Tuff Love

brandoak

brandoak

Joined
Aug 1, 2015
Messages
1,351
Today I had a little spare time and a little spare linen micarta laying around and decided to give my Spyderco Tuff some well deserved love.
Unfortunately when I downloaded my pictures from my phone most were corrupt for some reason but I still managed to get a few of the process of putting a new scale on the knife.
Anyway enjoy the few that turned out, maybe it will spark some motivation or creativity in you!
Thanks for looking!


Micarta slab with scribe marks, and bottom picture is of rough cut out and shaping....




Now epoxied to liner after clamping and setting. I use Plastic epoxy for some projects, it works great for metal better than other epoxy's I've tested, it does stink a bit and sets in a cream color.
Bottom picture is just about all cleaned up....



This is before and after the threaded spacers were filed down. This was done because the screws will now tighten to the liner flush with this install.



Just like for the threaded spacers the pivot hole is drilled completely through the micarta...making a fibrous washer as the new seat for the pivot screw and adjustment...




Glued in with loctite 380. This is another glue your missing out on if you haven't tried it!




Lots of sanding and contouring and all done.....for now...I really liked how it turned out, the recessed dimple adds great grip. The other modifications I've done allow this knife to fly open with the flick of the wrist and have solid lockup.

 
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That looks GREAT! You did an excellent job. Thanks for posting the pictures. :thumbup:
 
brandoak said:
The other modifications I've done allow this knife to fly open with the flick of the wrist and have solid lockup.
Click to expand...

What did you do to accomplish that? Lockup was a bit weak on mine so I tore it down and bent the lockbar a bit; now it's "tough" to open LOL so any insight as to what worked for you would be appreciated.

It's a neat and different approach to glue the micarta to the steel underneath; it'll probably last forever now... :thumbup: I've seen a few TUFF's redone with micarta and yours is one of the best looking that I've seen IMHO. :thumbup::cool:

When I made my TUFF scale out of G10 I countersunk the holes further so it would sit as similarly as the stock scale as possible and then mimicked the stock hole pattern/style as well using a ball end mill in the drill press...

21516588355_0d5e82652c_h.jpg
 
OP, nice work. Czechmate, that blue scale really pops! My Tuff has a strong detent which I love. It opens with authority only needing a flick of the thumb hole. Maybe I was just lucky....
 
craytab said:
OP, nice work. Czechmate, that blue scale really pops! My Tuff has a strong detent which I love. It opens with authority only needing a flick of the thumb hole. Maybe I was just lucky....
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. Mine was not flickable before the mod and is definitely not now LOL. I have to pinch the blade between thumb and index finger then flick to open if that makes sense...
 
Czechmate said:
Thanks very much. Mine was not flickable before the mod and is definitely not now LOL. I have to pinch the blade between thumb and index finger then flick to open if that makes sense...
Click to expand...

Hmm. That sucks. Can you at least open it one handed with your thumb in the thumb hole? Is it not smooth or is it the detent?
 
I bought my first Tuff and was amazed at how difficult it was to open and close, so I bought another one and it was the same. Super strong detents, almost impossible to open with the thumb hole.
Also these Tuff's are well renown to have bad lockup. I did the “spine wack” test and sure enough they both became dislodged from lockup fairly easily. This was fixed with just a little dremel work on the ramp. (very shallow ramp on these)

As far as its “over tuffness”.. I decided against bending the lockbar because of its shortness...this picture is before the final polish so it looks pretty rough, its also temporarily sprayed with artists flat mat so I could see exactly wear the detent ball was riding. See the faint line on top?

I angle cut the face where the detent ball rides easing off LOTS of tension. I also milled a detent track/groove all the way to the detent hole. Again, this picture is before final polish, but you can see the progress. When it was done, the knife still has a good/hard detent but is now manageable with one hand. With a good flick, the heavy blade overcomes the “still tuff” detent and fly's open to a positive lockup that now passes the “wack” test.
 
Mine came new with a decent detent, but it opens very smoothly and is not hard to open. Maybe I just got lucky, it's unfortunate they're not all that way.
 
tacticalgearlover said:
Mine came new with a decent detent, but it opens very smoothly and is not hard to open. Maybe I just got lucky, it's unfortunate they're not all that way.
Click to expand...

They sure seem to be hit or miss, that's why I bought two and still got stiffed or Tuffed..:(
 
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Czechmate, Here is a drawing or cross-section ....pink is what I cut out, and green is where the lockbar face now rests after dremel work to the ramp. made a huge difference!

 
Thanks for the detailed response brandoak; this is what I should have done instead of bend the lock bar; I don't know if I can undo what I've done LOL... :foot::thumbdn::(

I was thinking of wave modding mine as well so it may go back into the pile of knife projects I'm working on. :thumbup:;):D
 
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