GAK GAK Galore! 108 mm of Modding practice and leftovers...

lowtech · **on:** July 16, 2012, 09:40:47 PM

I could not think of a thread title that really makes sense, so i chose the dumbest i could find... Sorry. :-)

After stepping into the Trap that this forum is for toolophiles like me, it was not long until i did my first mod.

I had this older GAK lying around that i once bought just because it was cheap.

Maybe you remember it from the SAK mods thread.

Nothing to original, basically i created a GAK Solo plus or more correctly a GAK minus...

Anyways, i gave it to my Dad who appreciates it as a pocket knife for daytrips.

Ever since i made it i felt the spares must feel lonely. So yesterday evening, as i had to do something with my hands to get some peace of mind.

I created the SAWL - seems like many people around here do think of Saw and Awl as the most essential tools, so here is one for you:

But the main reason i started this thread is not showing pics i posted already nor showing off purely senseless tools.

Right after i gave the single layer to my Dad, i found myself thinking that such a knife would be a nice addition to my Gerber Multiplier EDC - a slim knife with a blade a tad bigger than on the classic Saks, no fumbling for the blade, convenient enough for food prepping and wire stripping alike and legal as it is not OHO.

I could have bought a Vic solo and lived happily ever after, but i stumbled across some auctions of lots with 10 GAKs, advertised as needing maintenance on one tool or another.

So, about the price of 2 1/2 SOLOs later, i am the proud owner of 10 GAKs from different makers.
All with busted, broken, mangled blades.
There go my plans of putting together 4-6 decent ones out of parts, creating a few single layer ones maybe and giving the ones i don´t need to the younger Boy Scouts in the Troop i am still a member of but no longer active in.

I contacted the seller and asked if we could exchange some broken bladed ones for some with messed up saws, corkscrews or scales, but could only get a nice price for five other ones with good blades but messed up scales or corkscrews.

I´ll end my ramblings and come to the point:

What shall i do with this pile of GAKs?!

Any Ideas? I´ll do some single layer ones i guess, i want to try to make a Philips for one of them and i think about regrinding the blades on some - Any tips on how to grind a Utility blade out of a typical 108 mm blade? I´m thinking of Tanto style or serrated edges....

And does anybody know from the top of their head what Pin size is used and what diameter the holes in the tools tang have?

Thanks for comments and input!

...and BTW: Just buy a Solo if you need one.

lowtech · **Reply #1 on:** July 17, 2012, 01:51:48 PM

...i found a scribble i made while having a raher boring meeting.

Thought i´d share it here.

It illustrates, rather roughly, i confess, some of my ideas.

enki_ck · **Reply #2 on:** July 17, 2012, 02:22:47 PM

How bad are the blades? Got any pics of them? A tanto on a non locking blade doesn't seem to be a good idea. It's meant for piercing stuff/stronger tip and you might loose a finger or two if you did that with a GAK

lowtech · **Reply #3 on:** July 17, 2012, 02:25:20 PM

the blades go from lightly scratched to junk. I´ll do some pics tonight - and thanks for the Tanto advice.

so far it´s only an idea and it seemed a god way to regrind a blade with a broken tip.

Syph007 · **Reply #4 on:** July 17, 2012, 03:08:00 PM

I guess it depends on how much metal is broken off, but id probably just regrind to the shape shape but shorter, unless its really broken bad.

Its a fun project you got, I'd love to get a pile of abused saks for a good price to turn them into new creations.

Frankctz · **Reply #5 on:** July 17, 2012, 03:43:35 PM

How did you attache the scales, with glue? epoxic? or are able to attach them again as original condition after removed.
Thankd for your info..

lowtech · **Reply #6 on:** July 17, 2012, 03:57:55 PM

i guess i got lucky on my first peening experiments (and learned from the fellow users here) and was able to clip them back on.
although one scale on teh Sawl is a bit loose in the middle where the bushing is amiss (i destroyed it when drilling out the rivet)

I will have a look if a toothpick and tweezer will fit somewhere inbetween teh pins, the scales seem to be massive on all teh GAKs so filing out a channel should be doable.

