The Mega84

[AimlessWanderer]

Mega84 v1 is complete and operational

Now, that's quite an unusual SAK toolset, especially clad in nylon scales! No key ring tho' 

If I feel ambitious later (a lot later  ) I might have a go at making my own scales, and seeing if I can get a pin and pen in there too  you're right though, no keyring. There was one, but I ground it away...... weight reduction 

[AimlessWanderer]

Oh, and I've discovered that if you use the scissors on your nails and cut them too short so you can't open the bottle opener  the inbuilt nail nick access tool works very well..... tweezers 

[hiraethus]

See, I said it'd be good.   I pictured Al, with a beer in one hand, fag in the other with a maniacal grin, frantically bashing away at some SAK parts on his doorstep in the middle of the night, lit only by a headtorch, surrounded by dismembered SAKs.

[AimlessWanderer]

See, I said it'd be good.   I pictured Al, with a beer in one hand, fag in the other with a maniacal grin, frantically bashing away at some SAK parts on his doorstep in the middle of the night, lit only by a headtorch, surrounded by dismembered SAKs.

Cup of tea and a roll up, but otherwise quite close 

[Syph007]

Very clever with the Phillips   

Thanks Tommy  It took a while to figure out how to make it work, but it took a lot longer to get the right donors together 

Ya very nice! 

Its funny I am tackling the same issue right now on a 91mm job that needs both backside phillips and corkscrew.  The problem is I have less space to fit the phillips, so I milled it flat on each side, (kind of looks like a flat leatherman phillips now) but it should fit in space I have for it now. Im using 2x saw backsprings with backtool cutouts to house the phillips.  It should work but it hasnt gone together yet.

Cheers Bob  I was originally hoping to get away with not having to add that second liner, but as it happens they were needed anyway for access to the nail nicks on the cap lifter and nail file. They're still tight, but doable with my nails, and would have been impossible with one liner. The awl worked out well too with just a sliver ground off the kick

Are you using an inline Phillips for that mod, or have you milled it offset? I wouldn't imagine you could afford to lose much off the tang side of a backspring Phillips 

I got my version done, here's what it ended up looking like.



I only shaved off 0.020" from the pivot side, and more from the other side.  It technically less strong than before, but a compromise to fit it in the space I had. 

[AimlessWanderer]

 

I figured you'd have to offset machine it  It's ended up a little like the Phillips on the Bucktool  It won't cause your customer any issues though, even the reduced thickness tang should still take more torque than a normal peened assembly would allow anyway 

[AimlessWanderer]

After a couple of days carry, there's a bit of side to side play in the main blades, and there's certainly more daylight between the springs. I think the pre peened heads done with the hammer drill, have "settled" in their respective bushings. I had a suspicion that might happen when I was peening it up.

As regards the overall concept, version 1 has certainly proved itself though, and the knife was not meant to be considered finished at this stage anyway. I'm still not happy about the nail nick access on the bottle opener either. Yes, I can dig it out with the tweezers if necessary, but that's still a bit sloppy of me to accept that.

Looking at where the nail nick sits on the serrated blade in front of it, this could afford to drop a couple of millimetres, as it's not got to sit over the cap lifter or scissors like on other knives. This means I could adjust the kick on that blade slightly so it sits lower, although I would also have to shave some off the segmental spacer next to the nail file to give it the clearance it needs without fouling the blade

[firiki]

Could you post a pic of the nailnicks, showing the SAK diagonally from the pivots? I can't visualise the thing in my head.

One thing I now, that 84mm mod is probably just a bit thicker than a 91mm Ranger!

[AimlessWanderer]

I'll give it a go.....

[AimlessWanderer]

Ok, here goes..... four pictures

Pic 1
From the end you can see the additional liner has improved access a little bit, but even so your thumbnail is a little too vertical from the bottle opener nail nick going up over the spine of the serrated blade in front

Pic 2
With the serrated blade open, the bottle opener nail nick is perfectly accessible over the top of the nail file. Not shown is that the fail file's nail nick falls exactly where the slight "dip" is at the meeting of the bottle opener and can opener, and I can dig this out with my index finger just fine.

Pic 3
With the serrated blade closed, too much of the bottle opener's nail nick is obscured. At the moment the easiest thing to do is either open the serrated blade first, or use the tweezers to dig the tool out

Pic 4
If the serrated blade could be lowered slightly into the knife, it's nail nick would still be accessible, but access to the bottle opener would be improved

[AimlessWanderer]

... and yes, this would be fractionally thicker than a 91mm Ranger, but 7mm shorter.... and therefore probably lighter

[AimlessWanderer]

Oh, and one more thing I should add, the can opener worked perfectly fine on a standard sized can earlier today 

[Sparky415]

BRILLIANT!!!!!!

