You want pictures? Here you go!

[dl351]

Well, here are some of my mods over the past few years. Starting with the first one, my Cold Steel SRK. It started with just stripping the coating and putting some walnut on for the handle, as well as a brass cross guard. This was before I ever tried using my dad's belt sander:

After the discovery of the belt sander, it turned into this full flat ground convexed SRK with a better shaped handle:

I think my next mod was just an experiment contouring some G10 handles on my Ranger Knives (Justin made) Afghan/RD. Before contouring:

After contouring and buffing:

Next was a Justin Ranger Knives RD6 on which I machined texture on the micarta and had Justin satin finish for me:

Next I put black linen micarta/tan and black g10 handles on a 52100 Spyderco Mule seen here with the Afghan:

For fun, Tracy, here are some fire steels I made handles and scrapers for as gifts for my sister and her husband. Yes, those ferro rods are from you!

Oh, next, I updated the RD6 with some bloodwood handles:

And finally, my most recent project that I just finished over the summer is this Seal 2000 that I stripped and rehandled with wenge and a brass cross guard:

A closer shot at the nice grain of the wenge:

And that's it! I just got one of the China steel Mules today, so I need to figure out what to do for handles. I love doing this kind of stuff!

 

[Jeff Pearce]

very nice...thank's for the pictures. we love pictures....2thumbs

 

[dl351]

Woah! I forgot one! The hardest of them all, my Becker BK2. I sripped it and put black paper micarta, gray spacer, and cocobolo handles on it, finished with lacquer. Before the lacquer and final sanding:

A close up of the handles:

 

[JAWilliams]

Very nice, thanks for the pics.

 

[RAGUEL3]

Great work there bud,.. got a good feel for design and composition on what will look good on which knife. Keep goin

 

[martentrapper]

That BK took my breath away. Post more pics as you create.

 

[James Terrio]

Excellent mods. Since you can clean up blades and build handles that well, time to start grinding your own blades as well!

 

[dl351]

Thanks for the compliments!

Here's a tweak to a current mod that I did. The knife is the Seal 2000 with a wenge handle that I did. I learned that a little bleach really "brings out" the contrast in the grain of wenge. Here's a picture of the knife on top of an unbleached wenge board.

I've got a few blades I ground, as well as a ground, heat treated, unsharpened Camillus Becker BK9 that all need handles. I'm hoping to get them done over the summer.

 

[Rock]

Nice stuff. Its cool seeing the progress you make as your skills evolve.