No G10 hawkbill? No problem!

[agony]

My favourite Byrds are the disco'd Crossbill with the G10, and the smaller FRN hawkbill.
However, as far as I know there was never a G10 hawkbill.
I love hawkbills.
I love G10.
So I did a blade swap between a Meadowlark 2 G10 and the FRN Hawbill.
Here are the two knives before they gave their innocent lives for my own selfish pleasure:

[agony]

Then I started to take them apart.
These knives were pretty nasty on the inside...lots of grime and oil and dirt.
Cleaned every little nook and cranny, then started playing with the parts to see if a blade swap would work.
Here's the G10 meadowlark after cleaning and starting to put together again:


And here's the FRN Hawkbill before cleaning:

[agony]

The biggest problem I had was the clip screws on the G10 Meadowlark2.
They were definitely loctited in place. Had to use a soldering iron to heat up the screws. Two of the three came out unscathed, but one had to removed with a vise grip rendering it unusable again.
I don't know how much of the threads actually catch on the liners but it isn't much. It seems a bunch of loctite was needed to hold the screws in place more securely. Also, the screw sizes aren't standard 2-56 like most Spydercos so I don't have a spare.

[agony]

The finished product....A G10 scaled Hawbill, and a FRN Meadowlark 2 with hawbill labelled on the scales.


The G10 hawbill works great. Good strong detent, smooth opening, and no blade wobble or lock rock.
I did swap not only the blades but also the locks.

The G10 hawkbill's backlock will need to be smoothed down a little bit, as it isn't completely flush to the liners. Not too much work, but it needs done.
I'll post more pics in a few days when I do this. I'm also going to switch out the teeny little bronze washers to larger ones. I did this already when I put the FRN meadowlark together. I also had to bend the spring steel lock spring a bit more acutely to get it to work well with the meadowlark in the hawkbill FRN scales. However it fit well and won't need any more boogering. The lock is nice and snappy and rock solid.

I'll also need to procure a screw for the clip on the FRN knife.


I love the steel backspacer, just like the larger G10 Crossbills.


More pics in a couple days.

[anagarika]

Thank you for sharing this. I had to use soldering iron too on my Cara Cara SS clip, but one won’t budge (I have two of them).
I’m still with my FRN Hawkbill and they make a good pair!


I’d suggest emailing Charlynn at customer service, she may help you with the clip screw. The diameter is bigger than Endura clip screw, as it won’t pass through the holes on the Endura clip.

I still dream of Byrd without the horrible excessive white loctite. The last 6 knives I received had them.
I’m getting a Vamplier to try getting them out. It may work on exposed screw head, but not on the recessed ones like on the body of scales, without ruining the scales.

[rwasham]

Would love to see G10 hawkbills come back as production knives!

[agony]

I’d suggest emailing Charlynn at customer service, she may help you with the clip screw. The diameter is bigger than Endura clip screw, as it won’t pass through the holes on the Endura clip.

I still dream of Byrd without the horrible excessive white loctite. The last 6 knives I received had them.
I’m getting a Vamplier to try getting them out. It may work on exposed screw head, but not on the recessed ones like on the body of scales, without ruining the scales.

Thanks, I'll email Charlynn to see if I can get some new clip screws.

Never heard of a Vamplier, just checked them out. Pretty cool tool, I'll have to get one!

[agony]

I emailed CS, and they are sending replacement screw. I did have to send them a pic to prove that I actually owned the knife lol

[anagarika]

I emailed CS, and they are sending replacement screw. I did have to send them a pic to prove that I actually owned the knife lol

Glad they do .. !

[agony]

I finally got around to grinding down the back lock to make it more flush with the handle. Also the distal edge where it contacts the tang of the blade was a bit sharp so it needed smoothed down as well. Here's what it looked like before:



And here it is afterwards. Not perfectly flush but much better. I simply ground down with my bench sander, then some finishing wih 80, 180, 400, 800, 1400 wet sandpaper.
With the blade deployed:



And with the blade closed. It is a little more flush when opened,but I'm done messing with it. This is good enough for me:



I also tried sourcing better PB washers from my stash, but I don't have anything small enough.
Either way, a great little knife and a fun/easy project.

[crazywednesday]

Nice work. I would definitely buy a g10 version.

[anagarika]

I emailed CS, and they are sending replacement screw. I did have to send them a pic to prove that I actually owned the knife lol

Glad they do .. !

Just to update, SFO sent me the replacement while I’m waiting for my Vamplier. Cannot get better than that!
.
Thanks Collin!

[Ngati Pom]

Nice to see the update, thanks.

[anagarika]

The vamplier worked great. Just grab those button head screw, grip, turn. Didn’t need to heat them. Of course there’ll be notches by the plier teeth. But it works perfectly like advertised.

Got the idea from this thread
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/ooo ... s.1535557/

[Sonorum]

Now I need to buy a g10 meadowlark and pimp my hawkbill!

[steelcity16]

Would love to see G10 hawkbills come back as production knives!

+1 Need the G10 full SE Crossbill to make a return! Maybe bring it back in orange G10 as an amazing yard work knife!