Dragonfly Blade Swap Advice

[PocketShredder]

I've never dabbled in modding knives before, but I would like to do a blade swap on two of my DF2's. Nothing too crazy, just a test to see if I can pull it off successfully before moving onto more complex mods. For tools, I've got a Wiha T6 and T8 and medium strength Loctite. Am I missing anything? I think I understand the general premise of how it works, I just want to make sure I go about it the correct way.

[max808]

I've never dabbled in modding knives before, but I would like to do a blade swap on two of my DF2's. Nothing too crazy, just a test to see if I can pull it off successfully before moving onto more complex mods. For tools, I've got a Wiha T6 and T8 and medium strength Loctite. Am I missing anything? I think I understand the general premise of how it works, I just want to make sure I go about it the correct way.

Excellent choice PocketShredder, a lot of people on here seem to love the dragonfly. From what I've seen it's just a matter of unscrewing the pivot with your excellent T8 wiha (watch both washers) and replacing the blade by sliding it into the backlock notch. The FRN is unibody and cannot be dissasembled. Nick Shabazz video is a lil sloppy but decent enough, he uses a strap to keep the backlock lined up with the pivot cuz it is spring loaded.

There is also a specialized sticky thread on disassembly and more importantly assembly of various spydies.

Good luck and if you decide to go through with this project, may I suggest a H-1 hawkbill and black FRN on one of your test subjects? I'll gladly take it off your hands at full retail or over when you're done with it.

Max

[VooDooChild]

Its usually recommended on here that you keep the lockbar with the blade when you switch them. So the lockbar and blade from one knife goes into the handle of the other and vice versa.
Heck you could switch the springs too if you wanted.

Point is you should fully disasemble both and switch both blades and lockbars.

Also remember there is a D shaped hole in the frn for the pivot pin. So you have to have that lined up when putting the pivot pin in. (At least its like that on all the other seki frn backlocks I have fooled with.)

[Ramonade]

Even if it is the same base model, it might be a good idea to swap the lockbars too, no ?
During disassembly, it can be a very good thing to take a close look at both blades to ensure that the lock cutout on the blade is the same for both.

[max808]

Its usually recommended on here that you keep the lockbar with the blade when you switch them. So the lockbar and blade from one knife goes into the handle of the other and vice versa.
Heck you could switch the springs too if you wanted.

Point is you should fully disasemble both and switch both blades and lockbars.

Also remember there is a D shaped hole in the frn for the pivot pin. So you have to have that lined up when putting the pivot pin in. (At least its like that on all the other seki frn backlocks I have fooled with.)

Thank for the heads up guys. I hadn't considered that but sounds like an excellent practice to keep lockbar with correct blade, as it's likely been tuned to it.

[PocketShredder]

Thanks, everyone, for the helpful advice! The project was much easier than I expected and I feel very good about the results. It was a truly eye-opening experience and a new milestone for me to take a look "under the hood" of a Spyderco. I'm excited to make further tweaks and mods in the future.

Here is the finished product of my little experiment:

[PocketShredder]

I've never dabbled in modding knives before, but I would like to do a blade swap on two of my DF2's. Nothing too crazy, just a test to see if I can pull it off successfully before moving onto more complex mods. For tools, I've got a Wiha T6 and T8 and medium strength Loctite. Am I missing anything? I think I understand the general premise of how it works, I just want to make sure I go about it the correct way.

Excellent choice PocketShredder, a lot of people on here seem to love the dragonfly. From what I've seen it's just a matter of unscrewing the pivot with your excellent T8 wiha (watch both washers) and replacing the blade by sliding it into the backlock notch. The FRN is unibody and cannot be dissasembled. Nick Shabazz video is a lil sloppy but decent enough, he uses a strap to keep the backlock lined up with the pivot cuz it is spring loaded.

There is also a specialized sticky thread on disassembly and more importantly assembly of various spydies.

Good luck and if you decide to go through with this project, may I suggest a H-1 hawkbill and black FRN on one of your test subjects? I'll gladly take it off your hands at full retail or over when you're done with it.

Max

I have yet to own a hawkbill Dragonfly, but I'll let you know if I ever come across one! I agree that it would look better in black FRN.

The video you suggested was very helpful in walking me through the disassembly/reassembly process step by step. I didn't have any zip ties on hand, so I had to improvise with a thick rubber band to hold the backlock down. That was the only difficult part about the whole process. Everything else was smooth sailing.

[max808]

I've never dabbled in modding knives before, but I would like to do a blade swap on two of my DF2's. Nothing too crazy, just a test to see if I can pull it off successfully before moving onto more complex mods. For tools, I've got a Wiha T6 and T8 and medium strength Loctite. Am I missing anything? I think I understand the general premise of how it works, I just want to make sure I go about it the correct way.

Excellent choice PocketShredder, a lot of people on here seem to love the dragonfly. From what I've seen it's just a matter of unscrewing the pivot with your excellent T8 wiha (watch both washers) and replacing the blade by sliding it into the backlock notch. The FRN is unibody and cannot be dissasembled. Nick Shabazz video is a lil sloppy but decent enough, he uses a strap to keep the backlock lined up with the pivot cuz it is spring loaded.

