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View Full Version : The Delica series knife, rugged little buggers....



MacTech
01-03-2007, 10:52 AM
One of my co-workers brought in a couple knives for me to put an edge back on, i was expecting some CCC junk.....

So i was more than a little surprised when he brought in an old two-dot Buck 110 with about 1/8" of the tip broken off and blackened where it looked like he tried sharpening it on a grinder...
"naah, i held it in a flame, i was being stupid"
yes, you were, that one's likely not worth fixing as the temper's probably blown on the tip

then he handed me a knife that he found on the side of the road over the summer, it looked relarkably like a Spyderco, black FRN handle, humped blade, i was expecting a cheap knockoff, until i saw the Spyderco logo and Delica nameplate stamped in the FRN

it was a real Spydie, a D3 without the clip (i'll have to check my spare parts at home to see if i have a spare D3 clip)

it was in better shape than the Buck, but still had the very tip broken off, a common issue on the pre Gen-4 Delicas/Enduras, i'd say it lost about 1/16" of the tip, had a tiny amount of side-to-side play, and a tiny amount of vertical play, i cleaned up the lockwell and the vertical play went away, side to side isn't enough to worry about

it's a SpyderEdge model, the very tip was badly rolled and quite dull, as was the first serration, but the rest of the SpyderEdge was still factory-sharp

the first thing i had to do was reprofile the tip, i grabbed a medium benchstone and began scraping away the spine of the knife, bringing it down to the remaining tip, i asked Bo whether he wanted the original Delica3 "Splinter-picker", or if he wanted the newer D4 style stronger but less-pointy tip, he chose the stronger tip option

so, about 20-25 minutes later, the tip had been reground to a more Delica4 style tip, actually a pretty darned good emulation if i do say so myself, and not bad for my first tip regrind attempt, it took less time and effort than i thought as well

i put a decent working edge back on the tip of the blade, and then proceeded to touch up the first serration scallop (mmmmm.....scallops.....) on the unglazed bottom ring of my coffee cup (thanks for that hint, Sal ;) )

it's not as sharp as i'd like it to be, so i'll bring the Sharpmaker in tomorrow and give it a good, solid reworking and resharpen job to bring it back to Scary Sharp (I let him try out my Kiwi to see what a Scary Sharp edge was like, he was quite impressed, to say the least)

all in all, not bad for my first restoration job, admittedly, the knife wasn't too bad off in the first place, but i was expecting VG-10 to be a lot more difficult to rework than it was....

I also warned Bo about the addictive properties of Spydies, once he gets his Delica back to Scary Sharp, he'll probably end up addicted

dialex
01-04-2007, 07:51 AM
That's a cool story, thanks for sharing.
I still preffer the old style blade (even with the weaker tip), but that's me... :o

David Lowry
01-04-2007, 08:23 AM
'Tis a great story. I would still try to do something with that old Buck 110. At least for kicks. :)

Thanks for sharing.

:D

Mr Blonde
01-04-2007, 09:47 AM
That's a really cool story. It reminded me of my 'abuse' of a VG-10 D4 in yard work, digging in the dirt cutting roots and such. That really messed up the whole knife. I was quite surprised to notice how well the knife and VG-10 blade could be restored.

Do let us know how well the knife fared after its session with the Sharpmaker. If you can, pics are always appreciated.

Wouter

Piet.S
01-04-2007, 10:31 AM
I still preffer the old style blade (even with the weaker tip), but that's me... :o

Me too, and the grindline is a bit higher as well.

MacTech
01-04-2007, 03:40 PM
Last night, i dug out my Black and Decker RTX "Dremel Clone", set the motor speed on low (12,000 RPM) and grabbed the thick blue "Polish" disc, i was planning on putting a shine on the spine of the blade....

turns out the blue abrasive disc did a great job of smoothing out the spine and leveling off some of the inconsistencies in the top of the reground blade, i worked slowly, no more than 5 seconds of grinding at a time, and never let the blade heat up to be untouchably hot, in fact, i let it cool inbetween grinding sessions, it tok about 45 minutes all told, but i was able to grind the tip down into a more hybridized pointy-but-durable tip, it's somewhere inbetween the D3 Splinter-Picker and the D4 thicker tip, a good balance of each, it's actually reasonably close to the D4 Wave tip, pointier than a D4, but stronger than a D3

i then gave it a good, solid working over with the Sharpmaker, restoring it to the Scary Sharp level Spydies are famous for, and handed it back to Bo, warning him to be careful as it's now sharper than new

he was rather impressed, to say the least, kept asking me if i've done this proffesionally, nope, i'm just a newbie with a grinder and benchstones, and a passing knowledge of metallurgy and heat treating (heresay, mostly)

i found the secret is to take it slowly, both in grinder speed, and time, don't overheat the blade, don't use undue pressure and let the grinding wheel work it's magic

patience is key, it's better to undergrind at too slow of a speed than to grind too quickly and heavily, you can't ungrind metal

Bo then brought me his beat up, abused Buck 110 with about 1/4" of the tip broken off and blackened from being held in a flame, and asked me to give it a try, he didn't care if i wrecked it as it was trashed already

long story short, i reworked the tip on the Buck into a more D4-style point, while retaining a semblance of the clip-point, using the standard grinding wheel at 12,000 RPM, and put it on the benchstone before hitting the Sharpmaker and putting a working edge on it, it's all it'd take, the 110 is truly trashed

Bo remarked that the Buck was his favorite, but guess which one he's been using all day, walking around happily flicking the knife open and closed?

yep, the Delica 3, looks like *it's* his favorite now

....wonder how long it'll be before he buys a new Spydie

clovisc
01-04-2007, 04:22 PM
great story!!!!

nothing warms my heart like a story of a revitalized spydie! :D

David Lowry
01-04-2007, 06:07 PM
Now we need pics bro. :)