Voided My Warranty (Modded My Special)

lagarto

lagarto

Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
1,438
Voided my warranty big time, but it was a fun project and I'm not sorry I did it. I know that sawbacks on knives have their supporters and detractors, but I personally think they add a little versatility to the tool. So as you can see I undertook to modify my 119 Special which I feel is already an excellent knife. The end results weren't overly pretty, but they are functional. I can cut half inch deep notches in about 30 seconds depending on the wood, and cut through an approximately 1.25" diameter ash limb in about 2 minutes. It did take a little effort, but it worked. And even produced a relatively smooth cut.
Let me know what you think.

Lagarto
 
Great results:thumbup:

I was wondering if you would mind posting a tutorial on how to do this?:confused:
 
RedEdge, as far as a tutorial goes, it's pretty simple. Buck's heat treat is awesome, and it's stainless steel so cutting is a little difficult. Basically all I used was a dremel tool and a bunch of fiberglass cutting wheels. I tried using the emory kind but they're really too brittle. Basically I took an engineer scale ruler and measured off the teeth, marking them out at .3 inch intervals, .25 inch deep. I measured from hilt out to where the false edge stops and marked the depth on both sides. Then I carried the horizontal lines on the blade down to this mark on the edge,using a carpenter
square. Finally, draw in the diagonals on the sides using the ruler again. That's the layout. Then I cut the vertical lines first, using a dremel 400 XPR. It has a variable speed setting, and I found that 6 or 7 is your best bet. Also, you don't want to cut all the way through at once, or the metal will heat up too much and lose the temper. Apply pressure, cut a little, then back it off a little, apply a little more pressure etc... Lastly, cut the diagonal pieces. Mine came out kind of crude, but if you're skilled with a dremel, you should be able to produce decent results. Also, I wish I'd had a set of hard (carbide?) jeweler's files to clean up the teeth with and get them a little more even, but hey, they work fine as is.

Lagarto
 
Rededge77

I realize the description above is a little hard to follow, so here's some more pics. I hope the diagram helps. Forgive the crudity, I'm not known for my artistic ability. (Autistic mayb, but not artistic)

Anyway, step one is to measure over 1/4" inch from the guard, to the top of the first tooth. You will need to cut out a little hollow in this space to allow the tooth to clean itself. See the shaded area in the side view of the plans. Next space the other teeth about .35 to .40 inch apart. (Not .30 as I told you above, although that should work. It's a matter of preference really). Mark the spine of the knife first. Then come down 1/4" inch from the spine, and mark the flats of the blade on both sides. See dotted line in diagram. You should now have a bunch of little rectangular marks on the blade flats. Connect the top of one rectangle to the bottom of the next to get the angle of the teeth. Finally, cut the vertical backs of the teeth with the dremel. Then cut out the angled pieces. As I said above, I found a speed setting of 6 or 7 works best, and highly recommend the fiberglass versus the emory wheels. Also, I found that if I tried to cut the angle on the first tooth with a full size wheel it nicks the guard. You need to wait until it's ground down to about 1/2 its original diameter and then it fits between the spine and guard just fine. Good luck.

Lagarto
 
Lagarto...
The fact that you drew the Idaho tang stamp is a hoot!!! On the serious side, it does demonstrate attention to detail.
That is a cool knife BTW.
Goose.
 
That'd be a sweet mod as an idea for a custom run. Nix the 119's blood groove and give it a sawback design, instead. Kinda like a model 639 but with less aggressive sawteeth.

How smooth is drawing it from the sheath...? My model 639 always "enjoys" snagging the nylon of the safety strap as it is pulled.

GeoThorn
 
Geothorn, I wondered about that too, but it actually comes out fairly easily. What's a 639 do you have pics, are they still in production. I would love it if the custom shop or factory produced a model like this. Maybe with Elk Horn or Buffalo scales.