There is also a specialized sticky thread on disassembly and more importantly assembly of various spydies.

Good luck and if you decide to go through with this project, may I suggest a H-1 hawkbill and black FRN on one of your test subjects? I'll gladly take it off your hands at full retail or over when you're done with it.

Max

I have yet to own a hawkbill Dragonfly, but I'll let you know if I ever come across one! I agree that it would look better in black FRN.

The video you suggested was very helpful in walking me through the disassembly/reassembly process step by step. I didn't have any zip ties on hand, so I had to improvise with a thick rubber band to hold the backlock down. That was the only difficult part about the whole process. Everything else was smooth sailing.

Glad the video was helpful, been looking at doing a swap myself but a couple of donor dragonfly would set me back €200, which I'd rather put towards another spyderhawk, I'm thinking a black G-10 one that's about to hit the shelves.

[Monty]

I've never dabbled in modding knives before, but I would like to do a blade swap on two of my DF2's. Nothing too crazy, just a test to see if I can pull it off successfully before moving onto more complex mods. For tools, I've got a Wiha T6 and T8 and medium strength Loctite. Am I missing anything? I think I understand the general premise of how it works, I just want to make sure I go about it the correct way.

Excellent choice PocketShredder, a lot of people on here seem to love the dragonfly. From what I've seen it's just a matter of unscrewing the pivot with your excellent T8 wiha (watch both washers) and replacing the blade by sliding it into the backlock notch. The FRN is unibody and cannot be dissasembled. Nick Shabazz video is a lil sloppy but decent enough, he uses a strap to keep the backlock lined up with the pivot cuz it is spring loaded.

There is also a specialized sticky thread on disassembly and more importantly assembly of various spydies.

Good luck and if you decide to go through with this project, may I suggest a H-1 hawkbill and black FRN on one of your test subjects? I'll gladly take it off your hands at full retail or over when you're done with it.

Max

A bit of rit dye would give you this for just the price of one dragonfly, black rit is the easiest one to work with.

[Evil D]

Be very observant of how the knife is put together and how it comes apart and put it back together exactly the same way, same screws in the same holes even. Note the direction that the lock spring is facing, they can be installed backwards. It's usually recommended that you keep the back lock bar with the matching blade as they're fit to each other.

[PocketShredder]

Be very observant of how the knife is put together and how it comes apart and put it back together exactly the same way, same screws in the same holes even. Note the direction that the lock spring is facing, they can be installed backwards. It's usually recommended that you keep the back lock bar with the matching blade as they're fit to each other.

Good advice! I took pictures along the way in case I made a mistake and needed to retrace my steps. It’s funny you mention the orientation of the lock spring—I did have to go back and look at the pictures to see how it was initially installed.

Why is it so important to swap the lock bar in addition to the blade? Are those not always consistent between knives of the same model?

[Evil D]

Be very observant of how the knife is put together and how it comes apart and put it back together exactly the same way, same screws in the same holes even. Note the direction that the lock spring is facing, they can be installed backwards. It's usually recommended that you keep the back lock bar with the matching blade as they're fit to each other.

Good advice! I took pictures along the way in case I made a mistake and needed to retrace my steps. It’s funny you mention the orientation of the lock spring—I did have to go back and look at the pictures to see how it was initially installed.

Why is it so important to swap the lock bar in addition to the blade? Are those not always consistent between knives of the same model?

I would assume there may be some hand finishing done to the lock face/bar to get the lockup just right, and mismatching them could screw that up.

[PocketShredder]

Be very observant of how the knife is put together and how it comes apart and put it back together exactly the same way, same screws in the same holes even. Note the direction that the lock spring is facing, they can be installed backwards. It's usually recommended that you keep the back lock bar with the matching blade as they're fit to each other.

Good advice! I took pictures along the way in case I made a mistake and needed to retrace my steps. It’s funny you mention the orientation of the lock spring—I did have to go back and look at the pictures to see how it was initially installed.

Why is it so important to swap the lock bar in addition to the blade? Are those not always consistent between knives of the same model?

I would assume there may be some hand finishing done to the lock face/bar to get the lockup just right, and mismatching them could screw that up.

Okay, that makes sense.

[max808]

Be very observant of how the knife is put together and how it comes apart and put it back together exactly the same way, same screws in the same holes even. Note the direction that the lock spring is facing, they can be installed backwards. It's usually recommended that you keep the back lock bar with the matching blade as they're fit to each other.

Good advice! I took pictures along the way in case I made a mistake and needed to retrace my steps. It’s funny you mention the orientation of the lock spring—I did have to go back and look at the pictures to see how it was initially installed.

Why is it so important to swap the lock bar in addition to the blade? Are those not always consistent between knives of the same model?

I would assume there may be some hand finishing done to the lock face/bar to get the lockup just right, and mismatching them could screw that up.

I can confirm that the pivot area of my orange spyderhawk has been hand finished and is considerably thinner than the blade stock. Would make sense considering that legendary Japanese finesse, one can only assume the same priciples apply to production runs.