I swapped Chinook III for Manix blade.

[dRider]

And it almost worked great! :D Unfortunately, there is no be no Chinix. Or, a Manook, for that matter. Since I love the Chinook handle and the Manix blade, I really wanted it to work.

Disassembly was straightforward, just a matter of backing out the screw, which does have a drop of loc-tite at its heart. There's two paper thin bronze-looking washers, the blade, and that's it.

I didn't know the blades were dated where you can't see. My Chinook is a 12-06, while the Manix, bought several months after, is a 1-07.

Anyway, reassembled the knife with the Chinook handle and Manix blade. It was easier than I thought it would be, just a matter of keeping the lock spring depressed, and using a playing card to get the washers into place before putting the screws back in.

And y'know, it was so close to working! The locks matched up perfect. Lock up solid, no more blade play than in the original knives, which is just about none at all. At this point, I'm feeling very happy with myself.

But the different handles have different blade stop points. Closed, the Manix blade edge rested directly on the steel at the back of the Chinook handle, rather than kind of floating there, protecting the edge, like in the original set up. Can't have that.

And so, regretfully, I reassembled the knives the way they came. They came back together beautifully, still rock solid, and I think the action on the Manix is a bit smoother than it was before.

Oh, and of course, half way though I notice blood running down my right index finger. The Manix blade must have bumped my knuckle; its so sharp I didn't even feel it.

It was a good experiment and I'm glad I gave it a shot. Shame it didn't work out though, that Chinix was a great knife for the 10 seconds it existed.

[mikebandw186]

no pictures?

[yablanowitz]

It MIGHT have worked if you swapped lockbars as well. No promises, but I do know the blade kick rests on the lockbar in the closed position, so swapping the bars might help.

[dRider]

Hmmm.... lockbars.... maybe I'll try! Then again, I should know better than to mess too much with what already works. Now that I've reassembled the Manix, it really does feel a bit smoother, and I'm pretty happy with that result. Its not just a tension in the screw thing, because it came way too tight and I'd already adjusted it. Could be better lubrication throughout the parts that are in contact.

I thought about pictures when I was about half way through. But the dissembled knives didn't seem like that big a deal, just the blade and two washers, and I didn't photo the Chinix because I didn't want to give the impression that I had something that worked. :confused:

In retrospect, I should'a took pictures. :mad: