Show your mods!

[hs1sco]

Good idea, hs1sco. And welcome to the forum. :) I don't use my Manix because of how hard it is to close one handed. I know I can use thumb and finger and let the blade drop, but that's stupid to me.

Switch button is too small. It must make it bigger and move forward a litter bit.

Or just just make back side unsmooths , It will help finger to pull down easily.

[Evil D]

Finally got my hands on a Rock Lobster and before I cut a single thing the handle got modded. I am blown away at how much it changes this knife. You know when you get that "this could be the one" feeling? I'm definitely getting it from this knife now. The only other thing I plan to do is flatten the tip more like a wharnie so it can puncture a little better. The curve of the edge on this knife is the perfect sweet spot between full wharnie and a traditional belly. It still retains a lot of cutting power at the tip but is still curved enough to make cutting board cuts with ease. It has as almost as much cutting edge as a Military (a mere 4mm less) but doesn't have the excessively long handle like the Military does. The only thing I'm not crazy about is that it isn't very lefty friendly with the way the lock cutout was designed. Otherwise this knife is super badass and I plan on buying a second for a backup before they get really scarce.

As for the mod, I started by measuring the inside of the scales from the "choil" area just behind the lock and made marks all the way to the butt of the scale and traced the marks to give me a line to follow when cutting. This way the scales would remain the same width all the way through the curve to the butt end. I used a Dremel with a cut off wheel to make the cuts, making sure to cut about 1/16 to 1/8 OUTSIDE the line so I had plenty of room for error and for grinding the shape later. Once I had both of the humps cut off, I used a bunch of paper clips to hold them together and grind them with a barrel sander so they would both be identically shaped.

You can see my cuts weren't exactly perfect...which is fine since they get a final grinding later



Here's the final curve of the grip before beveling the edges


Here are the final bevels



Then reassemble and enjoy







It's really a shame this knife was so expensive when it was available. I think more people would have liked it if it were cheaper to own.

[noseoil]

David, this one sure turned out well! It really is a nice curve & must be very comfortable to grip now. Nice pics to document the mod. tim

[senorsquare]

Outstanding job David. That handle mod makes me want to go out and get a rock lobster of my own.

[God'sMyJudge]

You made that rocklobster look amazing!

[Holland]

Looks great David!

[jmh58]

RL is Kool!! Nice job!! John

[Dodge]

Looks like a grown up Pingo!!

[BOOMER52]

Green canvas Micarta Strydica with a layered black/gray G10 cogged back spacer...

[Bladekeeper]

Green canvas Micarta Strydica with a layered black/gray G10 cogged back spacer...

Now that's nice , very nice shape carrys spydercos unconventional ergos in looks but you know it'll handle well.

[jackknifeh]

Green canvas Micarta Strydica with a layered black/gray G10 cogged back spacer...

Very nice. Love the back spacer. Great job.

Jack

[xceptnl]

Boomer, the Micarta looks terrific. I would have gone with RED for the back spacer, but that's just me. Personally all green micarta goes great over red liners, etc.

[Evil D]

Boomer, the Micarta looks terrific. I would have gone with RED for the back spacer, but that's just me. Personally all green micarta goes great over red liners, etc.

The first thing I think of when I think of that green with red is an old army medic Jeep with a red + on the door. They do go well together but for me the green has to be more olive colored or it gets too Christmas looking.

[xceptnl]

The first thing I think of when I think of that green with red is an old army medic Jeep with a red + on the door. They do go well together but for me the green has to be more olive colored or it gets too Christmas looking.

This is similar to the classic combination of colors I was speaking of.

[TouchOfRed]

Yoo,
Seen all sick mods, very cool. Walked thru all pages, but cant find a knife with either Copper or Brass scales, but maybe ive missed it?
If not, wouldnt a Paramilitary 2 with a stonewashed blade, with stonewashed Copper or Brass scales look totally sick? Or maybe a Endura 4.
This probably has been done, maybe not in this thread, but if you have any Link for a Copper/Brass modded spyderco knife, please tell me, need to see how it look. :)

[noseoil]

Only trouble with brass & copper would be the soft nature of both & oxidation. They would both look nice at first, but over time would change, dull and shift in color. That may be why there aren't more out there in brass & copper, and also why aluminum & titanium are fairly popular now. Aluminum, while relatively soft, can be anodized for a tougher finish & titanium, well.....

[Evil D]

Yoo,
Seen all sick mods, very cool. Walked thru all pages, but cant find a knife with either Copper or Brass scales, but maybe ive missed it?
If not, wouldnt a Paramilitary 2 with a stonewashed blade, with stonewashed Copper or Brass scales look totally sick? Or maybe a Endura 4.
This probably has been done, maybe not in this thread, but if you have any Link for a Copper/Brass modded spyderco knife, please tell me, need to see how it look. :)

Probably just has to do with the difficulty and cost of doing either one. Anyone can pull out a Dremel and carve up some G10 but finding a slab of copper thick enough, and then successfully making scales out of it would be quite a work of art. I imagine the guys using CNC machines like BOOMER would have no problem getting it done, but again you'd need big slabs of copper which is going to cost you probably more than the knife did and then some, plus the cost of machining it. So, just a random high number guess, but would you pay $300+ for a set of scales? That's probably why you haven't seen it done.

Only trouble with brass & copper would be the soft nature of both & oxidation. They would both look nice at first, but over time would change, dull and shift in color. That may be why there aren't more out there in brass & copper, and also why aluminum & titanium are fairly popular now. Aluminum, while relatively soft, can be anodized for a tougher finish & titanium, well.....

I can't speak for everyone, but we've had threads begging for copper bolsters and such a few times, and the general opinion is that most of us WANT the copper to patina, especially if paired with a nice damascus blade and some nice scales to match. Besides, copper and brass are both extremely simple to polish back out to a shine, just buy some Brasso or other metal/jewelry polish and wipe it. There are also several products on the market geared toward preventing patina if you choose to go that route.

[DBH]

Sorry for the crappy photos but here is my edc military with a custom Brad Southard titanium backspacer. This knife rocks!

[Pockets]

That's pretty cool. Are you going to heat color it?

[Evil D]

I like the looks of that, but I don't like that it loses the open construction. Kinda hard for me to pick one over the other. I think I'd just assume have open pillar construction, and cut some grooves into the G10 itself like that back spacer has to gain the extra grip traction. It does look cool though.