Thursday, April 19, 2012

Grasshopper you can't put a pocket clip on a slip joint!





Well, yeah actually you can! Here are three special order clips made up the other day for someone that is a big fan of this little knife right here. What a gem too! I actually plan to acquire a couple of these myself. The boss already told to get a couple so no way around it now! :-) Even though this job was done for a person working in the knife industry please note I do not wish to do anymore of these jobs. I am getting away from tapping jobs and since 95% or more of what I'm asked to do involves making clips fit existing factory hole patterns and the threading jobs are infrequent anyway I just decided basically after doing this job here that I don't really enjoy the stress of these hair raising fold your hands and pray the tap doesn't break off routines I go through to do this even on cheaper knives like these.The other factor is that the time it takes for these type of jobs over the routine frequently asked for jobs using factory holes is quite marked and when I get several of these it puts my watering behind, my pet and animal feeding off schedule and everything else so something has to give. I've already given up scale jobs, frame lock and rebuild conversions, Wave mods to the blades and anodizing jobs to focus on my clips and mini ti pry bars. Now I find I have the need to taper things down further so, the drilling and threading days are gone and all I will even consider threading as of this date forward is softer materials like the G10, FRN, and Micarta or doing so with inserts already threaded and even those will only be if someone is buying a clip. The example that comes to mind that I will do would be the Buck 110 since it is brass and I'll still thread aluminum and I'll gladly flip clips on Military folders and others using G10 thick enough to do an insert type thing instead of threading. These number two taps are larger for small screw sizes and they do work but honestly I won't miss this part of what I do involving trying to risk tap breaks by forcing them through stainless liners harder than you expected or titanium that hugs the tap the deeper it gets. Other than this I greatly love my work so I finally realized if I hate threading so much I just need to quit doing it on the things I don't like doing.. It is a near religious experience for me daily to make these clips and pry bars I do for people and I regret that some will be disgruntled by this decision when it affects them wanting a clip on their knife as some have already voiced to me but it is the case. If it has ti slabs or ti liners, stainless liners and you want them drilled and tapped I'm not your man. I've broken off my last tap and that's that. Thanks for understanding.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Benchmade 915 Orange Triage









This arrived today from a customer wanting to have me make a clip that actually buried the folder. This is the first time I've been turned on to this model as it was one of those that flew below my radar. I find it rather to my liking and now on my want list. This one has the window breaker on the end so the clip request was that it bury the knife making the clip do that as much as possible while not interfering with the carbide tip. Its a tall order but I pulled it off and on the first try! Go figure!  Love the color! This folder also has a safety cutting blade for removing seat belts (or gutting a deer :-) )  Anyway, I figured since it was flying below my radar and I'm a knife nut that it is possible some of my viewers here have not seen it either so I will post this first set now and get more up tomorrow once I blast this clip and finish the job. I'll post up a shot of that second blade on this one then too. Thanks for looking
STR

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Benchmade Mini and Full Size Griptilian Folders

Its just a guess on my part but I'd have to say that the mini and full size Griptilian folders must be Benchmade's best sellers. I say this because I see and hear about these models so much more than others made by Benchmade and these two models are hands down the number one request for me to set one up for a low rider fold over style clip of all the models manufactured by Benchmade. As you can see they are also requested to fit up to the Wilkin's grips which are pop on handle options to change the entire feel of the folder for the better! I've owned one of these myself and its among those I wish I'd never have sold. Nice package either way though as I also have owned the Ritter RSK version of this folder in both sizes and must say those were quite nice. The handles to me felt a bit cheap on all these and I think some still fee that the handle material chosen by BM on this model somewhat cheapens the look of it. It is plastic 'looking' and it does turn off some. The knives are actually well done though and once you use one you realize pretty quick its quite capable. Once the Wilkin's grip replacement is added though it steps the knife up to custom levels and one of these models can quickly become heirloom quality works of art. Its nice to know that some feel adding my clip to one adds that much more to one of them. Anyway, some pics for those of you wondering about the Griptilian models. Thanks for stopping by.
STR