic requiring on average almost 50% more cuts to point a small stake. There was a huge difference in the edge profiles which was causing this performance variance. The Project's edge grind is convex and is approx. about 13 degrees, the grind on my Basic is much more acute about 18-20 degrees. I used a 1" belt sander to reprofile the edge on the Basic and gave it a convex bevel of approx. 10 degrees, and repeated the cutting. This time the roles were reversed and the Basic outcut the Project by about 50% . Note you are losing a significant amount of durability going to such a low profile, but the improvement in general low stress cutting is extreme.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 04-24-2000).]
The easiest modifications was to the grip. The handle has too acute a profile on the bottom. When chopping from the shoulder the low contact area creates high pressure during impacts which is especially significant just under the first joint on my pinky finger. This became more noticable as of late because I sliced my finger open in that area awhile aog so it is now hypersensitive. Fixing this was really easy, I just used a Bastard file and flattened out the bottom of the handle thus widening the contact area and lowering the pressure during impacts. This made a difference I could readily note doing some chopping.
Another handle modification is a bit more complicated and I could not finish it as it would require more material, not less on the grip. While the handle is very secure when my hands are wet or dry, if they are lubricated with either blood / oil / soap, my hand will ramp over the guard on a full powered stab. To remedy this I ground out the handle just below the guard, however this was not quite enough although it did help some. To be complete the guard would need to be slightly extended.
A more time consuming alteration was fixing that little cutout just before the edge. It is very common on a lot of knives and it irritates me as it gets in the way on long slices and can cause hangups. Solution - put in an index finger cutout similar to that on my Battle Mistress. With this change I can shift my grip from one where it is blade heavy to one where it is handle heavy. The latter is excellent for most detailed work as the blade is very stable in your hand and of course you can exert more force on the cut as you have to fight less counter torque. You are also working with a functionally shorter blade so you can be more precise. Plus I just think it looks better.
Another change was the removal of the coating, I had taken about 50% of it off during use and my brother sanded the rest of it off and left the blade with a 600 gritfinish. It looks much better and seems to cut smoother, but that is a really small effect. If I went to a mirror finish the cutting efficiency would be significantly increased but I doubt I will do that any time soon. You are losing some corrosion resistance by taking off the coating, but I never relied on that anyway.
One other modification needs to be carefully considered, as it currently stands the Busse Combat blades are very clean, no extra "features" on the knife, just a strong cutting edge. One thing that I did want on occasion was a wire breaker so I cut one into the spine of the Basic just in front of the grip where the blade is the strongest. Note that this has to be done very carefully leaving a rounded out groove and polished cut so as to not leave any stress risers in the blade. I tried it out on some coathangers and it worked decently well.
The last modification was to the edge grind. I had been doing some whittling with the Basic and using it to benchmark the performance of a Project I from Chris Reeve. The Project was significantly ahead with the Basic requiring on average almost 50% more cuts to point a small stake. There was a huge difference in the edge profiles which was causing this performance variance. The Project's edge grind is convex and is approx. about 13 degrees, the grind on my Basic is much more acute about 18-20 degrees. I used a 1" belt sander to reprofile the edge on the Basic and gave it a convex bevel of approx. 10 degrees, and repeated the cutting. This time the roles were reversed and the Basic outcut the Project by about 50% . Note you are losing a significant amount of durability going to such a low profile, but the improvement in general low stress cutting is extreme.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 04-24-2000).]