Leatherman Wingman custom knife blade. (Pic heavy)

Dan B · **on:** June 09, 2016, 04:58:47 AM

My leatherman wave broke. I now have another one. In the meantime I bought a wingman just so that I had something. Now that I have another wave the wingman is becoming my mod project! Fun times ahead!

The first thing that I'm changing is the blade. I hate serrated blades. They're pain to sharpen.

I compared it to the blade on the wave and the wingman has a noticeably thinner blade. In fact, it lookes very similar to the thickness of some of the sawzall blades that we use at work.

The smaller blade on the bottom is too thin, but the top one is a demolition blade. They're thicker than most blade types and it looks like it's very close.

Dan B · **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2016, 05:01:12 AM

Well, it's pretty close. Only three thousandths smaller than the wingman blade.

The smaller blade is way too small.

Dan B · **Reply #2 on:** June 09, 2016, 05:13:55 AM

I wasn't about to use a perfectly good blade, so the first step was to ask around and see if anybody had a used blade that they were throwing out.

Once I got one, I ground the teeth off. Then I wire wheeled off what was left of the paint.

Sawzall blades are either bimetallic (hard steel at the teeth and soft for the rest) or high speed steel throughout. This one didn't say bi-metal and it was very stiff so I was hoping that it would be HSS.

I ground a bit on the back of the blade as well. Same spark patterns and color. Also the spark pattern seems to be consistent with what the chart says for high carbon steel.

I think this could make a decent blade.

Dan B · **Reply #3 on:** June 09, 2016, 05:20:11 AM

I marked out the back of the blade where it attaches to the tool with a sharpie.

The large hole is 3/16" and the smaller one is 5/64".

I drilled the large one first and then used the existing blade as a jig for the smaller one.

Dan B · **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2016, 05:43:12 AM

The initial material removal was done on a grinder, but as i got closer I was concerned that I might take too much of a critical dimension. Out comes ye olde "illegitimate child" file and needle file set.

Many hours of work later here are the results, complete with obligatorily pictures of a ridiculously oversized blade on a wingman.

Dan B · **Reply #5 on:** June 09, 2016, 05:57:25 AM

I noticed that the slot for the blade allows for a slightly longer one than the wingman comes with. Instead of using the old blade to mark the length, I closed the blade as much as I could and used one of the needle files to scribe a line where it met the tool frame.

Then I cut and ground the metal down to that line.

Dan B · **Reply #6 on:** June 09, 2016, 06:03:59 AM

I took off the sideplate to check how well the blade fit down into the frame. It looks like the forward edge hangs over just a little.

I marked that part for removal as well as using the leftover part of the sawblade as a straight edge to mark a rough outline of the top.

Dan B · **Reply #7 on:** June 09, 2016, 06:15:59 AM

From those guidelines I marked out the rest of the blade. The d design I decided on is simplicity itself: an American tanto with a Scandinavian grind.

I used the old blade as a template for placing the thumb hole. To get the thumbhole started, I decided to drill two 3/16" holes. I used a punch to make two divots where I thought the holes should be.Then I drilled two pilot holes with the 5/64 bit and followed up with the 3/16.

Apparently I drilled the holes a bit too close together as the larger bit caught on the edge when drilling the second hole and sentenced me to some extra time with the needle files.

It also bent the drill bit. You can kinda see the damage in the picture.

Dan B · **Reply #8 on:** June 09, 2016, 06:24:33 AM

That's enough for now. More updates in the morning.

Toolslinger · **Reply #9 on:** June 09, 2016, 02:09:08 PM

Nice project.

Looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Dan B · **Reply #10 on:** June 09, 2016, 03:00:38 PM

Thanks, Toolslinger. I think you'll like the end result.

It was a lot more grinding and filing to get it to a more refined shape. I started out thinking that I would try to mimic the existing thumbhole but partway through filing it out I realized that I could make it look like a smaller version of the knife itself.

Here it is alongside the original.

Despite my careful measuring I ended up with the tip protruding from the frame just a bit. I had to take one of the files to the blade stop marked in the picture.

