Spyderco Forums

Some of you guys have been rather curious since my post asking for an x-ray view of the insides of the Delica/Salt models. I appreciate your help and the great pictures.

I should be done with this project shortly. But for now the parts are cut out, drilled and pretty much ready to be put together. I'm just taking a break to eat and get some refreshments.

What we have here in the pic is the original handle of my Salt 1 cut in half length wise (there goes the warranty right there) so I could get a view of the spring holder back spacer design. (which is top left of the new ti spacer spring holder with the spring in it all ready to go where it will sit in the new ti liners) I hated having to cut the knife open but I needed to so I could copy the spacer bar/spring holder in some 6AL-4V titanium in the same thickness as the lock and blade. I cut out the spacer bar spring holder with my scroll saw and traced it on the ti. That is done along with the liners also made of some thinner .050 6AL-4V titanium. Once I put it together you will be better able to see the very subtle changes I made to the handle in the before and after pics.

For now everything is marked, drilled and threaded. The handle scales are cut out and I went ahead and made me a custom titanium pocket clip out of the same ti as the liners. (For tip up carry of course.) I figured if it was going to be rust resistant and hardy little beasty of a knife I may as well go all the way. The little pins in the spacer bar are aluminum. These give some added assurance that the pressure from the spring won't tweak the metal and/or break it. What is there now is temporary as the final assembly will have those going through both liners as well as the spring holder.

Hopefully everything will be together and I'll be able to show the completed knife either later tonight or tomorrow morning sometime. Stay tuned.

so far looks awesome, can't wait to see the result :)

Interesting.
Looking forward to the completed knife.



Blades

so if I got it right, it's gonna be Ti liners and wood handles?

that's so cool!

Yes. It has titanium liners and lignum vitae handles scales. I wrote a bit about lignum on the thread that started this all over here..http://spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14919

I am not a big fan of the FRN or Zytel or whatever you want to call it. Actually I really like natural materials in general for handle scales. I don't know why but I'd sooner have an antler handle than just about anything on my fixed blades and on my carry knives I really prefer wood.

I still have some 'shoe shining' to do tomorrow on this one whenever I get out to the shop as the knife is still a bit 'square' and needs some refinement yet.

I will say this. I am glad I used my own knife to experiment on. This was hard. Much harder than the Gerbers, Case and Schrade lock backs I've rebuilt. I think it is in the locks and the lever. Spyderco does something strange with them that I've never seen before. These parts don't just have round holes and everything was an in between size. Not the norm that I've come to see in other brands and I am not sure what that is all about. Spydercos are more unique than people realize I have learned that.

I pulled it off pretty well though despite the challenge. I don't know that I'll do another Spyderco after this. I will have to recover first from this one. I had hoped to rid the knife of the vertical movement that it had before starting this project but it is still there. For some reason every lock back I get from Spyderco has just a tad of upward movement in the blade. Some don't when I first get them but develop it a bit later after use. I used to think it was the FRN giving out but then I had it happen on a stainless Endura and then on my Chinook and my Manix also. I have to think this is on purpose now after seeing the inner design. The way they are made may actually help make the lock stronger and help to tolerate stress better by equally distributing it or something like that. I may be asking about that here soon to Sal.

Anyway here it is as of this writing. My Salt 1 is now fatter. She gained a bit of weight in the last 24 hours. The good news is that during the whole job the blade only 'bit me' one time. The price you pay for working around razor sharp edges I guess. I didn't even have to pull out a bandaid on this project though. LOL

Here it is before- closed.



And open:



And here it is in the after life. If you look closely at the before closed shot and compare to the after closed shot you can see where I brought up the handle to cover the back of the blade when the knife is closed and where I brought it all up to cover the grind line evenly. Like I said earlier. Subtle changes. Anyway, I'm beat. Let me know your thoughts.

Nice work, congratulations and thanks for sharing :)

Hello,

thanx for the pics, nice work!

Nice work and a cool idea!
Now be prepared for a lot of mod requests... :)

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing the pictures with us.

very nice indeed!

good work!

Aloha DEEB!

Whoa...now that IS SweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeT!!!

God bless and keep 'em coming!!!

Very nice work.

I fully agree, nice work. What did you use for the pivots? And how about bolsters and stag scales. Woulden't that be nice for a future project?

:spyder: deeb's got the mad skills. :spyder:

I only wish I had the talent, skills, & know how that a lot of you people exhibit here. DEEB, nice job on that. Not only with the redesign, but with the construction,and including the photos and the posts explaining the How's Where's and Why's.

The break down goes like this. The liners are titanium. (6AL-4V ti to be exact AKA grade 5 titanium.)

The spacer bar lock spring holder is also tianium only it is a piece of .063 and a piece of .040 pinned side by side with aluminum rods to make it the same thickness as the blade and lock bar.

I reused the lock bar, spring and blade. The pivot pin is now a concealed stainless 3/16 size and the lock bar pin is a 1/8 stainless. I drilled out both to make the blade lock up to my liking. I was hoping to take away the slight vertical blade play by this but it is still pretty much the same way as before on that part as you still notice just a bit of movement when you push down hard on the blade when cutting. Nothing to worry about. Truth is I've bought some with more travel by far that were deemed acceptable.

The wood scales are lignum vitae, all pins to screw it down are stainless. There are three hidden underneath the scales. The body is pinned together front and back. It isn't coming apart I can tell you that.

I made the pocket clip out of the same .050 titanium as the new liners. The pins for the pocket clip go into the metal as well as the handle. The one actually goes all the way across the body of the knife through both liners and the spacer bar pulling it all together as overkill. (I'm the overkill king)


The pivot pin is now adjustable and I have it tight because I hate blade play and I don't like knives that snap shut on my pinky so I have it set up so I have to close it manually. If I loosen the pivot just a bit it snaps great though.

Anyway, I have already recieved requests. I've been doing this for a while this is just my first Spyderco. I've done several Gerber, Case and Schrade and in the next few weeks I'll be doing three Ka-Bar Doziers folders for a customer and fellow formite. I'll be posting those on the Oupa and friends web site where I moderate with my three good like minded friends.

Thanks for the feed back.

Steve

Nice work DEEB.

Very good job.

Just my opinion....the handles look a tad large for the knife. That's just my goofy opinion :)

Cheers,
David

I have large hands and purposefully added some square footage (so to speak) here as far as the thickness but the overall foot print of the knife as far as the length is concerned is exactly the same and the width is only slightly increased where I raised the handle to cover the grind line and the back of the tang when the blade is closed.


I am happy with it where it is now. I like the lock up, and I'm calling this one done. I think I'll make this one my companion for a while.

Really handsome piece, I envy your skills. I'd love to attempt it, but I'd probably cut off my hand though.

Great work, thanks for sharing.