Show your mods!

[Fred Sanford]

That is how they should come from the factory. I hate the blunted tip. Nice job.

[ourgon]

If I buy in future second E4, I'll doing the same with tip.

[senorsquare]

Not much of a mod per se, but I prefer the black scales on the paramilitary 2 and I also prefer M390 over S30V so....


Swip swap by senorsquare, on Flickr

[Bladekeeper]

Not much of a mod per se, but I prefer the black scales on the paramilitary 2 and I also prefer M390 over S30V so....


Swip swap by senorsquare, on Flickr

Nice I prefer some Endura coloured FRN on a matriach than black .
Not sure if they'd swap straight over without any adjustments ?.
Got done scales that are going on a tenacious too some burl wood.
Just when is the question too many ideas and the list grows by the day :) .

[thog94]

Still need to do a little sanding and carve out grooves for the clip but it's pretty much done.

[Holland]

Very nice Thog!

[Pockets]

I agree. Kirinite is pretty.

[DJFrostbyte]

Nice I prefer some Endura coloured FRN on a matriach than black .
Not sure if they'd swap straight over without any adjustments ?.
:) .

Does anyone know if this is possible?? Swapping a Matriarch 2 blade on to a colored FRN endura handle? I've been thinking about doing this for a while.

[RoBoTech]

Does anyone know if this is possible?? Swapping a Matriarch 2 blade on to a colored FRN endura handle? I've been thinking about doing this for a while.

yes, it will swap. I have done it to a Matriarch 2 and Endura FOUR.
And the Spyderco Lightweight Kits for the Endura (just the steel liners, pins and screws) will fit the Matriarch 2.
Just noticed I had these in this thread.
http://www.spyderco.com/forums/showthre ... ds!/page38 post #755 for the Endura, and #742 for the Matriarch 2.
and here is the same scales on the Endura 4. NO changes in fitting.

Even the clip screw hole line up in the liners. I keep a set of lightweight kits for the Endura and delica, as I go through a bunch of them, buy, sell, trade, and use.
I don't know about the older Endura's and the original Matriarch.
And I believe the Matriarch Sprint (brown FRN) is pinned, not screwed.
That wouldn't stop me, but I don't know if it would fit as I haven't tried.
Just remember that if you are swapping FRN, that the model is stamped on the scale. SO you will have Endura 4 on that Matriarch 2, and vica versa.
Personally, if I am going to pull scales, I will put G-10 or other materials I made back on. Easy if screwed, much harder if pinned.

[DJFrostbyte]

yes, it will swap. I have done it to a Matriarch 2 and Endura FOUR.
And the Spyderco Lightweight Kits for the Endura (just the steel liners, pins and screws) will fit the Matriarch 2.
Here is a thread to show this.
http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/showt ... ost1202968

I don't know about the older Endura's and the original Matriarch.
And I believe the Matriarch Sprint (brown FRN) is pinned, not screwed.
That wouldn't stop me, but I don't know if it would fit as I haven't tried.
Just remember that if you are swapping FRN, that the model is stamped on the scale. SO you will have Endura 4 on that Matriarch 2, and vica versa.
Personally, if I am going to pull scales, I will put G-10 or other materials I made back on. Easy if screwed, much harder if pinned.

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated!

[Jazz]

Still need to do a little sanding and carve out grooves for the clip but it's pretty much done.

Definitely show us when you're done. Looks cool.

[thog94]

Slight setback a couple of hours ago. I tightened everything down and getting ready to put it through a few test I heard an unsettling noise as I was opening it. I guess the spring was to strong and it cracked. I checked all of my measurements and the holes were in the exact same spot as the ones on the frn handle. Maybe it's time to use 3/16 instead of 1/8 material. Anyway it was a fun time and good learning experience, I feel confident that I can do this again and will do it again. Now I hope that there is enough material that I might be able to get a set of Jester handles out of it.

[Evil D]

Ouch. Hate to see stuff like that.

[jackknifeh]

Slight setback a couple of hours ago. I tightened everything down and getting ready to put it through a few test I heard an unsettling noise as I was opening it. I guess the spring was to strong and it cracked. I checked all of my measurements and the holes were in the exact same spot as the ones on the frn handle. Maybe it's time to use 3/16 instead of 1/8 material. Anyway it was a fun time and good learning experience, I feel confident that I can do this again and will do it again. Now I hope that there is enough material that I might be able to get a set of Jester handles out of it.

That stinks so bad I can smell it from here. Or is it my last oops that I'm still smelling. :) Either way, it stinks. I've spent 3 or 4 minutes trying to figure out how kirinite would do this. I don't know anything about your knife. Were there liners? Individual back spacers for each set of screws? Just curious. Hope you have enough for little knives. It's great when you can take care of two knives with one set of scale slabs. Sorry about the bad luck.

