Custom Chaparral LW Micarta Scales!

[fixall]

RC Bladeworks has been REALLY knocking out some new designs lately! In the past month or so, he's come out with new, inlayed Micarta/G-carta scales for the Delica, the Endura, and the Endela.

Well, he just did it again! This time for the Spyderco Chaparral LW! You can have them made with, or without an inlay... And made out of basically any Micarta/G-carta composite you can possibly imagine!

[Notsurewhy]

I like that color combo. Reminds me of a maple telecaster.

I don't usually mod, but I've been wishing for a burgundy linen micarta chaparral for a while... Tempting

[Sharp Guy]

I think I saw those on IG. I like the Chaps and I like Micarta but that inlay look does absolutely nothing for me.

[zhyla]

That’s cool. The Chap LW scales are already pretty cool though.

[Doc Dan]

Anything Micarta is nice, so it looks good.

[RadioactiveSpyder]

I ordered a set of black linen Micarta scales (no inlay). Very excited to see them come in, I’ve been waiting for someone to offer these for years! I’ll post pics when I receive and install them.

[Tristan_david2001]

I ordered a set of black linen Micarta scales (no inlay). Very excited to see them come in, I’ve been waiting for someone to offer these for years! I’ll post pics when I receive and install them.

Polished black linen micarta sounds like a delicious combo for the chap. I’m eager to have a look myself

[JSumm]

I ordered a set of black linen Micarta scales (no inlay). Very excited to see them come in, I’ve been waiting for someone to offer these for years! I’ll post pics when I receive and install them.

That sounds awesome! Please post pics once you get them swapped out.

[Wartstein]

I like that color combo. Reminds me of a maple telecaster.
...

Believe it or not, that´s what I thought too...

... now let´s think of some classic Stratocaster combo too - like candy apple red and white inlay!

/ I actually still hope that Spyderco will bring out a Micarta Chap themselves (after all the model is meant to display various handle materials) - but this looks like a great option!

The FRN Chap has a pretty much perfect handle material and design already for me (grippy, durable and (for FRN) also classy looking) - but Micarta is my second favorite handle material after FRN, so I am actually tempted to get another FRN Chap and dress it up... at least whenever the SE version comes out (if it ever does..) I´ll have to grab that one anyway immediately.

[Wartstein]

I like that color combo. Reminds me of a maple telecaster.
...

Believe it or not, that´s what I thought too...

... now let´s think of some classic Stratocaster combo too - like candy apple red and white inlay!

/ I actually still hope that Spyderco will bring out a Micarta Chap themselves (after all the model is meant to display various handle materials) - but this looks like a great option!

The FRN Chap has a pretty much perfect handle material and design already for me (grippy, durable and (for FRN) also classy looking) - but Micarta is my second favorite handle material after FRN, so I am actually tempted to get another FRN Chap and dress it up... at least whenever the SE version comes out (if it ever does..) I´ll have to grab that one anyway immediately.

And here it is... in the new Reveal...

[Monty]

I've never owned a chap but now that there's one in SE a set of these in bone linen would really class it up for a gentlemans carry. I have a SE delica with micarta but vg10 doesn't thrill me, once you add micarta to the overall price it is a bit hard to justify. Decisions decisions.

ETA: I might just grab a sun and moon, do a bladeswap and sell off the extra frankenknife.

[RadioactiveSpyder]

Hi folks, I have an update on my black linen scale set adventure. I received the scales last week and finally had time yesterday to work on them. They came nicely cut but gray and unfinished, they were downright furry in fact! I spent a good 3 hours sanding them down with 400 and 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper sheets taped to my kitchen counter (I did it dry and routinely cleaned/knocked the dust off both the scales and the sandpaper), and then the edges and chamfers carefully by hand. I did the 400 grit round twice, then the 1000 grit round twice, and then washed them under soap and water. After making sure they were fully dry with a blow dryer, I then loaded green compound onto an old jewelers cloth and buffed the heck out of them, and now they’re super glassy. Another soap/water wash and dry, and I applied two coats of beeswax, cleaning and buffing them after each coat. I’m very pleased with how they came out! They’re not perfectly jet black of course, but it’s crazy the color change from the original - you get a hint of that in the first pic here where the milled out area on the inside is still that original gray color. The second pic is after I applied the beeswax.




Now came the fun of installing them! That’s when things went awry a bit and I realized that Spyderco moved the lanyard barrel position in a CQI move at some point! In fact it came after the maple Chap was originally released and before the Sun and Moon version. My FRN Chap, the one I planned to use for the swap, is my original CC one, and they’ve since rolled that change through the FRN model as well. That makes the lanyard barrel and bolt to hold the clip be in the wrong position for these Micarta scales. EDIT: discussed in this thread, which I totally missed the first go-round:

viewtopic.php?t=84314

I wrote to RCBW and he was surprised by this since the knife he used as a template had the CQI clip position (of course, just my luck!). So, that said, I need to wait until I get a new revised FRN Chap to put into the scales. I told him I’d tell you all about this, so make sure you check the clip position on the Chap you want to swap before you order these scales! You’ll either have the screw in the bottom end (original position) or in the middle of the clip (new CQI position), you need the latter for these scales!





The scales themselves are of course a perfect fit otherwise and highly recommended! I also really appreciate the quick response I got back from RC Bladeworks about this situation, we talked through it and he’s now aware of this potential problem. He was even kind enough to give me a coupon for my next purchase from him, and I’m thinking some polished bone linen ones are next! Hope this helps! Cheers, Radioactive

[Airlsee]

Hi folks, I have an update on my black linen scale set adventure...

Wow, that's a real bummer, but thank you for sharing your experience! I just checked and I too have the pre-CQI version, I would have been very frustrated after having put in the time and effort to finish the scales to then have them not fit the knife.

Hopefully, you're able to get them onto a CQI chappy soon.

[RadioactiveSpyder]

Finished up this project with the help of a gently used CQI FRN Chap off eBay and another dose of minor frustrations. Those came from the fact that the screw holes weren’t quite cut wide enough to accept the larger ones, so I had to work those out a bit which ended resulting in the need to sand and polish the scales down again. The other frustrating thing was the scales are just a bit thicker than stock ones so the screws (bolts) for the clip and its lanyard barrel were just a bit too short to grab and hold the clip. I had to find a longer clip screw to make it work. The standard clip screw arrangement for these is one short screw on the non-clip side and a longer one to hold the clip — I had to use 2 long screws to extend the barrel a wee bit more toward the clip side so it could be grabbed by the screw.

Otherwise, the finished product is amazing! The action is great and the scales are nearly mirrored as you can see in the second pic from the clip reflection. The whole process probably took nearly 8 hours with a decent amount of swearing as I discovered the various issues that slowed me down. I think it was worth it in the end, I hope you all like them. Cheers, Radioactive

[Dazen]

Looks awesome though! Might have to pick up some burgundy ones.

[cabfrank]

It's fantastic. Now you get to enjoy!

[JSumm]

Well done! I think the work and frustration was worth it.

[Manixguy@1994]

Look awesome and thank you for sharing . MG2

[abbazaba]

Very nice! Thanks for sharing the story!

[fixall]

This set was made from some WW2 era, 19040’s U.S. navy black rag phenolic, with an inlay made from a custom pressed rag phenolic consisting of black burlap, double burgundy canvas, and ivory linen (as well as a set of blue anodized hardware from BladeWeLove). :)