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WW2 .50 Cal casing as Opinel handle BUILD ALONG
- Thread starter Msturm
- Start date
The story begins 4 years ago while hiking here in Hawaii, in an area that saw some action during Pearl Harbor. I found several .50 Cal casings and put them in my pocket because they were cool and looked real old. Fast forward to nowish, I purchased of 2 opinel no. 8 knives. They are a nice blade, an interesting mechanism and dirt cheap. Ideal for modifications and experiments. Great to learn with. I recently posted the other that I modified with Jatoba and water buffalo horn.
I wanted to try to make the casing a handle, I kind of eyeballed everything and it looked doable.
First step. Take Opinel Apart. Remove locking ring using the wife's jewelry pliers, Needle nose will work fine too.
That is the easy part. This next step is a real pain in the arse. Especially if you don't own a real punch.... Sooo. I used a big nail and a hammer to get it started.
Then I used a bit of a broken dremel bit to finish off the deed. I drilled a hole in a bit of scrap 2x4 and put the pin over that hole so the wood portion was supported. A few good whacks and the pin fell in the hole. I ended up bending the pin a bit getting it out. No big deal I was able to straighten it up and use it on the final assembly.
All good. Knife disassembled!
Msturm
I wanted to try to make the casing a handle, I kind of eyeballed everything and it looked doable.
First step. Take Opinel Apart. Remove locking ring using the wife's jewelry pliers, Needle nose will work fine too.
That is the easy part. This next step is a real pain in the arse. Especially if you don't own a real punch.... Sooo. I used a big nail and a hammer to get it started.
Then I used a bit of a broken dremel bit to finish off the deed. I drilled a hole in a bit of scrap 2x4 and put the pin over that hole so the wood portion was supported. A few good whacks and the pin fell in the hole. I ended up bending the pin a bit getting it out. No big deal I was able to straighten it up and use it on the final assembly.
All good. Knife disassembled!
Msturm
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2015
- Messages
- 295
Ok first of all that pretty cool. Second of all, why didn't I think of that! Maybe this might work with an brass shotgun shell...... maybe a 20 gauge or so.
The next move was to prep the handle material in this case the .50 cal shell.
Everything seems like it is going to fit ok. I needed to sand the corrosion off of the neck portion of the casing. I then made sure that the inner ring off of the Opinel no. 8 fit snug. Indeed it did. a bit more work with 100 grit sand paper and it would be ready to go.
.
Next I tapped it on gently with the hammer. it bulged a bit where the gap in the ring is, this actually worked out great later.
My next step was filling it with epoxy. As it turns out 1 tube of 5 minute epoxy will fill a .50 cal casing to the brim which is handy as I had only one tube on hand.
Fill er' up! This is not going to be a light handle. There are lighter ways to do this including doweling, but I didn't have the necessary supplies and I am a strike while the inspiration iron is hot kind of guy.
Here you can see the bulge in the neck of the casing I was talking about earlier.
I will be back in a minute with another installment.
Msturm
Everything seems like it is going to fit ok. I needed to sand the corrosion off of the neck portion of the casing. I then made sure that the inner ring off of the Opinel no. 8 fit snug. Indeed it did. a bit more work with 100 grit sand paper and it would be ready to go.
Next I tapped it on gently with the hammer. it bulged a bit where the gap in the ring is, this actually worked out great later.
My next step was filling it with epoxy. As it turns out 1 tube of 5 minute epoxy will fill a .50 cal casing to the brim which is handy as I had only one tube on hand.
Fill er' up! This is not going to be a light handle. There are lighter ways to do this including doweling, but I didn't have the necessary supplies and I am a strike while the inspiration iron is hot kind of guy.
Here you can see the bulge in the neck of the casing I was talking about earlier.
I will be back in a minute with another installment.
Msturm
put the filled casing on a surface where heat will not do damage. Epoxy gets super hot when it goes off. I let it harden for about 2 hours. Next I drilled the hole that the pin will go through using the ring from the knife as a guide. Drill in half way from one side. pull out. drill in half way from the other side. Then go in and out a bunch of times to make it smooth. If you drill all the way through from one side you risk getting a new hole in the ring from the original knife. ( I don't have a picture of this step. But imagine me using a hand drill at 11 pm in my fiancee's bathroom.
