Finishing what Case started

[Rupe]

Since I'm new to the whole knife tinkering thing I've been starting on less that valuable slip joints. I've resigned myself to the rather simple tasks thus far and have yet to tear one down completely. A through cleaning on this one, new scales on that one. You know the drill.

Today I decided to get into a bit of metal.

I bought a Case 3318 (yellow, CV) a little over a year ago for an EDC. I carried it for a while but found a couple things I really didn't like about it. The sheepsfoot blade sat too high and the tip was actually above the spine of the pen blade. Second was the brutally square shoulders on the bolsters.

I took it out to the garage this afternoon and went to work with my bench sander. The sheepsfoot blade kick was knocked down and finished so the blade now sits with the nail nick just above the spine of the pen. Next was to work over the bolsters. Results are below.




The bolsters were rough shaped with P500 grit, then 800, 1500 by hand, 3000 to get the polish started then finished with compound.

I'm very happy with the results and have moved the 3318 back up to primary EDC.

Thanks for looking,

Chris

[jonet143]

there ya go chris! much more pocket friendly.

[muskrat man]

very nice. some of my most enjoyable projects is tuning factory made knives with rough edges and poor spring-blade fit to be more like a custom, getting those springs to lay flush in all positions, rounding those sharp endges on bolsters and handles and just making a knife more pocket friendly

[Froggyedge]

Nice work!

[Rupe]

Thanks everyone. I've got a ways to go yet when it comes to embellishing and restoring knives but its been fun so far. Living in Michigan and not participating in any winter sports I hope to get deeper into this hobby this winter while I'm stuck indoors. ( can't stand the winters here any more but can't get south just yet.)

I got friends that play guitar or tie flys to keep the winter blues away. I'm fast approaching 40 and think I've finally found my thing to keep me from going stir crazy

Chris

[Hukk]

Looks good! You may be hooked. As soon as you start thinking - "I wonder how it would look with ......such and such handle" you are definitely 100% hooked.

A couple latest thoughts I've had is with fillet knives since I found out about stabilized cork and neopene on fillet knives that does not get slippery when wet and in fact is easier to hold when wet and seems to stick to your hands. (got the idea from non slip sunglasses - the nose piece won't slip when I got sweaty ).

See -- That's how the disease progresses!