Sentimental

Damascus and Copper Bear MGC Trapper, part 7!

Posted on February 23, 2021 by akadventurer

This knife has a looong history of mods with me. I first got it in late 2005, or early 2006. I think in 2006.

It was the fist traditional pocket knife that I really carried a Lot and worked a Lot. We started building our garage tgat summer and I remember the lighting fast cuts it made opening cement bags… A highly abrasive task that never seemed to phase it.

It is made by Bear MGC, Now Bear and Sons. Its a Damascus steel 4.125″ 2 blade trapper. It was built with brass liners, nickel silver bolsters, and thick swell center burnt stag bone handles.

Within a week I’d ground the stag down to smooth “normal” profile, and retoasted them a light caramel.

Within a couple years, I’d taken it apart to rehandle it in sonething else.

About 10 years later, I had gotten back to it after purchasing another like it that I did in moose stag.

At that pointvid picked out materials, etc along the way, knew what I wanted to do, had just never had the time or gumption to do it.

Finally in 2015, I decided what the heck, and did it.

The saga of that build can be seen here;

https://ak-adventurer.net/2015/12/02/slim-damascus-trapper-started/

https://ak-adventurer.net/2015/12/04/damascus-trapper-update-2/

https://ak-adventurer.net/2015/12/11/bear-damascus-trapper-part-3/

https://ak-adventurer.net/2015/12/11/bear-damascus-trapper-part-4/

https://ak-adventurer.net/2015/12/11/bear-damascus-trapper-part-5/

https://ak-adventurer.net/2015/12/13/bear-damascus-trapper-part-6/

I think I’ve carried it five times since I built it like that. Used less. When I did it, I left it Really thick toward the back, for a tapered fatter grip, which I thought I’d like.

It was OK to grip, but not great, and turned out horrendous to pocket.

The best couple pics at the end of the above posts, that show what I ended up not liking, are these I think.

Aaaannnnddd… where I started this time;

I carefully sawed slots in the “pins”(corby bolts!), cranked them apart, and took the sucker apart. Thankfully I had a hatred for glueing knife scales on, so no trouble there.

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Cut and filed the uneven bolsters the same length(damn close)

evened the scales lengths, made spacers for the gap, made/modified pins(bolts) to fit, thinned the scales out.

Looks like I missed pics of cutting, stacking, and installing the fiber spacers. That was tedious but i got them a tight fit.

Before;

During, attached together to match the profile, thicknesses easier, blue tape the super glue that together.

After;

Got into some porosity… semi super glue filled after I was done.

Top bolt was the same as the lower when I started, had to lathe them so the shanks were longer. Half this hardware was in the knife when I took it apart. The other half was pirces Id screwed up the first time around that I had to mod/fix.

Made a short brass spacer from a loveless bolt set even shorter for a corby bolt I had that wasn’t long enough to reach through the second liner… spacer is threaded so when its all cranked together its the same support and grip as the corby shaft being longer..

Assembled and had actually sanded the scales too short from the spacers(freaking fine sanding to fit the angles) so I came up with a secret weapon, and filled the gaps.. color even works ok with these scales.

We’ll see how durable it turns out to be.

Assembled and ground the corbys off, still no epoxy in it in case I want to have it apart again someday. (Not likely!!!)

Finish sanded and thinned it some more, hand sanded everything @220, and buffed lightly…

Need a clean buffing wheel, will set that up and buff the bolsters to high gloss… someday. 😉

But for now, she’s done again! Its a lot cleaner of a build now, and friendlier in hand and pocket.

I like it a lot better!! Its a much better grip, still thicker than a single blade trapper would be, it feels like a slightly thick two blade folder, or a thin fixed blade. And it basically disappears in pocket too.

Maybe after about 15 years, I might get to carry it again. 🙂

(Wood filler is the thin tan lines between the bone scales and the first red spacer)

Categories: Adventure Metal Works, copper, Custom, Customized, EDC, Fabrication, Folder Tinkering, knives, Modifications, Pocket knives, Repairs, Sentimental

Strange Case tang stamp. (mini copperlock)

Posted on May 19, 2020 by akadventurer

Never realized this knife was like this, or if I did I didn’t realize how odd it is. My Mom’s mini copperlock that I got her about ~13 years ago. I borrowed it from her and carried it most of last week.

Any of my other single bade Case knives have the brand/year stamp on one side of the blade, model # on the other (Multi blade knives put it on different blades.)

This is the only one I’ve ever seen with it all nested together on one side.

Categories: Case Knives, EDC, knives, Lockbacks, Pocket knives, Sentimental, Traditional

A Sunday EDC, after 5 years.

Posted on May 19, 2020 by akadventurer

Was looking through some old pics of mine, and realized that May of 2015 and 2020 are identical for dates/day of week.

