FLASH: It's Here! STR- EK, A.K.A., "STREK" by (GEC)

This will be the label for the canister tube the knife comes in. Some of these are being signed if I'm asked

The STR-EK was designed to bring all the same things to the table as its larger predecessor , electricians folding knives, and more.  What I wanted was a pocket-worthy folder; something very much pocket-sized and not something big and bulky that couldn’t be added to the EDC line-up.  The old 29 models of yesteryear were huge and, depending on handle material, could weigh upwards of 5 oz.  Most were famous for being nail breakers upon opening due to heavy back spring pressure and draw.  This excess stiffness, as well as large size and pocket damaging protrusions, are a drawback to an otherwise great model.   The STR-EK does away with those annoying issues.

Classic fans of the original are already referring to this as the “STREK” folder.  Its weight is no more than 2.7 oz per folder.  The handles on all are green linen micarta but offers a choice on the blade: sheep’s foot or spear point.  The original EK has a flat head screw driver small enough to fit electrical outlets as well as screws used on license plates.  Unlike the old EK, the STREK driver is equipped with a push-cut saw that can cut drywall or wood panels cleanly and precisely.  With the cut on the push it decreases the mess seen when installing outlets or cutting to fit pipe and so on; most of the mess goes inside the wall.  Simply put, push cut is much neater and also easier to control for straight cuts where appearance is a factor.  

The addition of the saw is not a drawback to use, nor does it cut your hand in use as it is primarily a sheet rock saw.  It can be used for other small sawing projects in a pinch and you’ll be glad to have it handy.  The driver/saw blade has 2 wire strippers in both choils, the half-moon shaped finger rests of the blade.  Just because it has a saw will not negate nor diminish the other features.  These choil rest areas double as both a stripper and a choil/index rest and are effectively tapered to an edge to strip wire quite well.  

  While supplies last, it is available here as well as Great Eastern Cutlery dealers as the “Titioute Electricians Knife”. 

Quite simply these are the best electricians knives ever offered to the public.  If you do any residential install work and make any kind of living with a drywall saw and a screwdriver, you owe it to yourself to get one of these.  Write it off taxes as a business expense, put it in your pocket and one day you’ll be thanking me when a project arises where this tool saves the day or saves you a lot of steps back to your toolbox to find the right tool.

I came up with this design as youngster and had physically modified several knives trying to create this with existing knives.  Even at a young age, when working as a plumber’s helper, I thought that it would be handy to have a drywall saw to carry in my pocket.  As the plumber’s helper even I had to cut drywall a few times around pipes, vents, light fixtures, etc.  poking  through  walls, floors and ceilings.  It always puzzled me, and irritated me since I was the one doing all the running, as to why a saw was not included on an electrician’s folder!  The electricians knife is my most used and abused knife pattern and the design is as much for contractors as well as electricians.  This is a darn handy little folder, extremely well made by GEC.  Only a limited number have been produced.   Please see my videos of this model in action on Youtube.

STR. 

Here is the link
STR GEC Production SFO

The Fold Over Style Clip (How To)

Someone emailed earlier asking if I had a how to on how to fold over a clip using some titanium or stainless and I only had written ones so I thought I'd show a simple way anyone can just do a couple if you want to play around. Just don't burn yourself. No long sleeves or if you do wear them have cuffs on them so it is not flapping around on you. Get the long hair tied back. Don't have anything flammable around that you might lay a hot clip on to burn the place up and stuff like that. Remember measure twice, bend once. Look and fold only when hot and if your timing gets messed up you can't hurt anything to heat it again. Start over if you need. Keep the scraps for learning until its so small you can't make it fold over anymore.

On many of the issues regarding factory clips I can save you some time getting too carried away unless you are a glutton for punishment like I was and like learning the hard way. I will caution again even though I put it in a bubble in the video, going thicker can sound nice but bending it is an art, and if you go too thick the factory screws won't grab and some manufactures cut things pretty dang close as you know. So sometimes just bumping the thickness .005 of an inch is all it takes to mean the screws no longer grab to tighten down. So unless you want to get into cutting and custom making your own screw lengths to fit you want to stick with as close to the factory equipment as possible. 

Below is me on my day off but after getting this email I liked the idea and thought you know, I can probably help with that. So let me know how I did and if you try some hey bring em on over and show me. :-) 

About Folding Knife Locks

Shown here in these videos and as stated in the description if you click show more once you go to youtube I try to cover some of the questions I've had both in the past and recently regarding this subject. If you have questioned what it means when someone on a forum writes something about 'peening the lock' to adjust the lock or other such things about lock adjustments this may help clarify some of it. 