Jack

[thog94]

I pretty much traced out the Pingo with slight alterations, all of which were done on the bottom side. So with the Pingo it's just a blade, spring and screws. The original FRN handles have built in washers, I was using an extra pair of brass ones, which are actually thinner than the ones in the handles. I took measurements and the distance between the holes and the side of the handle were exactly the same according to my calipers. I didn't even have a chance to counter sink the holes yet. No big deal, I just ordered a few more pieces of kirinite and we'll see what happens. Might try to do the Pingo again, a Dragonfly, or new scales for the Perrin PPT. I was a little bummed, but my son was more PO'd than I was because he really liked the look. Next time, I won't post until it's done and working!

If anything it's good experience moving forward.

[thog94]

Jack, your last post got me thinking and if I was smart I would of looked at both sides of the handle a little closer. With this shot you can see exactly where it cracked, right on the seam of the coloring. All the other holes I drilled were on solid color. Next time I drill, I think it will be on a solid color and not in between. Don't know if this is the cause or not, but it sounds logical to me.

[opaul]

You mod guys are unbelievable..........works of art and eye sweet! The talent displayed in this thread is awesome. Now, if I just could recognize the spyderco's that are displayed without mention of the model name :) I'm sure that will come with time. I just have to have some patience.

[jackknifeh]

j

Jack, your last post got me thinking and if I was smart I would of looked at both sides of the handle a little closer. With this shot you can see exactly where it cracked, right on the seam of the coloring. All the other holes I drilled were on solid color. Next time I drill, I think it will be on a solid color and not in between. Don't know if this is the cause or not, but it sounds logical to me.

That is interesting. I would let USAknifemakers.com know. They may replace them with no charge. This definately looks like a flaw in the material to me. I don't know if it's a consistant problem or if you had the only bad piece on the planet. Also, trying to line up the kirinite so the holes are always on solid spots might be difficult. It's just something you shouldn't need to worry about with any material I've ever messed with.

I don't know how you are measuring and marking your holes but it sounds scary to me. I could never measure then mark. I got in the habig of using the liner to mark my holes then drill them. This was when I was using my Dremel workstation to drill the holes. The workstation is not strong enough to keep the bit in the same place while drilling. The grain of wood would cause the bit to wander away from the harder wood enough to put the hole in the wrong place. It doesn't take much for it to ruin the piece. Due to this wandering I was afraid to use the original scale to use to drill the hole. Now I have a drill press so the next set I make I'll put the scale on top of the new material and drill right through the hole in the original scale through the new material. With the two pieces clamped together I hope to be able to drill all the holes without seperating them. I don't know if hole location was the problem here though. I really think it was a bad piece. I have holes where colors meet and solid places both. If you didn't put a twisting force on the scales there must be something wrong with it. Just my opinion. I have only made 4 or 5 kirinite sets so I'm no expert though.

I'm sure you will have better luck next time.

Jack

[noseoil]

Looks like a "grain run-out" issue, as you would typically have with wood fiber, only in this case it is from the merger of two dis-similar plastic formations. I think this type of material my be too brittle to use for handles. If it cracks like it did, perhaps it isn't a candidate for hard use material, like G10 or other laminated types.

[jackknifeh]

Looks like a "grain run-out" issue, as you would typically have with wood fiber, only in this case it is from the merger of two dis-similar plastic formations. I think this type of material my be too brittle to use for handles. If it cracks like it did, perhaps it isn't a candidate for hard use material, like G10 or other laminated types.

I have bought a total of 4 or 5 sets of 5"x1.5" scale slabs of kirinite. This indicates I don't have a lot of experience with it. The first thing I read about it was people were hearing it was brittle. Brittle, IMO is the wrong word to describe kirinite. The reason I say that is that it is SO soft when it comes to cutting it. It's more like plastic than wood or synthetic material like G-10. To me brittle means if you drop it on the floor it would crack or break like an ice cube would. If on a knife handle it might crack if the knife were dropped on concrete or if in a tool box your hammer hit the handle a little too hard. If this happened I don't think kirinite will crack. In fact I get the feeling it's soft enough to absorb an impact. This is my opinion based on very little experience with kirinite. Then I see this situation. I'm very interested to see how it turns out. What I mean is I want to know what USAKNIFEMAKERS says about it. I believe they are the only distributor of kirinite. I hope this is an isolated incident that can happen with about any product or material. After getting used to working with it I think it's a good handle material. However, I have no idea of how it holds up to stress or hard use and that is what I would like to know more about. The only concern I've had about it is it may get soft (melt) if used on a knife a firefighter has on the outside of his/her uniform in a fire. I think kirinite is ok up to 200 deg. F (or 300? Not sure). Maybe some of our firefigher members will comment on how hot it can be and they still work with the proper gear. Other than the heat issue I've really liked kirinite and plan on using it more. For now though my positive attitude toward kirinite is beginning to waver. But I think (hope) this is an isolated incident.