What I've been up to... (pic heavy)

[Ratbag]

Having enjoyed looking at other people's projects so much, i thought it was time to put up some of mine.

MOD
This one is a rehandled MOD survival knife blade with a oak scales, 3 x 4mm brass pins and a brass lanyard tube. The sheath is 4mm leather dyed with Feiblngs dark brown oil dye finished with my first try with Resolene. A Sam Brown stud secures the retaining strap. There is some nice "flowering" in the oak which, predictably, doesn't show in the photographs.

This was also my first go at contoured scales (instead of just slab-sided scales) although may be the handle is a little big for that sort of thing really

H1
One of my earliest attempts, this is a Fallkniven H1 blade with Padauk scales, brass pins and lanyard tube. Sheath in 4mm brown leather with a intentional (honest!) stripey effect and a no-sewing-required magic belt loop (thanks Jojo!). These are what I mean by slab-sided scales.

Lapplander 75
I think I got this blade from Shewie? Frosts Lapplander 75 with black canvas micarta scales and one 8mm aluminium pin. Pocket sheath is 3mm leather dyed black, Resolened and wetformed to give a very snug (too snug?) fit. I reworked the shape of both handle and blade quite a bit, but even now I think the handle is a little too short for my giant mitts.

PSK
This is a Stu Barker PSK blade with mystery burr wood scales, 6mm brass pin and lanyard tube. I got the wood in a box of odds'n'sods from Brisa and had to find a project to use it on . Neck sheath is 3mm leather dyed with Feiblings Saddle Tan oil dye, wet formed to the blade and finished with Resolene. The blade came from Stu with a belt finish on the blade which I haven't tried to polish up: I quite like the contrast with the sharp sharp shiney shiney edge anyway.

Trapper 01
EnZo Trapper 95 blade with yew scales and my first go with Corby bolts. I'd just used it to cut up some things for lunch, so apologies for the manky blade! The sheath is by Rapidboy: I like to keep it to hand when doing leatherwork, just so I can see what I should be aiming for .

Tora Kukri
I have a problem with Kukris: The handles are always too short for my giant mitts, and too knobbly, and I find the sheaths are too bulky. This Tora kukri had the original hanndle cut back to reveal the tang, then I added a handle extension with leather spacers and wood (more mystery wood - anyone know what it is?). I stripped the sheath back a bit and removed the little knives that came with it to slim it down. The new leatherwork may not be pretty, but it works...

Comments welcome - Be gentle!

Rat

 

[Shewie]

Superb work Ratbag

Hoping to achieve something similar with a MOD knife I just bought. If it turns out half as good as that one I'll be dead chuffed.

 

[Radix lecti]

Great work there Ratbag, now you have set me into modding my MOD knife. Cheers.
Darren

 

[rcs]

Good looking knives Ratbag, that Stu Barker PSK is a little beauty.

cheers,
Rob

 

[Suffolksteve]

That MOD knife looks awesome, I don't have an MOD knife at present to convert but based on this I am going to buy one.

Where is the best/cheapest place to get them from? I don't think my local surplus stocks these.

Great work

Stephen

 

[Shewie]

Did Spam once do a thread about modding the MOD knife Ratty ?

I wanted to see how you get the guard off

 

[Ratbag]

Thanks for the comments chaps.

I can't remember if Spamel's how-to is on this forum or another one...

The guard is only a bit of soft-ish steel butted up against a little step in the blade and spotwelded into position. I think I just held the blade in a vice and then bent the guard with a long adjustable wrench until it snapped. Then bent the other part of the guard until that snapped the remaining weld off. Then I ground the step out of the blade to get a smooth curve.

I think Andy on BB sells the blanks without the guard attached, which would save a load of messing about! You'll still need to grind the step out though.

HTH

Rat

 

[JonathanD]

I like what you've done with the MOD survival knife, it looks really good. I've got a couple of these up the loft somewhere that I need to do something like that too and see them getting some use again.

Kewl.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Thats a great conversion, I like the handle shape, looks as though it'll give you a few more usefull positions.

 

[Ratbag]

Thanks for the comments.

Its a bit of a brute, as you'll know, but surprising useable even for fine stuff like making feathersticks and such like. Chopping carrots is still a bit of a no-no though, unless you like playing "hunt the vegetable"

Rat

 

[caliban]

You've got some top notch stuff there mate. Great work, I'm well jealous LOL!