From Tacticool to Traditional! Cold Steel Roach Belly.

[Samon]

Yo,

Bought the Cold Steel Roach Belly knife years ago and never really used it much. A nice knife by all means but something just wasn't right about it.. the black pastic handle and the modern grind seemed to detract from the original outdoorsman style and push it into the tacky modern weapony type deal.

I wanted to change it and although I reprofiled the entire blade to be fully convexed I left it with the original handle for a year or so untill a few months back where I finally broke the handle off (on purpose I might add!) and got to work making it more appealing. Anyway, it took longer to go back to it than it should have but today I finished it!

The knife originally. And the following steps until completion today.




To cut a long story short I reprofiled the entire edge on a belt grinder, removed original handle, epoxied and brass pinned a new antler handle, added a finger choil, added expoxied twine to the top, polished it and gave it a new sheath. The enw sheath was from a bulk trade ages ago and although nice I gave it a rustic finish by dyeing it with vinegaroon and oiled it. Then added an antler toggle fastener with twine to hole the knfie in place.

Hope you like it, I'm pleased!

Now.. to trade or keep? lol

Thanks for looking!

Samon

 

[Corso]

I really like that good work

 

[crosslandkelly]

Mahoosive improvment!!

 

[Samon]

Cheers boys!

 

[juttle]

That's a hell of a lot better than the original, good work!

 

[juliojordio1983]

Nice job convexing that blade mate!

 

[ValeTudoGuy]

Yes, I like it now. Well done!

 

[Hibrion]

Nice job. What's the steel like in it for regular use?

 

[KenThis]

Wow, really nice transformation. congrats and kudos.

 

[Samon]

Thnaks a bunch guys!

The convexing took a while but was actually rather easy once you get the hang of it. Never done a full convex on an existing knife before so had to figure it out slowly. And the steel itself is not bad. Highly corrosion resistant and easy to sharpen. I'd hazard a guess that it would bend before snapping and I've never chipped it or anything. Cheap steel but plenty good enough to use on fish and animals and sticks etc!

 

[Hibrion]

Cheap steel but plenty good enough to use on fish and animals and sticks etc!

I'd heard it was good for the price alright. Cold steel do some nice blades, but you really have to replace the handles to give them a bit of character! My rehandled trailmaster was a favourite of mine before I have a bowie forged up to my spec.

 

[Muddypaws]

Nice job! Lots of character added - the original handle looked kind of soulless.

 

[richardhomer]

Very Nice work mate

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks Samon: I see that it is possible to make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Appealing profile.