The Silver Ghost - Pimping a Vic Spirit.

[Metropolicity]

It was only a matter of time, the Vic Spirit comes highly regarded as one of the finer MTs on the market. Arguable, the Spirit X is an excellent choice for an EDC tool. As much as I liked it, my Spirit just feel like it was mine...so to heck with warranty, Swiss precision and those dang rivets.

This thread will evolve as I find more things to improve on, but lets start with the clip. I already posted this about this, my first mod of 2013 but I got a little flack for installing a Leatherman Kick clip on a Vic. So, this one is for those purists.

The handles, Plier head and Plier spring were all bored out to 7/32 to accept a Leatherman Plier pivot





The little anti rotation notch needed a place to sit, a diamond disc took care of that easily.



The pivots was 1.2mm too long, some trimming on the lathe



The result is a perfect strong clip with the right amount of tool sticking up to grab when clipped in the pocket.



Wasn't done there, this mod was a bit of an aesthetic choice, a 1/8 slot was milled out to eradicate the LM branding. The clip was wet sanded to 800 and then polished with cotton wheel to mirror finish.









 Am super spoiled with my normal day to day Leathermans with their easy Outside Access OHO blades and tools. I tried two different kinds of mods to make the Spirit into the Silver Ghost. I added a thumb stud (press fit) and a cut out for a LEFT OHO, but in the end, the back spring was MUCH too strong to achieve any kind of real OHO, however, the stud made it super easy to get to the blade.









The cut out and handle were wet sanded to 800 and then cotton wheel with green rouge. Shiny!

Next up is the outside access notch for the Scissors, I use my scissors almost more than anything so easy access to gem was key. There wasn't enough room for a thumb stud but I figured out how to make a new nail notch. A small curved cutout was ground with a diamond dremel bit and the nail notch was made by carefully kissing the corresponding area with a diamond disc. The whole thing was polished the same way. In retrospect, I should of done the same thing to the master blade, but you never know if things will work unless you try (I have another spirit I could harvest blades from but that's for next weekend)







The last mod for this round (until I find another gripe) is the grip when using the tools and blades. Since there aren't any places to PUT a grip plate, I had I make jimping on the middle thickest tools. 1/8 ball end mill made the evenly spaced jimping.











I dare say the new polish is actually MORE shiny than it was, I can even tell the time on my Tissot T-Touch.



More on this later!

[SAKplumber]

   Sweet!!  Needs a screw pivot on each side.  Love the clip!

If you moved the OHO stud on the blade a little further towards the spear point do you think the leverage might be enough to help OHO it?
Plus the blade would be sweet with some jimping as well  

[Metropolicity]

  Sweet!!  Needs a screw pivot on each side.  Love the clip!

If you moved the OHO stud on the blade a little further towards the spear point do you think the leverage might be enough to help OHO it?
Plus the blade would be sweet with some jimping as well

I didn't want to decrease the slicing effect the full flat the PE has. I may take apart the Other spirit I have to harvest the SE and PE to retry.

[Mr. Whippy]

Ooh, Ooh!

Replace the scissors with the standard Vic scissors!  That way they open much wider! 

BTW, the pocket clip is a great addition, that Victorinox should adopt.

[Metropolicity]

Ooh, Ooh!

Replace the scissors with the standard Vic scissors!  That way they open much wider! 

BTW, the pocket clip is a great addition, that Victorinox should adopt.

I can see where I can remove some material to make the open wider. No sense swapping out perfectly goof scissors

[Wootz]

Hats off to you Sir 

[lowtech]

As mentioned before, i really like the Clip mod. 
It is beyond me, as i do not have a mill and i am not sure my drill press is working exactly enough to drill the pivot and handle out.

I´ll train on some cheaper tools, i guess.

I have been thinking about grinding cutouts in the handles, too but as i was not sure how good they would work or how it might look, i did not do it. I must say, it looks good and I should maybe go ahead and steal your cutout idea . 

I would be pleased to see a Scissor mod, allowing them to open up a little further.

And, not as a criticism, but a purely subjective remark on aesthetics, i think the Jimping - which i do like - would look better if it was repeated on the other tools, giving them a more uniform look when closed.

It would have to be very shallow and therefore of not much use, but it might look good if all teh folded tools shared teh same jimps.

[Gareth]

Some excellent ideas mate, very nice.

[enki_ck]

Really cool mod there.

I agree, nail nick cutout would be a better solution for the blade. I'm not a big fan of thumbstuds and the backspring is too strong anyway.

[nuphoria]

Mmmmm, now that's what I'm talking about sir

[Metropolicity]

Really cool mod there.

I agree, nail nick cutout would be a better solution for the blade. I'm not a big fan of thumbstuds and the backspring is too strong anyway.

I didn't know until I tried.

Next weekend I am going to attempt to thin out a SE butter blade and put in place of the saw. I need to shave off .5 mm for it to work.

