BUSSTR Chameleon Frame Lock in ATS34

This one just up. Its sporting the new textured titanium slab sides done up for me by my friend Dave Curtiss over at Great Lakes Waterjet Inc. in a wave pattern. Dave calls this his "Tac Ti" surface treatment and offers it on titanium or aluminum. Its perhaps the best thing I could ever imagine for a perfect surface to get a better hand and finger purchase on your folder or fixed blade handles for a trustworthy non slip grip in any climate. I'm very proud to be one of the first guys using this from Dave. You can't really see it clear enough to appreciate it but the titanium is gold anodized for a base color with a jeweled inside finish and rainbow anodized for various color to opalese from different angles on the textured surface outside as you turn it in the light. The more you turn the more it turns and changes colors which is how I came up with the name for it.  Its a Chameleon if I've ever seen one. Its much more profound in the hand with the color showing through much better in sunlight to the naked eye than my camera picked up here in these shots. For some reason you notice the color more by looking at smaller pictures. Not sure what to make of that or why but that is the case. 

Anyway, this folder weighs in at 3.2 ounces without a pocket clip on it yet. Slab sides are .125 each 6Al-4V titanium. Blade is 1/8" ATS 34 of my own making. It was heat treated to 61 Rockwell by Paul Bos heat treating services. Nice stuff. Thanks for looking.

STR

M-Wave Frame Lock number 3

Another M-Wave just up. This one is the same as the last two. .145 titanium. These pictures offer a little better detail for viewing all around the new lock side. Click on any picture to enlarge full size and zoom in. Thanks for looking.

STR

BUSSTR with Koyote (Christof Harper) blade

Seen here is my original BUSSTR folder using the Cobbler blade that used to be sold by Ragnar's Ragweed forge. Its the darker folder. The lighter one is fresh out of the bead blast cabinet and is equipped with a thicker blade made by my friend Christof Harper in one of his signiture Scandi grinds. This is a nice folder and sports one tough hard use blade in it.

Seeing both together can give a perspective to the blade thickness difference between .064 for the original and .095 for the new one. Both weigh in at 3.4 ounces ironically. 

Both are brown or what is also called natural micarta. The light color will soon change with use and it will eventually become as dark as my first one. Thanks for looking. Click on any picture to see it full size. 

STR

Emerson CQC7B Frame Lock Conversion

Seen here is another in a long line of Emerson folders I've converted from the thin liner lock shipped out of the factory to a beef cake frame lock.  As usual no permanent modifications were done to any of the factory parts so once again this folder can easily be put back together to make it all factory again. Even the non lock side is still the same finish on this one with no bead blasting to blend it with the new lock side. You can actually put this one back together and not even know it was once this beefy heavy duty package. I just made a new lock side that will work on it and take it up a notch to HD7 type performance and since the HD7 frame lock from Emerson has been discontinued I have had a couple folks ask about them. Actually truth be told most of the HD7 models I've seen and the one I owned had .122 to .125 lock sides so compared to this one at .145 I'd say this one is probably technically heavier duty although its probably not something anyone would notice.

This folder here happens to be one of my own Emersons and it is ready ready for some serious work! Weight gain was nil since it started out at 4.9 ounces before adding the slab side to it and ended up at 5.1 ounces with the new lock side installed. When holding my other non converted new in the box 7A model still in liner lock factory fresh form in my left hand I can't tell the weight difference between a stock one and this one in the hand so I doubt its going to be noticed in the pocket either. The real difference for me comes in the sense of strength, and particularly reliability from holding one like this compared to one with a thin liner lock that barely engages the blade to secure it. To me that added assurance that you can rely on the lock to hold and actually physically keep the lock from moving toward release in a serious white knuckle hard grip really makes all the difference in the world. There is also some visual sense looking over a folder made this way that its just all around a step up in all the right ways from the factory version. 

This is the second Emerson CQC 7 model I've converted in the last few months and as is usual with  each one I do I improve on and correct for what I learned in previous models. Such is the case here. I think the next one will be even nicer than this one when the time comes that I decide to do another. 

Thanks for looking. 

STR