Knife (Fallkniven WM1) mod

I WANT that!!!!!!! I love my Izula and amm sure I would feel the same about this blade. Great idea on the grip.

Nice work Colin, but why does it look like a Scandi grind in the second pic?

How's the urethane/sand mix feel? Looks like you may run into some durability issues there?

Did you verify HRC 59 with a hardness tester or you going by manufacturer specs?

Nice to see you on the forums again, Javan. Hope all is well.

I don't know about the durability of the handle coating. We'll see. I chose a urethane because urethanes, in general, have excellent adhesion to difficult substrates, very high abrasion resistance, and high tensile strength for elastomers. The firmness of the coating feels similar to a car tire (fairly hard), but the sand makes the surface rough (about like 300 grit sandpaper). I'll post updates about the apparent durability once I've used it a bit.

It looks like it has a scandi grind in the second photo because of the sandblasting. I sandblasted the knife to improve the adhesion of the urethane rubber, and I decided, on a lark, to go ahead and sandblast part of the blade in addition to the tang. I masked the edge of the blade with tape, so the area within about 1 cm of the edge still looks shiny.

No, I didn't test the HRC. I'm just passing along the manufacturer's specs. I don't have a reason to doubt them, and if it differs by a few HRC units from the published specs it isn't important to me.

Nice Work. It looks great.

Looks nice. Good job. I am continually amazed (in a good way) at the effort that people put into shaving grams.

Not criticizing, but it seems a lot of effort (or perhaps I am lazy in this regard). What was the weight of the stock blade? The Fallkniven site lists the WM1z as weighing 2.50z (70g) with the stock thermoplastic handle.

Yes, compared to switching over to an ultralight shelter, quilt, or sleeping pad, the absolute weight savings from this project was pretty small. But I modified my toothbrush, too, and switched to an ultralight flashlight, and those little things add up.

I have not embraced the SUL to the extent that many have. Truthfully I have a hard time thinking in grams, much less ounces (laughing at myself, given the forum we are on). I am just curious what the original blade blank weighed before modification. And the time investment in cutting, bead blasting, and dipping. Again, I was not criticizing, just curious. I do not have the tools or the experience to do such a project, but I like to learn from what others do.

I'm not actually sure of the weight of the blade blank before I modified it (I neglected to weigh it). I would guess it was something like 2.25 oz (the complete knife is about 2.5 oz). However, if I were to list my knife options, I might include the stock knife with handle (2.5 oz), or the modified knife (1.9 oz), but not the blade blank. The blank by itself wasn't an option because it isn't useable without a handle to cover up the sharp edges of the steel tang. It's splitting hairs, but I would argue that the trivial amount of weight that I saved is something like 0.6 oz (stock knife – modified knife) not 0.35 oz (blade blank – modified knife). It's a tiny amount in either case.

I used a dremel tool, a drill press, and lots of coolant water for the cut outs. It took me about an hour to make the cutouts and grind down to roundness all of the sharp edges on the tang. For the sandblasting I used a small airbrush-like sandblasting gun with fairly fine alumina media. That took about 20 minutes. Mixing and applying the urethane rubber coating on the handle took about 90 minutes, and it dried overnight. Cleanup took about an hour.

That makes sense Colin, should have thought of that. ;)

I only ask about the hardness rating because I've tested numerous production knives that don't hit the RC spec'd, and since you mentioned it, I thought you may have tested it.

I would consider Fallkniven to be one of the premier quality producers however, so I would imagine they're pretty spot on at 58-59 Rockwell C.

If the handle coating doesn't hold up, or becomes uncomfortable, I've got some ideas for other options. Keep me posted.

Thanks, Javan.