Show off your Sak mod's!

[aquilaaudax]

Hello - been browsing this forum for a while but this is my first post.

Hopefully I've figured out how to upload some pics of my first SAK mod.  The donor knife was my venerable Climber given to me by my brother as a birthday present about 15 years ago.  It was showing 15 years of wear and tear from being used as an EDC most days; the cellidor scales were cracked and chipped and the liners had taken a fair bit of abuse.

I have always loved titanium and decided - after browsing the forum for a while - to upgrade, keeping all the tools and substituting the scales and liners for Ti.

The scales are 3mm Ti plate and the liners 0.7mm sheet.  It is held together with 1/8" 3/8" pivot barrels and 2-56 torx screws.

Seems ok so far, but needs a bit of work to perfect - counterbore the holes for the screws and bend the corkscrew into position so that it fits properly into the recess.

Thoughts?

AA

[PTRSAK]

Welcome to the forum...   nothing like making a grand entrance

Awesome mod.  There are a lot of Ti fans here so you'll fit right in.

[crackout]

Sweet!

I like the liners and scales to be flush with the round ends of the backsprings though. What's the weight of that sucker?

[Syph007]

For Ti scales on 91's I think I'd hide that 4th pin for esthetics as it really has no function except to stop the springs from moving.  The SAK actually will function without out it, but the springs will slide back and forth and eventually pop out.  What is a nice way to do it is just drill a hole half way through the scale from the inside and hide the pin that way.

You can remove the liners adjacent the scales as they have no function since Ti scales are plenty strong and the liners arent needed any longer.

Just do an 82 degree counter sink on the scale holes and get the countersunk torx screws then you can have them nice and flush.

And welcome!

[PTRSAK]

Chicken V2.0  now with Florist blade and standard cap lifter.  I needed the thick tang 91mm blade to repair the $4 champion and it really was a waste of a combo tool to have it in a Looney-Tunes knife like this.
Also the chisel grind of the florist blade means it needs to go on the "other" side and the combo tool nail nick is covered by the blade.



and MY GOD you can get an edge on those florist blades!! You should see the bald patch on my forearm.

[aquilaaudax]

Sweet!

I like the liners and scales to be flush with the round ends of the backsprings though. What's the weight of that sucker?

Fair point - I think I overestimated how much material would be lost during sanding - plus I got sick and tired of hand filing once the best discs for the job on my Proxxon disintegrated.  Ti is a right bugger to work!  The beauty of it is that if I am bored one weekend I can always take it to bits and have another crack at getting the edges just so. I have bigger hands than average though so I might just keep it as is for a while and see how it functions.

Not sure about the weight - not got a set of scales with me - but it seems to be roughly the same as my venerable Leatherman PST II, by the unscientific method of holding them in my hands and judging weight.  So my guess is around 140g.

For Ti scales on 91's I think I'd hide that 4th pin for esthetics as it really has no function except to stop the springs from moving.  The SAK actually will function without out it, but the springs will slide back and forth and eventually pop out.  What is a nice way to do it is just drill a hole half way through the scale from the inside and hide the pin that way.

You can remove the liners adjacent the scales as they have no function since Ti scales are plenty strong and the liners arent needed any longer.

Just do an 82 degree counter sink on the scale holes and get the countersunk torx screws then you can have them nice and flush.

Syph007 - you have homed in exactly on "what I'd do differently if I did it again".  I always planned to have the fourth screw visible as I like the "overbuilt" look, but having said that, it would take away a lot of the pain to just insert a brass pin of the exact length and inlet this a little into the scales.  I didn't dismantle the donor knife and fully understand the exact function of the pins until it was too late anyway.  I thought they would have to be under tension, and therefore mean peening, which I didn't want to do because I wanted the knife to be dismantled for cleaning. I realise now that it could be just achieved by the method you refer to.  As for making two extra liners - you are right again, however I elected to do this as I thought it would otherwise just look wrong, and it fattens the knife a bit so that the 3/8" barrels are just enough.  I was worried about drilling at 1/8 too far into the scales - especially since I was using up to 11/32 to try to countersink!

Many thanks for your feedback!

AA

[jrp316]

My latest mod, a Midnite Manager mated with a USB drive. It's one that I've wanted to do for a while, to have the bright white LED light and pen with the Rambler toolset. I altered the configuration slightly to have the LED light point in the direction of the screwdrivers (from factory, it's the opposite way around, never really understood that). I also removed the plastic keyring tab and used the spring based keyring instead. It worked out nicely.

Honestly, I don't see why Victorinox doesn't offer up a Rambler/USB combo. It'd sell like hotcakes IMHO. Anyway, enough jabbering, here it is:

[jrp316]

Hot off the workbench, here's a revisit to a mod I've done before: a blue alox USB Rambler. First the pics and then the story behind it:



Here's the backstory to this mod: about 6 months or so ago, a coworker of mine gave me a Vic Rally that his dad had for quite a while and carried on his keychain. I kept it in my tackle box, intending to use it as mod fodder, but never got around to it. Not long ago, his dad passed away after a bout with cancer.

