Blackjack_21
03-28-2003, 10:28 PM
...or "How To Blow Two Consecutive Saturdays" :D
For those that have already see the pics, you know the story behind my customization project. For those that don't, here's the story:
I wanted to turn my BM42 into a piece of customized art. I decided the best way was to get rid of that noisy, squeaky latch and go latchless. Easy, until you realize, as I did, that Titanium doesn't like being cut at high speed and with any amount of heat build-up. As tony pointed out, it would harden the metal and shatter a few Dremel cutoff discs. So, I did it the hard way.
With a hacksaw. :eek:
Each handle took maybe an hour to cut through, with time allowed to cool the metal before cutting again. Once I got the handles roughly cut, I tuurned on the benchgrinder and shaped the handles to where I wanted them. Problem was, on the bite handle, I hit an air pocket/void. Grinding past it would have left the end of the handle looking like this: |_| :(
So, I left the ugly void and went to the sanding drum on the dremel and then sanding up to 400 grit. The handles turned out alright after the first day, but the angles were all off, and I didn't get the bevels right. I waited until the following Saturday (sustaining a deep cut in my index finger :eek:), and I reground the ends. The end bevels turned out better, and make the knife stand out.
Well, following the example of a fellow from the USN (;)), I filed some index marks into the safe handle, so I could have some tactile feedback as to which handle I had hold of. Like the hendle ends, the first attempt was crude and needed work. So, on the second Saturday, I used a round file to round the initial seven cuts, and a small flat file to make six more cuts in-between the original seven. Those cuts I left small and a little shallow to contrast the first seven cuts.
All in all, the prject was a success. I've gotten some nice comments from folks about the work, and am definitely going to keep the 42 as my EDC. Here's a link for all those that haven't seen the pics before:
Click Here... (http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=247952)
For those that have already see the pics, you know the story behind my customization project. For those that don't, here's the story:
I wanted to turn my BM42 into a piece of customized art. I decided the best way was to get rid of that noisy, squeaky latch and go latchless. Easy, until you realize, as I did, that Titanium doesn't like being cut at high speed and with any amount of heat build-up. As tony pointed out, it would harden the metal and shatter a few Dremel cutoff discs. So, I did it the hard way.
With a hacksaw. :eek:
Each handle took maybe an hour to cut through, with time allowed to cool the metal before cutting again. Once I got the handles roughly cut, I tuurned on the benchgrinder and shaped the handles to where I wanted them. Problem was, on the bite handle, I hit an air pocket/void. Grinding past it would have left the end of the handle looking like this: |_| :(
So, I left the ugly void and went to the sanding drum on the dremel and then sanding up to 400 grit. The handles turned out alright after the first day, but the angles were all off, and I didn't get the bevels right. I waited until the following Saturday (sustaining a deep cut in my index finger :eek:), and I reground the ends. The end bevels turned out better, and make the knife stand out.
Well, following the example of a fellow from the USN (;)), I filed some index marks into the safe handle, so I could have some tactile feedback as to which handle I had hold of. Like the hendle ends, the first attempt was crude and needed work. So, on the second Saturday, I used a round file to round the initial seven cuts, and a small flat file to make six more cuts in-between the original seven. Those cuts I left small and a little shallow to contrast the first seven cuts.
All in all, the prject was a success. I've gotten some nice comments from folks about the work, and am definitely going to keep the 42 as my EDC. Here's a link for all those that haven't seen the pics before:
Click Here... (http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=247952)