Spyderco Forums

A thread on the mili backspacer got me thinking...

I had a mili I acquired from vampyrewolf, which had the stock backspacer replaced with a new spacer containing tritium. it glowed at night, which made it extremely easy to find my mili in the zambian bush (land of no electricity...). the feature was so practical, that i've at times found myself wishing it was standard.

there have been pictures in the past of spydies modified with glow-in-the-dark paints... apparently there are others who find glowing elements to be useful. i also remember threads years ago, in which knife knuts discussed the value of a knife with elements that glow. i could imagine this feature being extremely practical to people working in low-light environments, outdoors at night, even diving underwater... plus, glow-in-the-dark stuff always has a "cool factor," and makes for good conversation. i imagine it would make the knife more NKP-friendly, as well, perhaps. (cute glowing tool rather than tactical black "weapon.")

is there anyone else who would like to see a glow spydie? anyone who would NOT like to see a glow spydie?

i wonder if we could get sal to chime in on whether it would be possible to create glow FRN?

I would think that you could in theory add the glow powder to the FRN in liquid form but I imagine it would change the properties of the FRN. All of the GITD plastics I have seen seem like they would not be well suited for knife handles. Now slots for trit vials are a whole different story.

I'd prefer to see the US legalize the tritium Glow Rings sold in the UK and elsewhere. You could attach one of those to any Spyderco, if and when you felt the need.

pardon my ignorance, but why are they illegal in the first place?

they release beta radiation, which is stopped by skin and clothing.

I've been tempted a few times to get a hold of another batch of glowrings and do this millie too.

stoneman wrote:pardon my ignorance, but why are they illegal in the first place?

Because they are considered novelties and/or toys and some government agency decided that was not a suitable use for "radioactive" material. :rolleyes: Products such as watches that have tritium tubes on the hands are legal. That's probably the one logical plus for someone making up aftermarket backspacers for the Military with a tube inside. They'd be legal.

I modded my D4w with 3 small tritium vials a couple years ago, but didn't really get them set deep enough. Over the course of the last few years, I've broken 2 of the 3. but it is cool. yeah, using the tritium keychain markers is a good way to go. I have one on my Novatac, but since I change my edc knife all the time, I haven't set one up on a knife yet. :)

The original design for the Military included a Tritium vial in the backspacer. US rules with regards to who can handle Tritium and how much they charge to "put the vial into the back spacer" knocked Tritium out of the project.

sal