My first mod: the Victorinox... Al Fresco!

[George S]

Having been inspired by the modding community here, I'm currently assembling the parts to make my dream SAK, but first I had a practice round using some of the 'spare' parts that would eventually be left over from taking apart the donor SAKs.
First of all, I needed new brass rod to make up the new knives. I'd probably be making a few, and didn't want to run out, so had plenty on hand. The only tricky thing was that I'd only bought 2.5mm diameter rod, so needed to 'turn' some down to 2.2mmish for the centre two pivots:



Drill + vice + file = poor man's lathe:



The verniers told me that I'd got into the right ballpark diameter, but I was to learn later that accuracy did not matter greatly...
I also worked on scale removal of the first donor SAK: the Huntsman I'd had for nearly twenty years. I'd read that taking the scales off can damage the holes that lock onto the bushings, so I gave them a good dowsing under the hot tap to soften the plastic first, as helpfully advised on here. This was mostly successful:



The one tool I had to buy, and I'm glad I did, was an automatic centre-punch, which made accurate drilling-out of the original rods much easier:



I punched and drilled the opener side, when I should have drilled the blade side. It would have made the knife more stable when sitting it down to punch it as it wouldn't have rocked around on the corkscrew and, crucially, the pin that the back layer tools pivot on would have been much easier to drill as this pin is rounded on one side - the side I tried to drill:



Everything came apart fairly easily afterwards and it was very satisfying to clean out years of gunk that I hadn't been able to clear by washing alone - taking your SAK apart is definitely the best way to deep clean it, if perhaps a little extreme!
As this disassembly had gone smoothly, I then took apart a couple more SAKs that would be donating parts - a SwissChamp (the sacrilege!) and a Duke of Edinburgh's Award Pocket Tool. The workbench became well-populated!



I was still waiting for a Cybertool to arrive, which is one of the reasons I hadn't finalised what would be on the dream SAK, but I knew which parts I had on hand which wouldn't be going into it, so I began assembling the 'spare' SAK. One tool I knew I'd never use is the Fish Scaler, as I'll never fish, so it seemed in some way logical to add it to a Huntsman which I'll never use for hunting! I'd scoured the forum for alternative uses for the Fish Scaler and the ones that most appealed were its use for slicing bread or picking olives from a jar: mmmmm... bread & olives...
So, I elected to make the Fish Scaler even more suitable for these tasks by sharpening the teeth (and adding a couple) with a file and also filing the two points to even pointier points:



The final tool load-out came about as I was looking through the spare parts on hand, which seemed to lend themselves to something for picnics, so that's what I aimed for:

• The Woodsaw stayed, for campfire wood prep.
• Corkscrew & Openers, obviously!
• It seemed odd not to have scissors, as they'll always come in handy for opening packets, and their back layer tool is the MIGHTY MULTIPURPOSE HOOK which I couldn't be without for pulling tent pegs from hard ground.
• The first real departure from the original Huntsman is the change in the Large Knife Blade from standard pointy to the 'safety' blade from the DofE SAK; it's still incredibly sharp for cutting, but the rounded end will make it much easier to spread spreads on breads, something that a pointed knife isn't always good at without digging into the bread.
• And then there's the modded Fish Scaler: the olive-stabbin', bread-slicin' picnic-saver.

Reassembly went smoothly, and my own tip for the process was discovered utterly accidentally - it seems to make putting the parts back on the pins easier by having all of the pins slightly different lengths:


(Sorry for the potato-focus...)

The rest of it came together fine, though I cut the pins down a little short before peening them over, so had to use a punch to smoodge the brass into the bushings; it ended up plenty solid. The very interesting thing I noticed was concerning the pin which the back layer tools pivot on: it doesn't need to be all accurate in external diameter because the holes it passes through are not exactly 2.2mm in internal diameter... The internal & outside liners have differently sized holes and the tools themselves seem to have differing hole diameters, especially the Corkscrew & Awl, which are much wider, possibly to fit onto 111mm SAKs.

And as for the final result?




And the final result in action? I admittedly haven't actually been out for a picnic yet since putting it together, but I did buy some olives especially...



...and prepared a toasted teacake with nothing but the new SAK:




When it came to the name, all the good ones were taken! It couldn't be Picnicker, or Weekender, or Camper, or Gourmet, hence...

...the Al Fresco!

(Credit & thanks to Gareth for inspiration & guidance with his how-to: https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,9808.0.html and thanks to the community for all the useful contributions from everyone.)

