How To Easy Ghost G10 In Your Choice of Color!

SpyderPhreak

SpyderPhreak

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I'm not a huge fan of Jade (or "Natural") G10. Ever since I got my BHQ exclusive M4 Shaman, I've been wanting to dye the scales some shade of a translucent blue. :cool: On a lark, today became the day to do it. :thumbsup: Knife disassembled:

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Since I received the knife, Carothers Performance Knives started to offer some scales for their knives in "Ghost" G10, and I really liked the look. Essentially, there are a few layers of colored G10 laminated under the Jade G10, and that color shows through the Jade in a neat way IMO. Here are the blue ones I received:

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So after seeing that, I wanted to try for a blue ghost G10 scale on my Shaman. But how to do that? I've been thinking that I would just do a thin layer of dye/vinegar in a pot on warm, gently set the scales in, and keep the upper surface free from the dye. I was able to make that happen successfully, however, the dye didn't really take on the inside surface of the scales too well at all, even after an hour. Back to the drawing board. Maybe if I paint the dye onto the inside of the scales, that might do it? I tried, but still nope. Hmm...

Then an idea hit me. An easy one at that. :) What if I colored the inside of the scales with a blue Sharpie? Sounded like a good idea, but I didn't want to go "all-in" unless I knew it would work. Got the marker out and colored a small spot in the middle of the inside of one of the scales. Flipped it over, and well hey, that actually looks pretty good! :D

So off to the races! Colored the insides of both scales completely, let it sit for about 5 minutes to dry, and coated them again. I held them up to the light to see if there were any light spots and touched those up as necessary. Almost forgot to take any in-process pictures, here's the only one, before I finished the first coat. :eek:

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Here they are finished. The presentation-side scale is a bit of a darker shade of blue, because it's cut a bit thinner for the compression lock. The camera pics this up a bit more than it appears to the naked eye, but it is definitely a little darker.

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(Continued in next post, pic limit...)
 
And here they are reassembled back on the knife. Not too shabby! :D They're not quite as bright of a blue as I would have chosen (maybe not quite as bright as the CPK scales above), but I like the slightly more muted look.

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One thing I would do a little different next time, is I would NOT color the edge flats in the areas circled in these photos. The reason being is that those areas are somewhat exposed when the knife is closed, and you might get color transfer onto your clothes with the knife in your pocket. I actually dampened a paper towel with acetone and wiped the marker off of these surfaces with no ill affect. The color still shows through just fine.

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I did, however, leave the flats on the blade side of the knife colored, as those are somewhat protected when the knife is closed. There is some possibility that the marker could transfer onto your hand, but we'll see how that goes as I use it.

One last thought; I don't know if there is any chance that the Sharpie ink could cause corrosion on the stainless steel liners. I didn't really think about that prior to doing this, but I will do some research to see if that's a potential issue and report back. For now, I'm going to leave this as is and see what happens.

Since you can get Sharpies in just about any color of the rainbow now, I suppose this could work to make any color of Ghost G10 you heart desired. Darker colors will definitely work better though. If anyone else tries this, post photos and let us know how it looks!
 
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Reserved for outside daylight pictures tomorrow.

Outdoor photos which show the color much more accurately. As you can see, it is pretty dynamic depending upon the lighting. Quite happy with the results! :)

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That looks great, pretty much how I wanted mine to look. I failed and my Shaman looks almost like the Blurple color of the s110 series of G10. I still like it and may try the Rit dye remover and see what happens.
 
The ironic part here is that the inside is most definitely Blurple!
 
Nicely done, J. Being the lazy no-good SOB that I am, I simply bought one in the "exchange" at a very nice price from one of our members who had already gone to the trouble of dying the covers some months back.

(These are his images. The covers came out great though the images make the blue look somewhat darker than it actually is...but I already said I'm lazy...:p)

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Great job. You achieved Mountain Dew High Voltage status!

Great idea too.
 
Blues said:
Nicely done, J. Being the lazy no-good SOB that I am, I simply bought one in the "exchange" at a very nice price from one of our members who had already gone to the trouble of dying the covers some months back.

(These are his images. The covers came out great though the images make the blue look somewhat darker than it actually is...but I already said I'm lazy...:p)

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E, you're far too humble. You might be a no-good SOB, but I never thought you lazy. :eek: :p ;)

Looks good! I think I saw something over on the Spyderco home forums where you mentioned picking that up. Congrats! :thumbsup: I like mine quite a lot, a very heavy-duty, beefy feeling Spydie! :cool:
 
It's a nice piece. I can't say it's my favorite pattern but I probably need more time with it. Who can resist a big ol' chunk of M4, though?
 
The 2 BHQ "jade" I dyed. I was going for dark blue.

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Nicely done, but you fastened the clips on the wrong side. :p
 
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