Took my EDC to the Vivi Spa

[vivi]

I EDC a Pacific Salt. Lately, a PE one from when they had squared off clips and blocky jimping.

I had some work I had been meaning to do to it. Finally got around to it this afternoon.

Here is how it looked before:



Here is how it looks now:



So what all did I do?

1. Flattened out the tip a bit more, bringing it closer to an Endura 3 profile.

2. Sharpened the spyderhole. It had gotten worn down over the years, purchsse is much improved now.

3. Reground the blade profile. I held it flat to the saber grind and removed steel until there was barely any edge bevel left.

4. Enlarged the index choil a bit. I don't use it much, but it was a little undersized before.

5. Gave it a deep clean. Soaked the entire knife in hot, soapy water, then scrubbed out everything as well as I could.

6. Lubed the pivot with mineral oil, cycling the action a few times, then wiping out the excess.

7. Gave it a fresh edge. 15dps with my medium sharpmaker rods. That's it, nothing else.

Feels so much nicer now. Grippier scales, smoother opening, the hole works better, thinner behind the edge bevel etc. Almost effortless slicing through cardboard now :)



Testing out the edge

Only other thing I'd like to do is remove the bad side to side play it's developed. Tried tapping the pivot lightly with a hammer and it didn't seem to make a difference. Afraid to whack it too hard. Suggestions welcome.

[blues]

Nice job. You did the knife proud.

[Evil D]

Looks really good. Have you seen Cliff's regrind videos of his Pacific? He took his waaay thin. The more I think about it the more I think I might get a Pacific and see what I can do with the handle shape and have it reground FFG.

[zhyla]

Only other thing I'd like to do is remove the bad side to side play it's developed. Tried tapping the pivot lightly with a hammer and it didn't seem to make a difference. Afraid to whack it too hard. Suggestions welcome.

My entirely warranty-voiding advice is to get a press or vise of some sort and try to squish the dome of that pivot a schmidge. I've had luck with SS handled Spydies but pinging them in the center of the pivot but I think for rounded over rivets you want to put some force on them to make them mushroom a little more.

[attila]

I really like the cleaning/update of your old Pac Salt!

[p_atrick]

What did you use to grind the blade profile, and about how long did it take?

[vivi]

Only other thing I'd like to do is remove the bad side to side play it's developed. Tried tapping the pivot lightly with a hammer and it didn't seem to make a difference. Afraid to whack it too hard. Suggestions welcome.

My entirely warranty-voiding advice is to get a press or vise of some sort and try to squish the dome of that pivot a schmidge. I've had luck with SS handled Spydies but pinging them in the center of the pivot but I think for rounded over rivets you want to put some force on them to make them mushroom a little more.

Good idea, I'll give that a go.

[vivi]

What did you use to grind the blade profile, and about how long did it take?

I used 120 grit sandpaper and the blade grind part took about 15 minutes.

I do this to a lot of saber ground Spydercos. Cara Cara 1, the saber ground ZDP Endura, Salts etc.



I had already done the flat to the stone thing once before, so there wasn't as much metal to remove as when you do it on a fresh Pacific Salt. If you look at the before picture, at one point I decided to grind a really narrow edge bevel on it instead of using my typical micro bevel. Not sure why. Today I went back to the flat to the stone regrind + microbevel. Well, the microbevel could be smaller....

[knivesandbooks]

Dang vivi, wish I could send you my mangled se Pac salt.

With an angle like that, it should perform a lot better.

Also I've fixed those pinned pivots with a towel, a vise, a small punch, and a deadblow.

[ZrowsN1s]

looks good man, well done.

[embry386]

That is so beautiful. I especially like the reshaped blade. And that last photo of your Pacific Salt's blade up close is nice, should enter it in the photo of the week contest one of these times

[ThePeacent]

looks excellent,
and that makes me want to buy a PE Pacific and regrind it. I have 6 of them, but all are SE!! :p

[J D Wijbenga]

Nice job! Thanks for showing and wxplaining!

[Evil D]

looks excellent,
and that makes me want to buy a PE Pacific and regrind it. I have 6 of them, but all are SE!! :p

I've always wanted to thin out a SE blade too as long as you leave it thick enough to have some serration definition left. A thin FFG/SE has got to be a strong performer.

[vivi]

I wonder, if you took a SE Pacific flat to the stone on the presentation side until the bevel was tiny, but the serration pattern is still in tact...how would that affect the knife's tendency to curve while cutting things like cardboard?

[ThePeacent]

^^^only one way to find out

[Evil D]

I wonder, if you took a SE Pacific flat to the stone on the presentation side until the bevel was tiny, but the serration pattern is still in tact...how would that affect the knife's tendency to curve while cutting things like cardboard?

I think it would reduce it quite a bit. The problem is if you go too low you'll eventually lose the defined shape of the serrations and end up with just a wavy bevel.