We cleaned out the garage this weekend, and I found a treasure I thought was forever lost. A KABAR USMC I bought at the Camp Smith, Hawaii NEX in the early 1990s when I was assigned to CILHI searching for MIAs/POWs. I've been looking for that knife and feared it was lost - left in an old pickup truck I used to own but sold more than three years ago. I modified it by making a clinometer with sights and plumb line notches. I also drilled a lanyard hole for it. This thing helped me lay in more than one helicopter LZ.
Mods:
1. Drilling a hole through the top of the guard and notching the blade spine.
2. While sighting through the handguard hole, using the clip point cut off as the front sight, I aimed at a point I placed on the wall to ensure my line of sight was LEVEL (level line of sight is crucial).
3. While maintaining that level line of sight, I placed nylon string in the blade spine notch I cut and let the string hang like a plumb bob (tied a nut to the end of the string).
4. While maintaining that level line of sight, and hanging the plumb bob, I pinched the string against the side of the blade and used a sharpie to mark where the string laid on the blade. This is angle zero/level.
5. Then I drew arches (open end up) on the blade with the zero/level line bisecting the arc, and marked increments on the arc toward the tip of the blade and toward the handguard.
6. I used a dremel tool to engrave the arc, the zero angle line and hacks along the arc.
7. Lastly I drilled the pommel for a lanyard.
This proved to be a very practical mod for me. After having done this I could use the knife with a string and anything acting as a plumb bob as a clinometer. Mostly I used it to determine the height of trees or other obstacles when laying out helicopter LZs and such.
I cleaned it up tonight. Before and after pics:
Mods:
1. Drilling a hole through the top of the guard and notching the blade spine.
2. While sighting through the handguard hole, using the clip point cut off as the front sight, I aimed at a point I placed on the wall to ensure my line of sight was LEVEL (level line of sight is crucial).
3. While maintaining that level line of sight, I placed nylon string in the blade spine notch I cut and let the string hang like a plumb bob (tied a nut to the end of the string).
4. While maintaining that level line of sight, and hanging the plumb bob, I pinched the string against the side of the blade and used a sharpie to mark where the string laid on the blade. This is angle zero/level.
5. Then I drew arches (open end up) on the blade with the zero/level line bisecting the arc, and marked increments on the arc toward the tip of the blade and toward the handguard.
6. I used a dremel tool to engrave the arc, the zero angle line and hacks along the arc.
7. Lastly I drilled the pommel for a lanyard.
This proved to be a very practical mod for me. After having done this I could use the knife with a string and anything acting as a plumb bob as a clinometer. Mostly I used it to determine the height of trees or other obstacles when laying out helicopter LZs and such.
I cleaned it up tonight. Before and after pics:
Nice job on the personalization of it!