Grip pin in chuck, set to hammer, and "drill" the side of an axe head at a slight angle! Just enough pressure to get the hammer action to kick in, but not enough to bend the pin. A perfectly pre-peened pin in seconds 

Genius idea!   

 
 

[firiki]

Ok, here goes..... four pictures

Sorry it took me so many days to reply  That life thing gets in the way 


I don't have a real solution, just wondering if moving the openers layer next to the other knife blade could work.

Otherwise, I'd be tempted to just drop something like a mini-sewing kit under the bottle opener to make it stand a little higher, in case that improved nailnick accessibility. Lame, I know 

[AimlessWanderer]

No problem at all 

The opener layer needs to be in that position. The backspring has the cut out for the standard awl which I've used to accommodate the extra thickness of the backspring Phillips.

Next time this knife comes apart, I will be looking at lowering the height of the knife in front, and I have had an idea for making the bottle opener sit slightly higher by reworking the tang slightly, but I haven't proven the concept yet.

I know what you mean about life getting in the way, that's why there's been no more changes to this yet 

[AimlessWanderer]

After a couple of days carry, there's a bit of side to side play in the main blades, and there's certainly more daylight between the springs. I think the pre peened heads done with the hammer drill, have "settled" in their respective bushings. I had a suspicion that might happen when I was peening it up.

As regards the overall concept, version 1 has certainly proved itself though, and the knife was not meant to be considered finished at this stage anyway.

<snip>

The Mega84 has been taken out of service 

Yesterday I developed a bit of a creak which sounded like a liner moving on a pin, and at that point I decided to put it aside until I do V2 of this knife.

I had only ever intended this version to be proof of concept, which it has passed with flying colours. However, there's obviously been some movement of the pins, either due to incorrect peening, or the peened heads pulling into the bushings. The original plan for V2 was for brass liners and nylon scales again, but I'll probably end up moving straight to the final version with homemade scales I reckon.

Won't be anytime soon, as there's too much other stuff I have to do first. I'm quite happy that I managed to get some good use out of this before it started developing issues though 

[JamesJ]

I read the whole thread but didn't see anything about where you got the serrated blade. (Maybe it's there but I didnt find it) I know a weekender has the serrated blade...that fits on 84mm? Or is there an 84mm model with serrated blade? Or did you just serrate your own? Looks like a factory serration.

I'm not doing as crazy of stuff with the back tools, just wanted to put serrated blade/nailfile on a backspring I have from a Lumberjack. (No back tools.)

I have all the other donor knives descaled, using Golfer, Sportsman and Lumberjack.  Considering reshaping  91mm metal saw if I can get another 84mm WS backspring.

[hiraethus]

I'm not sure where Fiddy got his serrated blade, but there is/was a serrated Recruit: http://www.sakwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Recruit

[JamesJ]

I'm not sure where Fiddy got his serrated blade, but there is/was a serrated Recruit: http://www.sakwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Recruit

Thanks..

  Just did a quick ebay check... $75 USD! But I will keep looking now that I know they exist.  Seems like in the pics the serrated blade is longer than the plain blade...I have a regular 91mm main blade here I can see how it fits and how much would need to be cut, maybe just get a weekender.

I have done some serrations by hand but I'd really like a factory look, maybe I can build some kind of a jig for spacing....maybe do a run of serrated blades? I dream too big.

[sLaughterMed]

I'm not sure where Fiddy got his serrated blade, but there is/was a serrated Recruit: http://www.sakwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Recruit

Thanks..

  Just did a quick ebay check... $75 USD! But I will keep looking now that I know they exist.  Seems like in the pics the serrated blade is longer than the plain blade...I have a regular 91mm main blade here I can see how it fits and how much would need to be cut, maybe just get a weekender.

I have done some serrations by hand but I'd really like a factory look, maybe I can build some kind of a jig for spacing....maybe do a run of serrated blades? I dream too big.

It might be an 85mm Wenger blade. Wenger has done a lot more serrated blades than Vic in the past.

[AimlessWanderer]

I'm not sure where Fiddy got his serrated blade, but there is/was a serrated Recruit: http://www.sakwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Recruit

Sorry, only just noticed this  the serrated blade did indeed come from a serrated recruit, which I got from the trade forums here ages ago

[hiraethus]

  I win again.

[AimlessWanderer]

  I win again.

 

The five donors were:

Serrated Recruit
Salesman
Sportsman
MFV+
Pioneer Rancher

[Mizedog]

The Mega 84 is awesome.  Great mix of tools.  This would effectively replace the need for me to carry a 58mm for finger nail duty,  and would cover food prep too. I want one.  Too bad I don't have mad modfing skills and a bunch of parts.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

[AimlessWanderer]

Thanks Mizedog.  it took me a while to accumulate the right donors for it, but as for modding skills, it is one of only two knives that I have built from parts. I am still very much a newbie in that respect.