Clip mod

Muad'Dib · #1

Since I'm not a huge fan of shiny clips, I modded my Persistence clip. Thought I'd share.

SQSAR · #2

How did you do that?

cosmo7809 · #3

Looks very nice!

razorsharp · #4

did you acid or something, I want to do that now :D

1623 · #5

Persistence is a great knife and that looks slick Dib.

Muad'Dib · #6

I was just improvising really. At first, I thought I could get a sort of patina on the clip, so I soaked it in Simple Green, because I remember a mtb chain I soaked in Simple Green for a couple days rusted up, and I figured it might have some effect. But that did nothing, and I realized that most bike chains are not stainless steel, so I decided to try torching it.

I just picked the clip out of the Simple Green with a pair of needle nose pliers (through the endmost screw hole) and held it in the flame till it was orange/red, then I dropped it back in the Simple Green, cuz it was handy. It turned out pretty neat, and I did it a couple more times, rubbing the finish with steel wool between and afterwards.

I have no idea if burning off the Simple Green helped achieve the pattern, or if quenching it in the Simple Green did anything, maybe just torching it and dropping it in water would have worked, or torching it and cooling. I didn't try that. Maybe if I get a Tenacious I'll try a different method. Anyway, I think it looks pretty neat and it feels good to the touch. Thanks for the comments.

Muad'Dib · #7

So I got a Tenacious (finally!), and decided to see what type of effect I could get with torching and quenching in tap water.

Clearly, there's a difference. It's not as dark and it's not quite as matte.

I suspect that the pattern on the Persistence Clip was caused more by burning off excess Simple Green and the overall darker patina is caused by quenching in Simple Green.

I guess when I get an Ambitious or Resilience I can further the experiment. Or I guess I could order a bunch of spare clips from Spyderco.

1623 · #8

Have to admit, I dig the Tenacious clip more seeing them side by side.

It's nice with this line that you can experiment with modding and not sweat it too much if you gack one.

Looking forward to the Ambitious.

Muad'Dib · #9

I just tried it with the clip from my CS Mini Tuff Lite. I don't know if it's the same mystery SS as the Spyderco clips, but it seemed to have similar reactions. I torched it dry and quenched it in Simple Green and it resulted in a uniformly dark color, basically the color of the Persistence clip, but without the pattern. Time will tell if they all wear similarly.