[Steinar]

An amusing and well-illustrated read! Thanks for sharing! 

[kottskrapa]

Looking good! Nice steps and pics, can't wait to see your next project

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[Don Pablo]

Great mod! 

I really should get an automatic punch... A pointy object and a hammer are hardly ideal... 

[Dutch_Tooler]

Very nice write-up. Makes me wonder whether I should perhaps mod a SAK myself...

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[Don Pablo]

Very nice write-up. Makes me wonder whether I should perhaps mod a SAK myself...

Sent on my SM-G930F with Tapatalk

Try it! Beater SAKs are not hard to come by, as are the appropriate tools.

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice work George 

If you're making any more out of the parts you have left, give me a yell and I can fix you up with some proper 2.2mm rods, mate 

[sawman]

I love your mod because you included a fish-scaler - a tool that has grown on me over the years and has many, many uses.

[875fps]

Such a great mod and an even greater write-up.

[jaya_man]

Awesome 1st mod...


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[Sparky415]

Such a great mod and an even greater write-up.

^^^ This 

 

[SteveC]

 

[Archibald Tuttle]

Nice work!

[magentus]

Fantastic mod and really enjoyable writeup 

[Gareth]

Fantastic walk-through there and a great mod. 

[George S]

Looking good! Nice steps and pics, can't wait to see your next project

I love your mod because you included a fish-scaler - a tool that has grown on me over the years and has many, many uses.

Awesome 1st mod...

Such a great mod and an even greater write-up.

^^^ This

Nice work!

Fantastic mod and really enjoyable writeup

Fantastic walk-through there and a great mod.

An amusing and well-illustrated read! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for all the encouraging comments! I really enjoyed the process, as well as writing it up, and hope it's passing on the inspiration I got from this great forum 

Great mod!
I really should get an automatic punch... A pointy object and a hammer are hardly ideal...

A hammer and punch is fine, but an automatic punch is very cheap and makes life much easier!

Nice work George
If you're making any more out of the parts you have left, give me a yell and I can fix you up with some proper 2.2mm rods, mate

Thank you! That's jolly good of you. The stuff I've made on the 'lathe' seems to work well, especially since finding out, surprisingly, that the diameter isn't actually that critical! Being as how the holes in the hook & awl are 2.5mm, I'm thinking about drilling the liners on a future mod to use larger rod for strength (this depends in springs too - we'll see...) Anyway, thank you, 50ft

Very nice write-up. Makes me wonder whether I should perhaps mod a SAK myself...

Try it! Beater SAKs are not hard to come by, as are the appropriate tools.

You should definitely try it, Dutch; it's very satisfying!
Where do you find to be a good source of beater SAKs, Pablo? Asking for a friend... ;-)

[Don Pablo]

Where do you find to be a good source of beater SAKs, Pablo? Asking for a friend... ;-)

Unfortunately, beater SAKs seem to be rather thin on the ground here in Ireland or the UK, as eBay does not allow knives to be sold here. 

I told Dutch_Tooler(who lives in the Netherlands?) that "beater SAKs are not hard to come by", because eBay seems to be a great source outside of Ireland and the UK, and it seems to me that finding beater SAKs in flea markets and such in some other regions(especially Switzerland  ) is common. MT.O is a good option also anywhere.

Here on the British isles, I would say MT.O is the only good source of beater SAKs? 
I'd be happy to be proven wrong!

[AimlessWanderer]

Nice work George
If you're making any more out of the parts you have left, give me a yell and I can fix you up with some proper 2.2mm rods, mate

Thank you! That's jolly good of you. The stuff I've made on the 'lathe' seems to work well, especially since finding out, surprisingly, that the diameter isn't actually that critical! Being as how the holes in the hook & awl are 2.5mm, I'm thinking about drilling the liners on a future mod to use larger rod for strength (this depends in springs too - we'll see...) Anyway, thank you, 50ft

If you want to make them all 2.5mm, you'll need to drill out the tools and backsprings too, for which you'll really need a drill press and carbide drill bits. Offer still stands on the 2.2mm whenever you need it. I'm just the other side of the M1 to you, so even if I stuck a 2nd class stamp on them, you'd still probably get them the next day  Drop me a PM as and when you need some 

[King_Gorilla]

 
I    IT!

 

[Poncho65]

Badges awarded Congrats

[MusicMen]

Congratulations on the badges!   

[Don Pablo]

Well deserved!