Need blade swap advise.

[millwright]

I've been trying to get a military lefty for awhile now.
I have found one for sale finally but it has a shortened blade.
I have not owned a Millie before so my question is can I swap the blade from a standard model to the lefty version?
Also with the cost of buying both knives should I just wait to find a better example.

[dubya3]

I don't think you can put a regular blade in the LH frame because the grind on the tang won't match up with the lock bar on the opposite side it's normally on.

Usually when people shorten the blade they also shorten the handle so it may not fit anyway.

[awa54]

I've been trying to get a military lefty for awhile now.
I have found one for sale finally but it has a shortened blade.
I have not owned a Millie before so my question is can I swap the blade from a standard model to the lefty version?
Also with the cost of buying both knives should I just wait to find a better example.

I don't own and have never seen a left hand military, but the lock face on every Walker lock I *have seen* is angled slightly (often dished) so that the liner continues to interface progressively tighter with the blade tang as it beds deeper into the lock face. The angles for an opposite side lock would be 180 deg. from the "rightie" version. The tolerances involved are tight enough that re-grinding the lock face would render the lockup sloppy and unsafe.

[Evil D]

The lock face is ground the opposite way. It won't match up to the lock face. Won't work. It might be possible to make the standard liner lock version work since its just a flat piece of steel but who knows how the action will feel.

[The Deacon]

Swapping a blade from a RH Military into a left handed one is not really feasible. As noted by others, the lock face will be ground the wrong way. The detent in the blade tang that the Walker lock's ball fits into will also be on the wrong side of the tang. eBay is probably your best bet if you have patience, Country Knives is probably your best bet if you don't.

[millwright]

Thanks.
I figured that the blades might be different

[Evil D]

Oh yeah I didn't even think about the detent ball/hole. Good point.