Improve a knife

[unorthadox]

To some people a knife is just a knife, to others it can be so much more.

Some models of knives have extra functionality such as a firesteel steel built into the sheath or a pouch to hold a sharpening stone.

Some people perform DIY upgrades such as covering the sheath in bicycle inner tube or covering it in Parachord.

Lets dedicate this thread to what DIY upgrades you have done with your knives and why

 

[sasquatch]

I've never really upgraded a knife drastically but I have made my own knives if that counts. Have you tried any of the mods you've mentioned? If so what did you think in terms of it being better? I've seen a few mods others have done but never really had a go myself apart from sanding handles and making sheaths and stuff...

 

[Waldganger]

I think one of the biggest mods would be re profiling the edge, convexing etc.

I also find that sheaths are often something that is lacking in most production knives. Sure they are adequate, but do you want more?

I don't have the skills to do what I want with my current bush knife (a CRK one piece) which is to make a custom sheath, so I will outsource the job to a local maker. Basically I will have him make a kydex sheath that accepts the ESEE accessory pouch and a couple of lengths of cord.

That should make the knife a great grab and go job. I live in a town of 14,500 people, and the nearest town larger is 400+ km's away, so if I decide to go for a spin 15 minutes out of town I'd like to grab one thing and be set. The ESEE pouch kit on my CRK knife should be such a thing.

 

[Steffen]

i did cut the guard on a Helle Eggen away.
and i sanded the handles of a RAT-7 and a RTAK2 to a very smooth finish, but it turns out to be too smooth, so i'll have to sand it again with a courser paper.

 

[unorthadox]

I've never really upgraded a knife drastically but I have made my own knives if that counts. Have you tried any of the mods you've mentioned? If so what did you think in terms of it being better? I've seen a few mods others have done but never really had a go myself apart from sanding handles and making sheaths and stuff...

I havent tried much, one thing I did do was use bicycle inner tube,

I took it a step further by making it double the length of the sheath, stuffing the inside of it with core essentials found in survival tins (tinder, matches etc), inserting the sheath inside the tube as normal, then fold the other half up the side of it, then I secured it in place 'whipping' it with parachord.

It got me wondering if anyone else has any useful tweaks worth sharing with the community