As you know in an ideal world there are proper ways to do things and there are other ways to 'skin a cat' as the old saying goes. Cutlers both past and present day are aware of many ways to meet an end and this is but one way to adjust a liner lock. It is also possible for a skilled cutler to adjust the stop pin diameter to achieve the same results rather than peen the lock. In some cases where a knife never seen before is opened up after being disassembled you sometimes find that the lock has already been adjusted by peening. I've opened up knives bought new both by myself and customers that have had this adjustment done at the factory. So in the event that this is the case it may not be possible to continue with another attempt to correct it again the same way. In cases such as these adjusting the stop pin size can work but it also means adjusting the blade and how it sits at rest when in the closed position. If you increase the diameter of the stop pin which it rests on it may lift the blade so high that the detent ball no longer catches. To adjust for this one goes though much the same process as one does to make a slip joint back spring flush in both the opened and closed positions making baby step adjustments until the detent once again catches and/or the point of the blade is once again tucked safely between the liners instead of sticking out to catch something like fingers or pant pockets. 

See the video for more. Now that I have a half way decent small camera for video I plan to try to do more of these for folks and some days I may have more time to devote to this than others so bear with me. I've been meaning to do this for a long time. See the video for more. 

STR

About lock cuts and how to do them.

Anodizing made easy

Ideally one would want to dawn rubber gloves and wear those throughout the process shown. Otherwise this works for anodizing if you have a power source. 9 volt batteries hooked up in series can also do this but I don't recommend doing it this way and if you do keep the batteries low in number. Three is as far as I'd suggest you try on that method and even then in the event a line crosses it can cause a battery or all of them to pop! Also,  I should have noted in the video also that instead of using a Scotchbrite pad to take any surface oxidation off the metal parts Smoky Mt. Knife Works sells a little item called, "The RUST Eraser" that every knife nut should have. You can slice these blocks or erasers any thickness you like so these also work to clean up the back spring or other metal areas one has to take surface oxidation off of after you color the liners. These erasers can fit once you slice one so that it only requires a good swipe once or twice covering the entire area of the back spring width all in one neat sweep. This way you don't drift into the liners scratching the color off in places as you clean the other parts. 

On a lot of the open build type folders being offered today in the industry such as, Benchmade and Emerson liner locks (some Emerson years had one side cheesy cheap stainless liner instead of the titanium but the lock side is titanium) this works great to anodize the liners without even having to take the knife apart. Of course it does nothing to change them inside or on the sides. So if you were to want to color the entire liner inside and out then you'd have to then disassemble the knife. Remember to seal the stainless steel detent ball in the lock and the non lock side on Emerson liners with a dab of nail polish and then remove it after dipping to color anodize. Failing to remember this step could result in a gritty feeling action due to oxidation on your stainless balls from anodizing.. You can also use duct tape if you don't dip too long and it works just fine in most all cases.

Kershaw Skyline and the Low Rider question???

Watch the video if you asked about a low rider for the Skylline. Nuff said. Stay tuned............STR

Done

And finally some shots of a clip actually made start to finish for the Skyline folding knife by Kershaw. Thanks for looking. Click any pic to make it full size so you can scroll through.
STR

Scagel Style Folder in Black Textured G-10

Scagel Style folder in black textured G10 which I bought a few years back from Halpern. This stuff is just .060 thickness and I had used it for overlay or overscales as I called them to bolt them to the handle to give some texture in spots. Here I used it for the entire scale overlaid on .050 thick 6AL-4V titanium liners. Blade and back spring are ATS34 steel, folder has brass pins, and is 1.4 ounces so I called it pretty good before weighing it. This little guy has great walk and talk, is flush on the open and the close positions and is about a 5 on the pull scale to open the blade. No half stop on this model. I decided I didn't want that after giving it some thought so this blade was made without that feature. I love this pattern though and feel these are just classic little folders to be cherished for generations to come. Still have to put the edge on this one as it does not even have a bevel yet shown here but that will be coming right up.

Thanks for looking

STR

One Off Pry Bar for a friend

Been meaning to get to this for sometime as I thought of it a long while back but you guys keep me so busy with stuff I have to pick and choose when I can do various things anymore. Anyway, I got this close to perfection for all I had hoped to do for it and thought it worth documenting. Thanks for looking. You might note the info under the video and click 'show more' to read the details once the video starts. Ooops. Didn't realize you don't see that unless you click youtube to go to the website so let me paste it here. BF if you stop by here and see this it was mailed out Thursday Feb 21st.


This is a one off pry I did for a friend of mine that I support doing field research in Paracus Peru. That is if he wants it and I get the address to mail it to. It is an accurate 1mm and 5 mm, and 10 and 15 mm ruler as well as a 5 CM ruler and a 10 CM ruler. On the inch side it is accurate to 3.5" and the two holes are, V notch end = 3/16" and the flat head screw driver side where it is ground on both sides of the bar and the para cord loops through on this bar is 7/32". The thickness of the bar itself is .0925 and the bar is exactly 1/2" in width.

