DIY knife mods (Pics inside)

Of course!
 

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One of my favorites. This was the first "custom" folder I ever got I think, from John Greco.
There wasn't much to it, simple framelock with the frame and blade made from 8670 steel. While the blade is excellent and in one of my favorite blade profiles, the handle edges were sharp and felt too thin in-hand.

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Had some scales made, but this time the knife felt too thick.
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Finally decided to contour the scales last year, polished the spine and liners, and now it's perfect.
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That's my $100 custom :)
 
The top of the thumb ramp on my Superleaf was biting me so I ground it down a touch. Much nicer.



 
i wouldnt say i love it more, closer to its more useful for my purpose. I dont usually mod just to mod, i mod for a given reason. example adding a choil (finger groove if you may) to a larger knife when a smaller knife will not be with it..wrapping a handle in place of scales like on my bk7..i use this is cold weather alot and scales with gloves on made it feel too bulky in my hand..forcing a patina when the coating is wore just to protect the blade..
 
Liking this knife a whole lot more after I made some scales for it.
The black plastic wasn't working for me.
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Have done to many to count over the years to effect both form or function. I've done things like tweaking blade kicks to adjust knife height, to sanding inside liners, to total restorations for mine and my sons knives. Just want a knife to feel right :thumbup:

ZT 0500 MUDD, polished hardware and stripped liners, also added a choil...

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Converted sheath for pocket carry on my Boker Krein Pocket Bowie...

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Did the same for my Izula II...

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Reworked scales on a Tenacious using a Dremel bit...

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Converted from tip down to tip up on a Sprint Run Para Military, scale was dyed by another forum member, from OD to Coyote Brown...

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My attempt at a shell casing LBS....

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A recent "Flipper" mod to a first release Boker Kwaiken...

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In addition to whats listed I have tweaked, Krinked, Re-Pinned, polish and restore ENDLESS traditionals...

Paul
 
No. Not really. I am sort of never fully satisfied with the result. Not because it's bad, but because it's not perfect. Of the fixed blade knives that I've made myself, there is hardly a single one that I did not come back to after sometimes more than a year and "improve" it. And it's so much easier to start with because I do it myself from the scratch, not trying to 'improve' something made before me and thus already somewhat limited. So when I tried modifying folders it did not work very well. I am sort of fine with a folder as it is, I just accept it, but if I do something with it myself, I just keep looking at that modification and keep re-evaluating and judging myself until I start feeling unhappy about it.
I am still planning to try to make some custom scales for Griptilian or something, but I rather think about this as a challenge, than the actual 'improvement'. So we will see...
 
I am crazy picky about pocket clips, so many of my mods include making a knife work with the pocket clip I want. I have dyed one knife, but in general don't care to mess with scale mods. I do plan to anodize my Sage 2 soon for fun.

This Military converted to tip up will put the Military in my pocket more often now.
 
This is a weird subject for me. I normally would say yes. As Usually I would mod every knife I got as I love to pimp knives and make them (for me) better than stock. But then shortly after doing so I usually would sell it off. For me its almost as if after modding it I viewed my time with that knife as being over or completed if you will. And usually when I mod something and post pictures of it someone sends me an email wanting it bad enough to give me a ridiculous amount that I cant pass up, lol.
 
A bit of a resurrection, but I knew there had to be an existing thread on this topic. Modding my knives (in the right ways) makes me like them so much more. I couldn't get a confident grip on my Skyline until I reshaped the handle.

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ToddM said:
I modify many of my knives, and I certainly enjoy them more. I generally don't do a lot of blade/pivot polishing unless it's pretty rough, but I make ergonomic adjustments to handles, rounding sharp edges, adding scallop type relief to get at thumb studs better. It's amazing how much you can improve the feel of a knife just with a few minutes and some sand paper or needle file (and of course safety glasses and respirator). Many times the changes would be tough to see in a picture unless you knew what to look for. It used to make me nervous, but I've yet to rework one that I didn't like better when I was done, though admittedly a couple have been pulled from the brink of disaster. There are very few knives I keep that I have done nothing to.

A hogue EX01, I hated the deep sharp index finger relief, so I smoothed it out, I also put a radius on the top of the handle edges that were pretty much 90 degrees.

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A strider SMF CC, got a hard user super cheap and remembered why I got rid of my first SMF, that square hump on the back of the handle digs into my palm during extended cutting, so it went away, had to take a lot off the edge to restore it. It went from one of my least favorite to most after the mods.

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A Wilson Combat ELC elmax that just arrived, this one went from a "well maybe I should dump it" to one I really like now. Did a lot of edge radiusing and added more relief to get at the thumb studs better, it now feels like it melts into my hand.

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Manix 2, what started as a simple carbon scale/jade ghost liner upgrade almost went horribly wrong. I decided to just use the carbon scales not the ghost liners. That required grinding down all the screws and changing the pivot screws to pan head screws because the taper heads would bottom on the pivot with the thinner scales. I also had to put a couple clip screws in the non-clip side and grind the lanyard tube down a bit, in addition to one long clip screw that went through both liners because with the thickness reduced the lanyard tube was no longer holding things tight. I really like it, but I would never mess with the scales on a Spyderco with that press fit lanyard tube again.

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The sng looks way better like that!
 
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