The 17th was a Sunday in both years.
So, Sunday carry Exactly 5 years apart;

’15;

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This would be one of my last pocket dumps with the flip phone, since within the month, and as I recall not long after my birthday, I went and got the Galaxy S5.

Also one of my last photos taken with a “real” camera, not a phone.

Looks like no watch since I think I had converted that pocket watch to a pill case by then, but maybe not. Nook as E-Bible.

No ring since that fall is when I made my moonglow and acrylic rings.

Didn’t start carrying hanks till the next year I think, or at least winter of 15/16.

IIRC I hadn’t started consistent Sunday CCW then.

Before I started color coordinating.

’20;

[IMG]

This one is a bit odd, since this last year I had started a distinctively lighter/minimal carry for Sundays… Which this isn’t. Its kinda 1/2 and half.

This sunday was the first church since Convid19/pandemic/shutdown. (Alaska is now on “reopen” orders, with gatherings, events etc allowed again.) I couldnt find my go to church bible, so used my phone. Phone is now an S8 as of this month so these pics skip the S5 entirely, even though it lasted almost the entire 5 years.

No notebook or pen since I stopped them a couple months ago. Haven’t worn my dog tags for a while either since weekdays I have the neck knife.

Metal ring I made before or ironically in 2015(from an AK quarter), since I have recently broke the acrylics.

New watch, and a general blue theme which matched my wardrobe for the day, blue denim, T and Hawaii-ish/islands shirt.

Haven’t used the buffalo money clip for about a year, although I still have it. Got these light weight card case wallets especially for light church carry, and they became every day use.

Same style of knife, traditional. One a stockman, one a muskrat which is a stockman frame.

Same exact flashlight, and the multitool too!

Categories: Alaska-Life, Daily-cary-log, EDC, EDC/MT use, Flashlights, Good Times, Journal, Just Plain Fun, Life-Philosophy, Modifications, Pocket knives, Sentimental, Summertime, Theory/Thoughts

The W Box.

Posted on November 4, 2019 by akadventurer

An older project. I started this in the summer of 2018, for a friend’s birthday. His name starts with a W, thus our title above. 🙂

He does electronics work, so when I found this old amp meter, in DC milliamperes, in some stuff that had been my Dads, it seemed perfect for a gift.

But i couldn’t just give a bare gauge…

Ok, I could have, but where’s the fun in that? 😉

I missed the birthday.

And Christmas.

Managed to get it done and give it in the spring of 2019. Ha!

But anyway, here it is. Only the 3rd box I’ve ever built in my life. (So don’t judge me too harsly!)

Its white oak, and curly maple. It was entertaining to get it how I wanted it, rabbeted construction, a place to store the leads (plugs and leads stolen from an old multi meter I took apart), but still compact. Engineered and re-engineered seveeal times, but I got it!

I don’t really have all of the pics I could, no step by step.And no steps of progress like I’d like… Hust a mishmash of what I managed to take, and the final product.

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Categories: Christmas, Custom, Customized, Electronics/Media, Fabrication, Good Friends, Just Plain Fun, MacGyver, Modifications, old tools, Recycle, Scrounging, Sentimental, Woodshop, Woodwork

Time for a fix; or fixing time?

Posted on October 19, 2019 by akadventurer

Haven’t been able to wear my Eco-Drive chrony for a while, after I found a problem with the band.

Wore through around the under straps keeper ring. (Strap is a leather NATO style)

Technically the watch is still secured by the top strap, but I wasn’t comfortable wearing it til I got it fixed.

Took a couple months to get to where, today, I had time/wanted it enough to actually do something about it.

Some of the rest of the band is also a little rough, here is where its worn through on the bottom strap next to the spot I’m fixing. But its only through the one layer, it’ll be fine for a while though, I think.

I simply stitched the bottom strap to the top one, and trimmed off the worn loop where the ring sat.

From the back;

Got a little too far from the edge there on one side, but it works. 🙂

Side that shows;

Easy fix and all I lost at this point, is that it isn’t an easy change band anymore. I’ll have to pull the spring bars to take the watch off. No big loss really though; Except for about 2 weeks when it was new, the watch has been on this band since about this time of year in 2011. 😀

Categories: Damages, EDC, Leather, Modifications, Repairs, Sentimental, Soft Goods, Watches

Darning leather gloves?

Posted on October 13, 2019 by akadventurer

Have a pair of nice heavy deer skin work gloves that I wore almost all summer. They started developing holes about a month and a half ago.

Since I was welding that day, it meant finger burns (yes we had dedicated welding gloves, but generally I don’t bother with them, they’re a heavy leather gauntlet that allows no dexterity at all.)

My jobsite fix that day was a quick wrap (double layer glue to glue on the holes so it didn’t stick to me!) of gorilla tape over the finger tips.