Syph, a few can surely be reground to original shape, but believe me, some need soem fantasy to imagine what exactly Mr. Soldier did to them.

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #7 on:** July 17, 2012, 04:39:58 PM

Re-shaping worn blades to Sheepsfoot or Lambsfoot is a good option. If you cut new nailnicks, Clip or even Wharnecliff can be done.

With thicker scales and a reshaped blade, they would make comfortable carving knives.

Waterlander · **Reply #8 on:** July 17, 2012, 05:53:19 PM

Very nice Dave

Scagel hole and all, love it.
Convexed edges?
Is the corkscrew still there?
Knowing you a little, you probably added something nifty to it

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #9 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:02:54 PM

Yes, that's one of my Poorman's Mausers made from GAK parts...the same tools are present.

Waterlander · **Reply #10 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:18:52 PM

Quote from: Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! on July 17, 2012, 06:02:54 PM

Yes, that's one of my Poorman's Mausers made from GAK parts...the same tools are present.

Doesn't look poor to me!
Where do I find more pics of your Mausers?

Syph007 · **Reply #11 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:27:28 PM

Quote from: Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! on July 17, 2012, 04:39:58 PM

Re-shaping worn blades to Sheepsfoot or Lambsfoot is a good option. If you cut new nailnicks, Clip or even Wharnecliff can be done.

With thicker scales and a reshaped blade, they would make comfortable carving knives.

I love the look of that, nice work! Did you drill and then file to get that nail nick, or mill it?

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #12 on:** July 17, 2012, 09:59:24 PM

Quote from: Waterlander on July 17, 2012, 06:18:52 PM

Where do I find more pics of your Mausers?

I've only done a few, the others are with original scales.

There are two ways to go about adding the center blade...with original parts, using the cut-off tang of the corkscrew as a spacer...or using the blade and backspring of a Solo.

The corkscrew tang would be pretty simple to duplicate...perhaps an alternative tool could be fabricated.

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #13 on:** July 17, 2012, 10:03:41 PM

Quote from: Syph007 on July 17, 2012, 06:27:28 PM

I love the look of that, nice work! Did you drill and then file to get that nail nick, or mill it?

I mounted two Dremel cutoff discs on the arbor to cut the initial slot. The rest was Swiss files, Dremel burrs and sandpaper.

stressmaster5000 · **Reply #14 on:** July 17, 2012, 10:23:33 PM

Super awesome! I really like the wharncliffe style blade. Wish I had me some modding skillz.......

Syph007 · **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2012, 10:57:21 PM

Quote from: Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! on July 17, 2012, 10:03:41 PM

Quote from: Syph007 on July 17, 2012, 06:27:28 PM
I love the look of that, nice work! Did you drill and then file to get that nail nick, or mill it?

I mounted two Dremel cutoff discs on the arbor to cut the initial slot. The rest was Swiss files, Dremel burrs and sandpaper.

Ah ok, ya that would do it. I think Id maybe put the blade on some ice while I try that to make sure its cold.

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #16 on:** July 18, 2012, 01:40:39 AM

A coffee can of tap water and a light touch works fine.

lowtech · **Reply #17 on:** July 18, 2012, 09:17:19 AM

Nice that my crude puics and ideas initiated the posting of some really nice pics and valuable information.

I hope i will get close to that level somewhere in the future.