[Metropolicity]

As mentioned before, i really like the Clip mod. 
It is beyond me, as i do not have a mill and i am not sure my drill press is working exactly enough to drill the pivot and handle out.

I´ll train on some cheaper tools, i guess.

I have been thinking about grinding cutouts in the handles, too but as i was not sure how good they would work or how it might look, i did not do it. I must say, it looks good and I should maybe go ahead and steal your cutout idea . 

I would be pleased to see a Scissor mod, allowing them to open up a little further.

And, not as a criticism, but a purely subjective remark on aesthetics, i think the Jimping - which i do like - would look better if it was repeated on the other tools, giving them a more uniform look when closed.

It would have to be very shallow and therefore of not much use, but it might look good if all teh folded tools shared teh same jimps.

That's exactly why I didn't put them on the rest of the tools. They would be too shallow. Also, the middle tools are much thicker than the other tools so removing material would weaken them.

I also wanted to keep it looking unobtrusive as possible.

[MultiMat]

The kick pocket clip now looks like a charge clip  .
Shame the blade can not be OHO  , it would be great if Vic did that with the Spirit & Swisstool  Now you just need to squeeze in a LM diamond file & one of Bob's 'special' custom OHO Spirit blades 

Nice work mate 

[Metropolicity]

The kick pocket clip now looks like a charge clip  .
Shame the blade can not be OHO  , it would be great if Vic did that with the Spirit & Swisstool  Now you just need to squeeze in a LM diamond file & one of Bob's 'special' custom OHO Spirit blades 

Nice work mate 

I actually like the clip better now, it was a little too aggressive and it's got some great spring to it now.

[Steinar]

 

In general I am of the school "if you have nothing good to say, shut up" when it comes to MT.o threads, but I'm so ambivalent about this one.

On the one hand I think your work is fine, and it's really cool the way you modify the tool to suit your requirements and preferences.

On the other hand, I disagree with just about every modification you have made.

Ah, well. Live and let live. 

[Sparky415]

Great work 

[Metropolicity]

This controversial mod is at least a discussion point.

[nuphoria]

This controversial mod is at least a discussion point.

Indeed
But then, that's one of the points of this forum.

[Syph007]

Making it OHO where the blade is would be perfect for lefties. But I want the main blade in the right hander position.  But then the spring doesn't match up well.. its a pain as making a custom spring part would be a nightmare.  I might just do what Bob did and swap a new blade in for the wood saw as I dont really ever use it.  Make some s30v blades the right shape, with the hole type for opening.

[Metropolicity]

I completely agree, I said over at EDCF that I have used a MT saw maybe a handful of times, ever.

I do like how the blade is positioned so I can get a nice clearance on whatever I am cutting. It would be much easier to make a new blade than to try to make a new spring.

Like I said, I'll be tackling next weekend, a tear down of the spirit S that I got and harvesting the SE blade, thinning it down a bit, and putting it into the Silver Ghost. Also, I'll steal the handles and make new notches and cut outs for some outside opening action.

I can't stand how fiddlely it is to get those main blades!

[Mr. Whippy]

Interestingly,  I find the saw on the Vic Farmer better than the saw on the Spirit.

[Metropolicity]

I couldn't wait, the Vic's chassis and systems are unlike anything I've encountered so I wanted to get this done as soon as I could with it fresh in my mind. I took apart the other Spirit S I had (the pivot was mangled by whoever installed their own clip, so it was half way to taken apart). From that Spirit, I stole the handle and blade.

Here's a couple of pics....wait...what is that? A 3/16 Leatherman pivot?





BEHOLD! The file, spear point, scissors AND BUTTER BLADE!



Here's a a closer look at the butter blade.





 0.5 mm was shaved off (.25mm on either side), wet sand to 800 and polished.



Grinding a cutout for the existing nail nick like the scissors:





A new nail nick and cut out for the spear point.



I am very happy with this now, the Silver Ghost matches the load out in my other favorite tools, so when I when I choose a EDC tool that day, I won't be missing my functions (PE,SE,file,scissors,awl,bit drivers). The ONLY thing missing is a Robbie bit (I am a Canadian after all, eh?)

[nuphoria]

I bet you could find a way to add one in there!

Super Spirit - whole lot extra

[Metropolicity]

I bet you could find a way to add one in there!

Super Spirit - whole lot extra

I have the leatherman Juice/Fuse/Blast bit adaptor coming because my Juices have the same problem. Maybe it'll fit over the Phillips driver.

If it does, my cap crimper, Swiss Army issue Spirit X wil be sooooo nice. (a birthday present to myself)

[Lynn LeFey]

I'm virtually certain the thumbstud on the Spirit X blade would work for me. Being left handed, I have a strong left thumb push. I was actually just considering this the other day. Nothing else to add, except, beautiful work as always.

[borgwarrior]

Holy Jeebus! Gotta love that Frankenspirit!