The V notch has a gap is exactly 2.5mm at the widest. Bury the grind line at the V notch end and it is sumberged 10mm on the mm side, 3/8" on the inch side. On the opposite end bury the grind line it is exactly 1/4" deep and finally the V notch end is taken down to a very close  .025 thin taper and the other end stops at .060 for some idea of gaps between things if you are in a spot where no other measuring tools are available. It is still a pry and dig or probe tool also of course and since it is made out of 6AL-4V titanium it is immune to the elements. The notches are each color coded. The bar is anodized five different colors. Two blues. 23. 5v on the metric side marking each hash against the sage green bar.

On the inch side the hash marks are all blue 28 volts for each 1/2" spacing. The 1/4" spaces are plum purple and the 1/8" marks are all done in bronze/gold making each one easy enough to see in sunlight as they glitter reflecting back for a quick guesstimate of something being examined. Thanks for looking and I looked into getting some of these cut out if I could use this as a template. While probably possible the cost was prohibitive. The multiple notch cuts and various depths of my design holds up the machine so long for other jobs behind it that to do a run of just a couple dozen would take an unreal amount of time so I don't think we'll be seeing many more like it. Just thought I'd show it first before tracking down my friend to see if he thinks this would be a handy tool to have on him in the field. Oh it weighs 4 tenths of an ounce. You don't know you have it on you and can wear it around your neck. Its equipped with cord that reflects back phosphorescently under a black light which is pretty cool because it is not even listed as doing that where I buy it. The para cord I picked also has the same green in it for daylight carry.

STR

And one more one off that may or may not ever be done again by me. These are hard to do accurately. Fun but tedious.

Spyderco Manix 2 w/ STR Low Rider

I liked these photos so much I thought they deserved a new thread. Big thanks to the owner of this knife for the pics and glad you like the fit and finish. Thumbs up. Thanks for looking

Hand Rubbed finish shown here

STR

Little color for the new year

Military far right 18 volts color choice
The prybar to the left looking blue is actually  purple with purple cord. It must be the angle. The other pry is the dirty brown package, and far right is the Para  Military 2 with a blue anodized low rider for tip up right hand carry. 

Spyderco Southard Low Rider

SHOP IS CLOSED> I Do not make clips or prybars or knives any longer. Retired as of 2014.

These are $40 plus shipping each due to the screw situation but rest assured we have solved the screw situation. It just means I need to stock another item and provide a small zip lock now for being sure these screws don't get lost in the mail. Also, the price of the screws and shipping of course although that is reasonable the little things add up so for this clip I did bump the price three bucks to try to make up for this. 

Please note for this model there are things you must know and do also before ordering. One is to know I do not own this knife and it appears running changes have taken place during its production life. So things to do to be sure you know what you need to know before contacting me are: 

1)First does the rear clip side body mount screw back out? If not save the $ its stuck and recesssed, will likely strip and cause you a bad feeling after you twist it too hard.. Some are glued in place so firm you can't budge them. Even seasoned knife nuts have failed. Lets skip that stripping the head issue shall we? 
2)Next this model has had a production change into the model year 2013 involving the pocket clip and I understand now that the new clip screws are the same diameter as, or very close to the same diameter as those of the body mount screw. If you have one of the new models with clip screws the same as the body mount or if you don't know simply twist one of the clip screws through the body mount and see if it catches or hold both a clip screw and body screw up together end to end and compare diameter of the threaded shaft..  I just learned of this tonight. You Southard owners will have to fill me in on the details of this as you discover it. The original models have distinctly smaller diameter screws and a different thread than the body mount screws. Bottom line is I need to know which model you have pre-clip update or post? 

Note holes lower left side and the difference in diameter. One model has a small hole for that left side. The other newer model with the running changes made in the design use the same screw size as the body mount screw. I simply need to know which you own before I can make the clip for you.

STR

Okay I have some customer pics I snagged from the forums posted below. Big thanks to you guys for the donated pics! They are fantastic really. Two thumbs up!
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STR

Above is stone washed finish 

Above = bead blast finish

bead blast for the clip

Next two shots are of a Barry H handle conversion with my low rider in khaki/od finish to match with work slacks. 

Here is good shot of that really gorgeous carbon fiber Barry used. 

Customer donated photos below

Brown anodized to better match the insert for the lock stop and the scale opposite side. Not to forget how well that color blends with slacks in the work place. 

bead blasted

Brown anodized

Bead blasted finish shown here

Blue jean blue here on these. Note the differences that are subtle for shade. Typical but I've also changed solution between doing some oft these. New solution means a slight change to voltages across the board at times. 25.5 volt blue would come out now at 23.5 volts due to stronger etch solution so it can at times vary by slight differences both from this as well as variances in the alloy mix of each piece. 

This last vid is a customer donation and its also on my forum on blade forums. Thanks