My next step was to mark the groove line where the blade will sit when it is closed. For this I used a paint pen I had laying around.
Make sure you cut right on that hump in the neck of the casing as that will allow the casing to collapse a little eliminating side to side blade play later.
(nice steady hand on that line ehh?)
Next I checked my dremel cut off wheel for depth using the original handle.
Then I made the cut. I did it in 3 passes.first just getting through the brass trying my dambdest to keep everything straight. Second through the epoxy in the neck and shoulder being careful not to cut into the brass on the other side. 3rd pass for the body of the casing no worries about cutting into the brass on the body area. (note** Be very careful towards the butt of the shell where the primer is, you want that transition to match the shape of the blade fairly well so the blade rests on epoxy not against brass at the tip.)
I'll be back in a few.
Msturm
My next step was to mark the groove line where the blade will sit when it is closed. For this I used a paint pen I had laying around.
Make sure you cut right on that hump in the neck of the casing as that will allow the casing to collapse a little eliminating side to side blade play later.
Next I checked my dremel cut off wheel for depth using the original handle.
Then I made the cut. I did it in 3 passes.first just getting through the brass trying my dambdest to keep everything straight. Second through the epoxy in the neck and shoulder being careful not to cut into the brass on the other side. 3rd pass for the body of the casing no worries about cutting into the brass on the body area. (note** Be very careful towards the butt of the shell where the primer is, you want that transition to match the shape of the blade fairly well so the blade rests on epoxy not against brass at the tip.)
I'll be back in a few.
Msturm
Ok now that the hard part is over I test fit everything. It fit pretty well a little loose for my liking so I gave the neck a light squeeze with a pair of pliers. Worked like a charm.... Now to the finishing bit..
I didn't love the look of it black. nor did I think the brand new shiny bright stainless was a good look either. So I banged them up a bit, Shook them up in a bucket of gravel. You can't really tell from the pics but they are scuffed. I then spray painted a rag and dabbed black paint on them let it dry and then hand buffed it off leaving it in the skuffs.
Then I hit the casing with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. and took some of the black off. Not all of it. I want it to look its age a bit!!
I didn't love the look of it black. nor did I think the brand new shiny bright stainless was a good look either. So I banged them up a bit, Shook them up in a bucket of gravel. You can't really tell from the pics but they are scuffed. I then spray painted a rag and dabbed black paint on them let it dry and then hand buffed it off leaving it in the skuffs.
Then I hit the casing with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. and took some of the black off. Not all of it. I want it to look its age a bit!!
OK. I did some test fitting, trimmed about 1/8 off the tip of the blade to make it a drop point kind of shape ( I love drop points) Used a cut off wheel for this and a grinding disk to finish it up. dipped in water to cool every three or so seconds. This adjustment was to make it fit better into the slightly smaller handle. Then I shaped the butt of the blade so there is a little semicircle missing for my index finger (live dangerously). One more test fit with everything, and then put it all together.
Re-peening the pin was a real pain. It would have been easier to make a new pin about a 1/16 longer than you need. You should just make a new pin. Blade patina was vinegar dark enough to look like it kind of matches the handle. DONE! Total weight 3.37 oz. which is a bit more than double the original. Easily 4 times a cool.
Here are a couple more pics. I like it!!
Made in Des Moines Iowa in 1944. Probably a practice round.
fits the groove well. nice action. not too tight. not too loose.
Well you made it to the end.
Thanks for hanging in there.
Msturm
Re-peening the pin was a real pain. It would have been easier to make a new pin about a 1/16 longer than you need. You should just make a new pin. Blade patina was vinegar dark enough to look like it kind of matches the handle. DONE! Total weight 3.37 oz. which is a bit more than double the original. Easily 4 times a cool.
Here are a couple more pics. I like it!!
Well you made it to the end.
Thanks for hanging in there.
Msturm
afishhunter
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2014
- Messages
- 14,288
Good job. Looks great, and no more swelling to make the blade ... "difficult" ... to open and close.
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2015
- Messages
- 2,556
What he said!
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2007
- Messages
- 3,372
Thanks for sharing. Great idea BTW.
Very interesting
Mike
Very interesting
Mike