Ti lite 6 to a classic folding fighter

H

HFinn

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Sep 6, 2012
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Just for the coolness factor I bought the Cold Steel Ti Lite 6. I don't intend to carry it (much), but I have had a project in my mind. There is a living tradition of italian knife fighting (with which I have had a brush) and the knives they used in old times were something like this:

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The Ti Lite 6 has the size and shape to be a modern version of a classic duelling weapon. So, I intend to make wood scales and modify the blade. The quillons will be sligthly reshaped and I will take the thumb stud off. The knife can be opened with a flick anyway.

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The scales will be made of oak, just because I have some. Maybe the wood will be slightly burned on the surface to make it resemble ebony.

Stay tuned, this will take some time.
 
As such, this knife does not suck, but there are many things that could have been made better. For example, it could be possible to take about 3-4 millimetres of materials off the liners around the quillon that is on the top of the blade when closed, making it a flipper. Or reshape the notch in the handle around the thumb stud to make it easier to reach and open the knife.

I had some luck of using the wave feature, but the quillon is badly shaped for that. I have used to open the knifeby pushing it around, like a thumb stud.

The handle is quite bulbous around 1/3 from the end. This is quite unnecessary and ads bulk.
 
I'm watching with interest. I'd figure most if not all of what you do to your 6" will translate to my 4". Really like almost everything about mine but the opening method. As you mentioned, the quillon just isn't right for good opening. My method is somewhat a flipper/flick combo - using the thumbstuds usually just puts my thumb way too close to what is now a scary sharp edge.

So, guess you're my guinea pig? :) Seriously, I'm intrigued...
 
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ZT0566FDEBW said:
I'm watching with interest. I'd figure most if not all of what you do to your 6" will translate to my 4". Really like almost everything about mine but the opening method. As you mentioned, the quillon just isn't right for good opening. My method is somewhat a flipper/flick combo - using the thumbstuds usually just puts my thumb way to close to what is now a scary sharp edge.

So, guess you're my guinea pig? :) Seriously, I'm intrigued...
Click to expand...

Thank's. Don't wait anything very soon, I could start the process this weekend. Allthough this is not too demanding, since the liners are identical, the bolting holes are level with each other. Of course I have to make a relief for the locking liner etc.

I just wonder why the designer chose to set blade not on the center of the handle? The "flipper" is in my Ti Lite 6 on the level with the handle, which makes it useless. I measured that if I cut a 3 millimetre relief in the liners the quillon could be used as a flipper.
 
I just picked up a 4" and find I like the knife better than I thought I would. It's becoming my EDC.

I'm interested in seeing what you do with the quillons. Mine are pretty rough and uncomfortable.

Thanks for posting this,
Allen
 
The quillons are so rough and sharp that they rip my pants and my thumb is sore. The jimping will be honed, not taken off alltogether but I'll make them more comfortable.

Just a thought. It would make a very cool knife if somebody made ivory micarta scales to Ti Lite 4. A true gentlemans sd-knife with a fraction of the cost, say, Al Mar Eagle Classic.
 
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Done so far: made a relief for the flipper. Now there seems to be a problem. The flipping action works, but something pinches me in the index finger while doing the motion, so far I have got multiple small bleeding wounds. Looks like the quillon is positioned the wrong way to start with to work as a flipper; the tip of the quillon is to blame. Maybe I will resort to making this open only by gravity and flicking motion.

Started making the oak scales but ruined one by mistake. Damn. This will take time.
 
No, it is not the quillon that made those small wounds. It is the corner of the tang that, when turning around in the flipping motion that catches me in the finger and presses it. The corner is sharp, actually there was a small sharp burr.

I am beginning to think this design is seriously flawed. I might make a small L-shaped steel or aluminum thumb plate that will be epoxied and pinned to the blade. That will raise the contact point between the thumb plate and thumb slightly higher, thus giving more space and more force to the push.
 
Since I drove past my favourite knfe shop I took a look at the smaller, 4 inch ti lite. I liked it so I bought it. I must say that this is the better knife of the two. The flipper works much better as it is, must be the lighter blade that causes it. I took a diamond file and took some of the sharpness off from the jimping.

One thing is worse in this smaller knife. Since there is less room on the handle the quillon that is on the top when blade is open hurts the thumb, so most likely this quillon will go. I would not use the wave much anyway. I also like this visually more, the smaller holes in the handle look better. I might polish the scales a little bit and see how it turns out.
 
I cut off the wave quillon. In a hurry I can push the "flipper" and do a wrist flick, or push the extended tang while rolling the knife in my palm. Works like a charm. Next I will try how the handle material can be polished.

The bigger Ti Lite will be made in to a centrifugal force opening, semi-trad folding fighter with oak scales when I have time.

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you may want to take off a scale and test polishing results on the interior surface before messing with the exterior
 
I tried first with steel wool, then Dremel rubber polishing drum. No luck. Next in line is gentle sanding with fine wet sandpaper.
 
Just thought I'd throw this out there, but if you want to make a 4" TiLite easier to open (flick, or manual) you can do what I did and fill the detent hole with an aluminum pin, hammer the pin flat on both sides of the blade, then use a round-pointed punch, or a big nail with a rounded point to dimple the end of the pin on the lock side of the blade. My TiLite wasn't opening as easily as I like a one-hand folder to open (strong lock tension, deep-set detent), so I performed this mod and it worked great. Now my knife opens as smooth and easy as I wanted, but it still has a detent to keep it shut.

Of course if you don't dimple the pin the knife will open even easier, but that would also increase the chances of it opening in your pocket, and it might qualify as a "gravity knife" which may or may not be illegal to carry in your area.

For a pin, I used the aluminum post from a 1/8th" pop-rivet, cut the post off at each end giving me just a straight pin, filed one end flat, then put the other end of the pin in the chuck of my dremel, and holding the dremel in one hand and a file in the other I just sort of "lathed" the end of the pin down to the right diameter to fit in the detent hole (a power drill could also be used to do this). Then I lightly hammered/tapped the pin into the hole by hitting the thicker end (the end that was secured in the dremel), then I used side-cutters (wire cutters) to cut the pin as flush as I could against the blade, then hammered it flat and did the dimple.

I only have the 4" so I don't know if the detent hole on the 6" goes all the way through.

I ground off the guard-spurs altogether because they don't fit in with my plans for my knife. And DAMN, those things were SHARP!
 
:thumbup:

The 4 opens, in my opinion, well enough. Still I will think about this mod you suggested. The 4 fits very well in the comb pocket of a suit jacket without the clip, where i prefer to carry it tip down. When drawing it the knife lands in the right position to use the "flipper" and wrist flick it open. Or if not in a hurry, push partially open with flipper and follow through by turning the blade from the tang.

I made a notch in the end of the tang of the 6 to get more purchase for the thumb when opening the blade. This knife, beacuse of the heavy blade, opens well with inertia.

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Just need to make those wood scales with which this idea started.
 
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