I posted a previous thread detailing some of the mods I did to my current Domino user. It included detent tuning, trying some new bearings, and grinding a wave into the blade. Ever the tinkerer, I took things a few steps further this week...
1) Restored the original spyderco bearings into the pivot. I've finally figured out why they were giving me a gritty feeling - one of the bearing casings was slightly too large for the milled pocket, and could not rotate at all when the pivot was assembled. This was easily taken care of by shaving a small rim of the plastic off until the bearing case could move when fitted into the pocket. The movement is now smoooooth.
2) I can only imagine the number of people who will have minor strokes when they see this, but I decided to wharncliff the blade. I primarily practice a 'Pikal' or Reverse Grip, Edge In (RGEI) methodology, and this blade shape makes it *much* more effective from an ergonomics point of view.
Yes, I could just carry the P'kal (I do own one or two), but while the handle ergos of the P'kal were literally made for RGEI, the ball bearing lock seems a bit less so - in order to close the knife, you have to flip it back to forward grip, and disengage the lock. With the framelock, I can actually close the knife directly from a reverse grip, no fuss. The same would go for a compression lock, and as an offside, I would *really* like to see a compression lock flipper!
3) This bit I'm particularly happy with - while the Domino is one of the few knives which makes some attempt to integrate the flipper into handle ergos when the knife is open, there's still a small bit that sticks out. Some people have commented that it gets in the way of closing the knife, and from my point of view, it certainly gets in the way of a Pikal-style grip. I certainly do believe that the flipper is part of what defines the Domino, however, so didn't want to fully de-flipper it. The solution? Hide the flipper!
Overall, I think that bit turned out quite well - thanks to the way Eric designed the handle, there's still plenty of flipper sticking out in the closed position for a well-powered flip, and it totally disappears into the handle when open. Much better for a Pikal grip!
In the process of reshaping the blade, I also learned how frustrating CTS-XHP is to sharpen. It seems the stories about D2 also apply to its stainless cousin. I used the Diamond rods on the Lansky, and the blade would chip like nobody's business. There was a comment in another thread about sharpening a Techno, and how at one point it chipped so badly it looked like they'd abused it by batoning a tin can, and I have to agree! There were several times I got it down to the fine diamond rod, and was gently working out the last chip/nick, and then several others would suddenly appear!
In the end I had to put a secondary bevel onto the edge, which seemed to take care of things. My wharncliff Spyderco abomination now shaves hair from my arm with just the weight of gravity!
Anyways, thanks for looking, and I hope I didn't give anyone apoplexy this time!
