DIY Glow in the dark and Semi-transparent 91mm scales & youtube tutorial

Part 1Making Transparent scale from Victorinox 91mm Silvertech scale
Making a transparent scale from Victorinox 91mm silvertech scale is a waiting game. Some of our modders have done it in past here and I will post relevant reference links at the end, and my process is rather similar.
Executive Summary: Strip the original paint off of Victorinox 91mm Silvertech scale, and apply a mixture of epoxy resin with Glow-in-the-dark(GITD or GID) powder to make it GID.
Day5I started off by submerging the scales face-up in ~300ml of white vinegar(5% acidity) in a plastic container for the first month.
Checking on it from time to time, you will be able to see the silver paint coming off of the scales in flakes in the first few weeks. Later on, some transparent paint might be floating around inside the container.
Day36And at the end of the first month, most majority of the silver paint would have been stripped off.
I have read the process is correlated to temperature and acidity. I think of the two sets I have tried, the temperature being around 24-28C for the most part, the two sets' results are consistent.
Day 41After the first month, I dumped the old vinegar and poured in new vinegar to look for improvement, but the improvement is really slow and marginally noticeable. Basically, I think the scales have turned completely transparent (with some haziness) after the first 1.5 months.
Day53I tried adding in various degree of sea salt to the solution to increase it's acidity for the last two weeks. But I really couldn't see another difference after that 1.5 months.
I stopped right before reaching two months of time.

I used Acrylic repair paste(you could find something similar in US Container store called "Novus", absolutely fantastic product to remove scratches and restore the SAK scales to its original state) to see whether I could reduce the haziness, but the effect is only nominal. YMMV.

Overlaying the 'transparent' scale over the SAK mod for the effect, I later proceed to use these scales to make them GID.
Part 2Making GID 91mm scale

So while waiting for the scales to turn transparent, I ordered some glow in dark powder and the epoxy from the States. I got my GID powder from Glow.inc. I'm no GID expert, but from my flashlight modding days 10-15 years ago, I could tell these GID powder is of pretty good quality.

Epoxy wise, it is entirely up to you what to get. I would advise against anything that cures within 1 hour simply because more cure time you have, more time to make it work. Definitely do test it out before mixing in the powder/coloring, to familirize yourself with the cure time. And in case you made too much, you could even use it for other applications. Also, the epoxy cured color is important, if it is not transparent, it could be white/yellowish/grey which might not be suitable for the mod. Personally, I have tested and used Art n Glow AB epoxy with pretty good results.
In my experience, 2g of AB epoxy and 2g total of GID powder is enough to fill in all the partitions of 1 pair(front and back) of Victorinox 91mm 'transparent' scale.

For accuracy, please use a scale to make sure all the proportions are 100% correct. This is exceptional true for the epoxy curing, since we are making a very small batch and one or few drops less/more might affect how it cures(or it might not cure at all). Also, once mixed throughly, I use a lighter to quickly flash/flame the epoxy to 'pop' any surface bubble before application.

For my Victorinox GID scale mod, I find a 50/50 mix of GID powder vs epoxy is a decent combination. Ideally, you do want enough powder in the solution to achieve maximum GID effect, but too much powder might make it difficult to apply and trapped bubbles could be hard to escape. It will take some time to fill in the partitions one by one(I recommend using a toothpick to 'drip' it in), and be prepared to use Q-tip to wipe clean the overflowing. When you successfully filled in the mix, use the lighter again to quickly flash the epoxy to pop any bubble forming.
Once again,
cure time and mix ratio are both crucial. Too little cure time or too heavy the mix could both be counterproductive.

It might be beneficial to work in a semi-dust free environment, and once the epoxy starts to settle, I put them inside a 'leveled' box to keep it dust free to dry.

Before putting them onto the SAK, I used dremel to make two small divots for hosting the backside tool pin rivets. Remember to wear a mask when doing this, I am not 100% sure GID epoxy resin is safe to breath in...
Also, due to all the partitions are now filled with epoxy and there is less flex in the scale, it will be a lot more difficult to put the scales on, vise with leather wrapped around the SAK will be helpful.


Thank you for reading! If you are interested in my 91mm Mountaineer Mods, please do visit the following links on MTO or possibly my
youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2FMClMqc4UMy other 91mm mod writeups:91mm SAK mod 'Mountain Tinker'Victorinox 91mm mod "Mountain Yeoman" with Transparent GID scaleSome references to other links:Coloring SAK Scales
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,70071.msg1409145.html#msg1409145Folks on MTO using the vinegar method to strip the paint and make it transparent
Btw Etherealicer, I'm a fan of your youtube channel, rich with SAK modding resources, highly recommended.
Making a transparent SAK
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,49287.msg822014.html#msg822014Nhoj made a transparent scale from scratch, very interesting and completely different route!
Victorinox Silver Tech. Removable scales?
https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,24988.msg453693.html#msg453693Neil has a different approach to utilize the Silvertech scale, looks great and fun to do.
Slivertech Mod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uADQFmUmpKIBoss made this video back in SOSAK days