I gotta say I’m impressed, after a month of work, and you have to remember I’ve been working in a crawl space most of the time so its not just work wear, but crawling wear too, that tape was scuffed and a bit softer, but still stuck, solid, holeless… I HATE duct tape with a passion because it never stays on anything even duct work, but this stuff was great!

But anyway, 3 more holes later and I grabbed a new pair of gloves. I have no idea what the old ones cost, they were a gift, the second pair out of a two pack a friend got. And I can’t shop where they came from(costco) so a direct replacement is impossible.

But the replacement I got at Home Depot was $25 a pair.

I’m sure the Costco ones probably cost less than that, and about 6 months on a pair before they wear out isn’t bad for good quality, real leather, all leather gloves.

But at prices like that I’d still like to prolong their life if possible. And besides, they’re broken in, already stained– don’t have to worry what I get on them, they fit me, and are comfortable as all get out now… I’ve been missing them!

With socks its called darning. Maybe only on knit socks. Ive been saying I’m darning gloves. But they’re not knit, and darning might not apply even to knit gloves… lol.

So, thus, I sat down with some scrap leather, needle and thread, and have been slowly fixing them in my spare time the last few days.

This has worked well so far, a couple seams resewn, and one finger tip I cut out the holed area and patched. Some of it I’ve just whip stiched on the outside, some thing I’ve turned them inside out to have the seams on the inside like original.

It has ironically been kinda hard on my hands. For a while now any hand sewing I do, or similar work that takes a good grip on small tools, and fine motor skills, has made my hands go numb while doing it.

Add to that some muscle damage and inflammation that I have right now in my shoulders/arm pits and lower arms that has been doing a carpal tunnel like effect of a piched nerve or restrictions in blood flow; making my hands tingling or numb over most of the past week anyway;

It makes this extremely slow, somewhat frustrating, and sort of painful to do.

But at any rate, I’m enjoying it, it improves my sewing, saves some gloves, and fills some time.

I still have one big hole and one small one to patch, and two seams to re-close.

Categories: Alaska-Life, Clothes, Cowboy, Damages, EDC, Field gear, Leather, MacGyver, Modifications, Recycle, Repairs, Sentimental, Sewing, Soft Goods, Summertime, Welding

Got my money clip back!

Posted on February 23, 2019 by akadventurer

While killing time in the shop with misc. little projects, and trying to find parts for one, I came accross the Buffalo Alaska Mint coin/silver proof from my old money clip. Several years ago the curve of the clip broke– its brass, and it had gotten brittle, work hardened from repeated bending back and forth.

I had intended to put the coin on a new clip, but never could find one I liked, wanting one similar yo what it had, a hinged camming action that clamped it shut.

Got to thinking that I hadn’t really been in any hurry to solder the Marlboro cowboy emblem back onto the clip I’ve been using after it came off last summer either…

So, why not combine them, eh?

The curve of the broken end on the coin backing plate almost perfectly fit the clips curved end.

Cleaned the chrome platting off the one, cleaned the other to bare brass and tinned them in solder. Pressed and heated. Twice.

Filled with solder along the curved end. Three times…

Have I ever mentioned that I Hate soldering? Well I do!

But sometimes I get lucky!

It ain’t perfect but its solid and will fer sure work.

All that holds the coin on is the bezel, 4 little tabs that bend/crimp over the backing plate.

Two old friends with a lot of memories attached

— the Marlboro clip I’ve had since I was a kid. The buffalo clip I got 10 year ago this spring on a 2 week trip to the big city, hanging out with a good buddy when he came home from the service, Fun Times!—

back in service together, finally!

Categories: Adventure Metal Works, Brass, Custom, Customized, Damages, Decorating, EDC, Fabrication, Good Friends, Modifications, Repairs, Sentimental, Welding

Tool box refurbishment 1.0

Posted on July 11, 2018 by akadventurer

Slight diversion from a week or two ago. Old Craftsman tool box I had, Dad bought it for me eons ago. Hadn’t really used it since the early 2000s, it was oil, grease, grime and who knows what soaked inside and out.

Forgot to take before pics. Paint was lifting off in some places and pitch/dirt/mold/grime covered and faded in others.

Bought a wire wheel for the angle grinder and went at it. Have been using up some 4 or 5 year old spray paint a buddy gave me a while back, picked a color and went at it.

Not sure why I didn’t do it in red and white to match my truck…. Just felt like blue I guess. Lol.

Not sure I really have any use for it now, but at least it’s clean and a solid finish now.

As you can see in close ups I didn’t have it as smooth over the old paint that I left as I thought I did… And the ancient paint didn’t flow/self level like it should have either, didn’t coat the rough areas as it should/could have. Good enough though, who looks that close anyway? 😉