First Mod - School Friendly Gerber Octane

[Migripper]

I am an elementary Physical Education teacher.  Working in the schools means no knife.  Working in an elementary school means nothing sharp either so I modded my Gerber Octane to be knifeless.  Heres what I did followed by some pictures.

Removed the knife along with the liner lock and blade cover.  Ground off a small piece of metal that was related to the knife.  Rounded the tip and dulled the package opener.  It is now a box opener.  Opens a box very eaisely but is safe to the touch.

So far I realy like it.  It has what I need at work and nothing I don't. I have no need for bottle openers, can openers, saws, awls, etc. Its also very thin and light with the knife removed. I mainly need a MT at work for fixing jewlery that kids have that broke, glasses, carts for my phys ed equipment and opening boxes.  It will also be nice that if I go somewhere straight from work I will always have a MT with me.

[babola]

Very nice! 

[Kampfer]

 

[JBW1]

That's a no nonsense mt right there! It would have been hard to not have any tools on you all day. I Bet you had to get creative with office supplies before this huh.
I like that the drivers on this model are longer than most other  gerbers

[kirk13]

I'd often wondered if that was possible. Very nice mate

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice work 

I too have been trying to come up with a mod for he Octane to make it knifeless. I have been searching for scissors that can replace the blade, but to no avail. So far I have removed the blade and guard as you did, and swapped the Phillips for one off a battered old MP700 as the tip of the driver is better formed. The driver doesn't lock out as well (has a bit of up/down wobble due to larger pivot size) but as it sits in screws better, the net result is an improvement.  I've also looked at putting the tweezers in off the MP700 too. Mine needs more work before it's official launch though 

[Breezy12]

really nice work!

I especially like the way you modified the package opener to make it a box opener (and much more school-friendly).

[enki_ck]

Great job.

BTW, the Skeletool with the blade removed also works excellent for school carry. And you get a bit driver too. If you find some sort of scissors to fit in the blade slot, even better.

[Grant Lamontagne]

That looks like a very clean mod!

I'll bet in a pinch the package opener could probably do most of the stuff you need the blade for anyway, so probably not really much of a loss.

Good job! From the pics it looks like it came from the factory like that.

Def

Sent from my smurfing hunk of techno sorcery

[Kampfer]

If you no longer need the blade cover, may I have it?
I ordered one in red but like to swap the cover to black... I don't like colorful MTs.
Or maybe easier just polish the red anodized off?

[Migripper]

Thanks all, it has already come in handy!

That's a no nonsense mt right there! It would have been hard to not have any tools on you all day. I Bet you had to get creative with office supplies before this huh.
I like that the drivers on this model are longer than most other  gerbers

Yes, i have used scissors as pliers many times.

Great job.

BTW, the Skeletool with the blade removed also works excellent for school carry. And you get a bit driver too. If you find some sort of scissors to fit in the blade slot, even better.

I agree, the skeletool would work great too.  I just happened to have the octane already and it was just sitting in the glove compartment doing nothing.
My ideal factory made teacher model would be the skeletool with round nose scissors where the blade is now.  Although at an elementary school we are already surrounded by safety scissors!

If you no longer need the blade cover, may I have it?
I ordered one in red but like to swap the cover to black... I don't like colorful MTs.
Or maybe easier just polish the red anodized off?

Sure thing, just message me your address.  You can have the blade too if you want it for another project.

[Kampfer]

 

[Kampfer]

BTW, what is your local regulation on school ground knife carry?

[Migripper]

BTW, what is your local regulation on school ground knife carry?

Not sure what it is, but since I am an employee I also have to abide by the employee handbook which says no knives.

[Kampfer]

BTW, what is your local regulation on school ground knife carry?

Not sure what it is, but since I am an employee I also have to abide by the employee handbook which says no knives.

Ok then, I was going to suggest that you shorten the blade to less than "X" inch to stay legal.

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice work 

I too have been trying to come up with a mod for he Octane to make it knifeless. I have been searching for scissors that can replace the blade, but to no avail. So far I have removed the blade and guard as you did, and swapped the Phillips for one off a battered old MP700 as the tip of the driver is better formed. The driver doesn't lock out as well (has a bit of up/down wobble due to larger pivot size) but as it sits in screws better, the net result is an improvement.  I've also looked at putting the tweezers in off the MP700 too. Mine needs more work before it's official launch though 

I gave up trying to fit my Octane with scissors, and followed the OP's lead instead. I snapped off the blade stop with pliers, and filed it down with the diamond file on an XE6. I left the MP700 Phillips driver in even though it bobbles about a bit, as I find it still works better than the original Phillips. It would have been nice to get a bushing for the pivot hole, but that's more messing around than I'm prepared to do. I did also look at fitting the tweezers from the same MP700, but it's not really practical.

With Pliers, full 3D Phillips, and the other two tools, it's a good companion tool to a SAK with scissors. Plus, it is even slimmer in the pocket that the original Octane format .... which was pretty bloody slim to start with  For SAKs that don't have Scissors, my modded MP400, modded Kick, modded orange Fuse or modded PST will fill the role instead

... and I still think the Octane's bottle opener is one of the best in the biz