Dan B · **Reply #11 on:** June 09, 2016, 03:24:54 PM

Now that the blade fits it's time to shine it up a little. I did that by wet sanding with fine grit aluminum oxide paper and then crocus cloth.

I think I may have filed too much on one side because it came out as more of a flat grind, but the other is definitely that single angle Scandinavian grind.

Dan B · **Reply #12 on:** June 09, 2016, 03:31:32 PM

The blade sharpened up very nicely. I'm going to use it for a while and see how well it holds an edge. I may not need to heat treat it.

The only bad thing is that it's rather susceptible to rust. I'll probably paint it with something like Alumahyde or cerakote at some point.

Gareth · **Reply #13 on:** June 11, 2016, 08:36:29 PM

Great job there Dan, and a great walk-though as well.

Sparky415 · **Reply #14 on:** June 11, 2016, 10:18:40 PM

Quote from: Gareth on June 11, 2016, 08:36:29 PM

Great job there Dan, and a great walk-though as well.

A big +1

zoidberg · **Reply #15 on:** June 11, 2016, 10:48:37 PM

Nice, now use it and take some more pics.

zoidberg · **Reply #16 on:** June 11, 2016, 10:51:28 PM

And also... The Hacked Leatherman Owners Club.

Toolslinger · **Reply #17 on:** June 12, 2016, 01:22:36 AM

Very nice!

NKlamerus · **Reply #18 on:** June 12, 2016, 05:17:14 AM

Nice! How much room do you have with the plier deployed and handles closed? (As if you were using)

Dan B · **Reply #19 on:** June 12, 2016, 06:42:10 AM

Quote from: Gareth on June 11, 2016, 08:36:29 PM

Great job there Dan, and a great walk-though as well.

Thanks, Gareth. Glad you like it. I figured since I've gone to the trouble to figure this stuff out, I might as well share it.

Quote from: zoidberg on June 11, 2016, 10:48:37 PM

Nice, now use it and take some more pics.

Will do. I think with a few more mods this might replace the wave as my EDC.

Quote from: zoidberg on June 11, 2016, 10:51:28 PM

And also... The Hacked Leatherman Owners Club.

Ooo... I'll have to check that out! Sounds like my kind of folk.

Quote from: NKlamerus on June 12, 2016, 05:17:14 AM

Nice! How much room do you have with the plier deployed and handles closed? (As if you were using)

It's very close. The angle closest to the frame allows for just enough clearance. I would love to say that was intentional on my part, but what what really happened was that I copied some of the style of the Wave's blade because it just looked right. Turns out that I copied some of the function as well.

zoidberg · **Reply #20 on:** June 12, 2016, 11:46:10 AM

Excellent first badge mate, congrats.

RadioPej · **Reply #21 on:** June 12, 2016, 02:26:29 PM

That's pretty cool

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

NKlamerus · **Reply #22 on:** June 12, 2016, 06:09:31 PM

Looks perfect!

ReamerPunch · **Reply #23 on:** June 13, 2016, 02:03:15 AM

Excellent work, and may I add, what a wonderful thumbhole that is.

rdub934 · **Reply #24 on:** June 13, 2016, 05:46:06 AM

Really cool. That is a big ol' mean looking blade on that Wingman. Excellent work.

Dan B · **Reply #25 on:** June 14, 2016, 08:37:35 PM

Quote from: zoidberg on June 12, 2016, 11:46:10 AM

Excellent first badge mate, congrats.

Thank you! I didn't even realize what the badges were when I started this project so I was rather excited to find the hacker badge.

Quote from: RadioPej on June 12, 2016, 02:26:29 PM

That's pretty cool

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

Quote from: NKlamerus on June 12, 2016, 06:09:31 PM

Looks perfect!

Thank you.

Quote from: ReamerPunch on June 13, 2016, 02:03:15 AM

Excellent work, and may I add, what a wonderful thumbhole that is.

Thanks. I was happy to see that it looked right with both the blade and the rest of the tool .

Quote from: rdub934 on June 13, 2016, 05:46:06 AM

Really cool. That is a big ol' mean looking blade on that Wingman. Excellent work.

Thank you. I'm a little surprised that they have such a small blade from the factory, but I assume this was done to keep the wingman in a more budget niche and not hurt sales of the wave.