)One of mine has been giving all three of my kids their first pocket knife on Christmas morning, with all of them being Spyderco Ladybugs (which was my first Spyderco when I was younger, the year they first came out). Through some luck, some help from Sal, and a little modification, all three of my kids got their favorite colors. :cool:
My youngest just got her knife this year. Problem was, Spyderco doesn't currently make a pink Ladybug.
They did make one in the past, and I had one (it's still around somewhere), but it was quite some time ago and that particular knife has seen better days. So instead, I made a pink one! :DProcess went really well, and was pretty easy. Heat some water in a pan, add some dye, and dunk the handle. In this case, I used the RIT dye that's specifically meant for synthetic materials, their "DyeMore". To dunk it and swirl the handle around, I used a piece of stainless steel wire, tied loosely through the lanyard hole. Checking the color often, once I had the color close, I rinsed in cool water, then repeated the process with the fixative. The slightly yellowish water/fixative liquid mixture was pretty pink after about a minute or two of swirling the knife handle around. Once it didn't appear to be getting any pinker, I removed the handle and again rinsed in cool running water. Once dried off, I had the part you see in the first photo.
All three of their knives. Yep, this all started 8 years ago. :)