Waterlander · **Reply #18 on:** July 18, 2012, 08:35:05 PM

I like these 108 workhorses. Thanks for bringing this up lowtech.
Dave, great cutters mate.

lowtech · **Reply #19 on:** July 18, 2012, 10:29:55 PM

Just some more pics:

Those are the "good ones"

...although their corkscrews are somewhat twisted and torn

The ones needing a regrind look like this:

To illustrate my idea of toothpick and tweezer addition:

Maybe a little cutting and grinding will make this PH #2 a nice exchange for this Corkscrew

This is a torn apart 108 GAK. More exactly, it´s parts of 2 different ones (slightly different springs) and only 2 middle liners, as the outer ones do serve in my Dads 108 Solo plus and the Sawl you have seen here.
Nonetheless it might be interesting. the Pins seem to be the std. 2,5 and 2,25 mm ones they use on the 91 mm series.

And yes, a decent digital camera is high on my wishlist. :-)

Syph007 · **Reply #20 on:** July 18, 2012, 11:13:45 PM

Excellent, looks like you're in for some fun. Those blades mostly look salvagable. I guess people really like to use blades to pry with eh...

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #21 on:** July 18, 2012, 11:39:23 PM

You could probably straighten out some of these corkscrews with some careful tweaking.

lowtech · **Reply #22 on:** July 20, 2012, 12:39:28 PM

Yes, i think so, too but i was more worried about those blades.

Maybe I`ll find an hour or two on sunday after servicing 2 bikes in my shop.

Any way to straighten a bent tip without compromising the structure or hardening?

Spork, Lord of Lime Jello! · **Reply #23 on:** July 20, 2012, 09:23:59 PM

I've not had much luck straightening all but the most minor of bent tips. I've broken off my share of them attempting it. I found it better to reshape them...preferably from the top down so the point does not end up resting above the liners.

lowtech · **Reply #24 on:** July 22, 2012, 09:03:19 PM

So I´ll try my luck on one or two of teh lesser bends and regrind the kinked and really buggered up blades.

Is there a European based source for pivot pins (if taht is the correct term)? Maybe it would be interesting to make one with screws instead of peened pins.

enki_ck · **Reply #25 on:** July 22, 2012, 09:12:11 PM

Quote from: lowtech on July 22, 2012, 09:03:19 PM

So I´ll try my luck on one or two of teh lesser bends and regrind the kinked and really buggered up blades.

Is there a European based source for pivot pins (if taht is the correct term)? Maybe it would be interesting to make one with screws instead of peened pins.

Neil has them in stock:

http://www.edcsource.com/Brass-rods-for-building-91mm-SAKs,name,112914,auction_id,auction_details

and also some for 93mm and 84mm SAKs

http://www.edcsource.com/Brass-rods-for-building-93mm-SAKs,name,112913,auction_id,auction_details

http://www.edcsource.com/Brass-rods-for-building-84mm-SAKs,name,112915,auction_id,auction_details

lowtech · **Reply #26 on:** July 22, 2012, 09:46:10 PM

Thank you very much for the links - I can get brass rod locally. I was thinking about using screws for putting the knife together like Syph does on his 93 mm Alox knifes and was wondering if there is a european source, as knifekits calls around 30,- dollars for shipping.

lowtech · **Reply #27 on:** August 16, 2012, 11:08:59 AM

Ok, not much done on those since my last post, but i wanted to revive this post nonetheless -mostly to motivate me to get back in the shop....

While rummaging through teh boxes with parts i had my Opinel in my hand, which has been lying neglected in a box with Camping stuff for a long time and needs a good cleaning.

I will not use the Combotools of all the 108 mms, but i could imagine to build something like this:

What do you think?

Now off to the net, looking for some carbide drill bits...

WWW · **Reply #28 on:** August 17, 2012, 02:55:38 AM

Regarding the Opinel mod, how do you plan to make it? Will you just place a washer between the blade and the combo tool?

lowtech · **Reply #29 on:** August 17, 2012, 08:35:59 AM

Yes, if i do it i will put a thin washer inbetween, like on most MTs to insure you can move the tools individually.
For now, I´ll concentrate on getting some 108s back into service.

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GAK GAK Galore! 108 mm of Modding practice and leftovers...

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