Lagarto
 
lagarto said:
Rededge77

I realize the description above is a little hard to follow, so here's some more pics. I hope the diagram helps. Forgive the crudity, I'm not known for my artistic ability. (Autistic mayb, but not artistic)

Anyway, step one is to measure over 1/4" inch from the guard, to the top of the first tooth. You will need to cut out a little hollow in this space to allow the tooth to clean itself. See the shaded area in the side view of the plans. Next space the other teeth about .35 to .40 inch apart. (Not .30 as I told you above, although that should work. It's a matter of preference really). Mark the spine of the knife first. Then come down 1/4" inch from the spine, and mark the flats of the blade on both sides. See dotted line in diagram. You should now have a bunch of little rectangular marks on the blade flats. Connect the top of one rectangle to the bottom of the next to get the angle of the teeth. Finally, cut the vertical backs of the teeth with the dremel. Then cut out the angled pieces. As I said above, I found a speed setting of 6 or 7 works best, and highly recommend the fiberglass versus the emory wheels. Also, I found that if I tried to cut the angle on the first tooth with a full size wheel it nicks the guard. You need to wait until it's ground down to about 1/2 its original diameter and then it fits between the spine and guard just fine. Good luck.

Lagarto
Click to expand...

Nice job on the diagram.
 
Buck639-50.jpg


Fieldmate639Blade.jpg


Above is my Buck Model 639 from 1986. It was discontinued in the 1990s, to the best of my knowledge. It was derived from the Buck Model 184 BuckMaster.

I've never cut any wood with it, yet, but it looks like all of the sawing would only be accomplished with a pull stroke. I think that a 119 with a saw in the back spine would be a nice addition to the Buck line.

GeoThorn
 
I like the serration being on the top of the clip point instead of a partially serrated main blade. Seems that would be the best of both worlds as opposed to having a compromised main blade.
Goose.
BCCI 1190
 
Geothorn, thanks for the pics. I like that design, and I agree with Buckaholic, I like the idea of the serrations being on the clip or the spine, not the main blade. Although that doesn't mean I'm giving up my short nighthawk any time soon.

Lagarto
 
Buckaholic said:
I like the serration being on the top of the clip point instead of a partially serrated main blade. Seems that would be the best of both worlds as opposed to having a compromised main blade.
Click to expand...
I think that having serrations instead of a false edge is a good idea, however, that the model 639 has been discontinued, something about the design didn't work. I wonder if Buck has experimented further with serrartions on top of the clip point? The serrations shouldn't weaken the blade, or would they?

GeoThorn
 
geothorn said:
something about the design didn't work. I wonder if Buck has experimented further with serrartions on top of the clip point? The serrations shouldn't weaken the blade, or would they?

GeoThorn
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. It may have worked fine, and just not appealed to a broad enough market to make it economically viable. I know I'd have bought one anyway. I may have to keep my eyes open at flea markets and ebay for a while. Thanks again for the pics. Do you remember if it had a name as well as a model number?

Lagarto
 
lagarto said:
Geothorn, thanks for the pics.
Click to expand...
No problem. They've been used in previous threads, so they were already online and ready to be used again. ;)

lagarto said:
I like that design, and I agree with Buckaholic, I like the idea of the serrations being on the clip or the spine, not the main blade.
Click to expand...
I agree with you and Buckaholic. When the model 639 was out, there weren't that many knives that had combination serrated/fine edges, so the 639 came in and filled that spot, and yet avoided making the fine edge smaller. I wonder why more knives haven't been made with serrations cut into the top of the clip point, or replacing the false edge.

I wonder, again, if cutting the deep sawteeth into the 639's spine has weakened the blade appreciably, or if the 639s were heat treated differently than usual because of the dual-use spine. I guess that I'd have to use it, and find out. ;)

lagarto said:
Although that doesn't mean I'm giving up my short nighthawk any time soon.
Click to expand...
You've already got a 119 Special with a saw on its back, so, no need to get a knife with a serrated/fine combination edge, right? I think that the smaller sawteeth on your 119 Special has less chance of weakening the blade than the deep cuts into the spine of the model 639, so you might have hit on a better "solution."

GeoThorn
 
lagarto said:
Do you remember if it had a name as well as a model number?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's the Model 639 Fieldmate. I wish that they were still available, so that I could have more than just one.

GeoThorn
 
Did you cut the rest of that tree down? It's not exactly "tree friendly" to go around putting gaping holes in the sides of trees.
 
spheenx said:
Did you cut the rest of that tree down? It's not exactly "tree friendly" to go around putting gaping holes in the sides of trees.
Click to expand...

Look at ALL of the pics (esp. 2nd from the left) & then you can take your foot out of your mouth. :foot: The guy didn't put any gaping holes in the tree.
 
What about the pic all the way to the RIGHT. That would be a HOLE in the side of a tree.
 
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