I normally carry a Spyderco (have several), but I could not resist trying out the Kershaw Thermite.
Extremely sharp out of the box, but blade was not centered, I did not like the blade assist (specially at closing time - hated to "work" to close it), and it was just plain heavy!
Since it is such a low cost knife, I did not feel bad about experimenting a little
Bone-stock, compared to my Milie:
Of course when removing the assist "spring", one must drill so that the liner lock can "bite" into the blade and keep it closed:
Align mill as best as possible:
I got lucky position-wise, but the first attempt was a little too shallow:
So I had to re-align again, and try once more:
Now I have full engagement on the detent ball. First open, then fully closed:
My next mod was the enlarge the area to engage the lock - purely ergonomic reasons:
Much better now:
But that leaves a hole since that area of the scale was hollow (for the assist spring). So I am using 2-part epoxy to fill that void, and also to make a one piece (along with the steel liner) for the next operation:
I had two do it in two sessions:
Now I can proceed to make the holes to take weight off:
I also did an internal cut on the scale opposite to the lock, which is hidden from the outside:
Cleaned up the edges:
But it was still not "quite" light enough:
So I made up some Titanium spacers to replace the plastic piece between the two scales:
Had to make a custom sleeve since my chuck won't hold stock that thin:
Then drill and trim each of the 3x spacers:
Still have a little bit of epoxy to clean up on the bottom scale, but this is how the spacers look in place:
And yes, it is lighter in weight now:
Still need to do some work on that pocket clip - don't like it too much.
Extremely sharp out of the box, but blade was not centered, I did not like the blade assist (specially at closing time - hated to "work" to close it), and it was just plain heavy!
Since it is such a low cost knife, I did not feel bad about experimenting a little
Bone-stock, compared to my Milie:
Of course when removing the assist "spring", one must drill so that the liner lock can "bite" into the blade and keep it closed:
Align mill as best as possible:
I got lucky position-wise, but the first attempt was a little too shallow:
So I had to re-align again, and try once more:
Now I have full engagement on the detent ball. First open, then fully closed:
My next mod was the enlarge the area to engage the lock - purely ergonomic reasons:
Much better now:
But that leaves a hole since that area of the scale was hollow (for the assist spring). So I am using 2-part epoxy to fill that void, and also to make a one piece (along with the steel liner) for the next operation:
I had two do it in two sessions:
Now I can proceed to make the holes to take weight off:
I also did an internal cut on the scale opposite to the lock, which is hidden from the outside:
Cleaned up the edges:
But it was still not "quite" light enough:
So I made up some Titanium spacers to replace the plastic piece between the two scales:
Had to make a custom sleeve since my chuck won't hold stock that thin:
Then drill and trim each of the 3x spacers:
Still have a little bit of epoxy to clean up on the bottom scale, but this is how the spacers look in place:
And yes, it is lighter in weight now:
Still need to do some work on that pocket clip - don't like it too much.