Earlier this week, he asked me to make him a 58mm USB mod like my orange one (with the stock Rambler tool set) in blue alox. I priced it out to him and he was good with it...then I had an idea. I took his dad's Rally and used it as a donor for his mod. I reused all of the tools and two of the three liners, contributing a pair of scissors to the project. It worked out nicely. I'm planning to give this to him as a birthday present this coming Saturday.

[Sparky415]

That’s thoughtful  Great job

 

[crackout]

Nice to see more people ditching the plastic keyring attachment.

However, I decided to make the drive open away from the keychain ring. I find this easier to use.

As a reminder.

[jrp316]

I started to put the USB plastic tab on the same side with the spring keyring, but I was afraid of the keyring potentially binding up with the plastic tab, so I decided to play safe and put it on the opposite side. It seems to work pretty well, no issues accessing the drive or tools.

I need to find some of those black/red scales and make up one of those for myself. Those are the bee's knees right there.

[oreogaborio]

Here's the backstory to this mod: about 6 months or so ago, a coworker of mine gave me a Vic Rally that his dad had for quite a while and carried on his keychain. I kept it in my tackle box, intending to use it as mod fodder, but never got around to it. Not long ago, his dad passed away after a bout with cancer.

Earlier this week, he asked me to make him a 58mm USB mod like my orange one (with the stock Rambler tool set) in blue alox. I priced it out to him and he was good with it...then I had an idea. I took his dad's Rally and used it as a donor for his mod. I reused all of the tools and two of the three liners, contributing a pair of scissors to the project. It worked out nicely. I'm planning to give this to him as a birthday present this coming Saturday.

Very cool. 
I'm about to do something similar for a friend of mine... He inherited his father's Vic and upon seeing a couple of 58's I put together, asked me if I could spiff it up a bit.  I don't have the knife yet & don't even know what it is, but I just plan on disassembling, cleaning, polishing and reassembling, likely with new plus scales.  Nothing crazy.  Just make it like new again.

[Sr.Multiherramienta]

Wonderful! 

[crackout]

Not really a SAK mod, but what the hell.

As soon as I touched my first Alox SAK I knew there was no going back. However, I wanted to keep the nice scale tools: pen, tweezers and needle. I tried different approaches, but nothing could recreate the ease of use like on cellidor SAKs. So why not just slim down a cellidor SAK as much as possible and only retain the tool slots? Said and done. And it disappears nicely in my wallet.

[Sparky415]

Nice idea 

[crackout]

Custom Lumberjack



More here.

[Zag]

I'm still looking for that perfect EDC

This is my latest try at finding it.
I managed to put the Philips and flat driver on the same layer. It is not 100% tidy but works great for a user knife, both half stop works well and no play with a spacer.
 

[nuphoria]

That's great Zag

Did you see the mods where both openers were opposite the Philips instead of a spacer?

[rickinFL]

That's great Zag

Did you see the mods where both openers were opposite the Philips instead of a spacer?

Will that work with 91mm?

[nuphoria]

That's great Zag

Did you see the mods where both openers were opposite the Philips instead of a spacer?

Will that work with 91mm?

I have idea - we need a modder to answer that!

[Syph007]

That's great Zag

Did you see the mods where both openers were opposite the Philips instead of a spacer?

Will that work with 91mm?

I have idea - we need a modder to answer that!

It will yes, but not as easy as on the 93 since the springs arent symmetrical.  You would have to modify the profile of the cap lifter to match that of the can opener.

[rickinFL]

That's great Zag

Did you see the mods where both openers were opposite the Philips instead of a spacer?

Will that work with 91mm?

I have idea - we need a modder to answer that!

It will yes, but not as easy as on the 93 since the springs arent symmetrical.  You would have to modify the profile of the cap lifter to match that of the can opener.

There's my weekend project.

[Wootz]

Wonderful! 

(Image removed from quote.)

Cool 

Did you salvage the awl, shield and scales from a vintage SAK, or handmade new?

[jrp316]

Last night, I decided that I liked that blue alox USB Rambler that I made for my coworker so much that I wanted a similar one for myself. I had a pair of leftover blue alox scales from the Midnite Manager build and some leftover parts from a couple of recent teardowns. With all of that, I built up a blue alox Drifter (one of those +B exclusive models)...and of course, you know me...I had to have the USB module in there. Very nice extension to the Rambler, could very well be the 58mm EDC for me. Basically, it's an alox Rambler with USB, emergency blade, pointy nail file and flat head with ruler markings. Here's a couple of pics:




In regards to my coworker's mod, I presented it to him today and told him of what went into the creation of the mod...specifically, his dad's Rally knife. Definitely some sentimental moments there.

[Rahmed]

 

[nuphoria]

Tease

[GigaHz]

Wonderful! 

(Image removed from quote.)

Cool 

Did you salvage the awl, shield and scales from a vintage SAK, or handmade new?

The parts came from an old busted up knife.

[Wootz]

Nothing more to it worth mentioning?

[Farmman]

Ok I present my first ever sak build. It is a brass scaled Rogue, or as I have been referring to it ( inferior Syph knock off).  Everything has snap on closing apart from the scissors, but for my use it is fine.  Now just trying to find more 58mm for donors.

[nuphoria]

Oh wow, you didn't mess about with the first one!

Lovely