Re-scaling a Spartan Swiss Army Knife with E-waste – DIY

Swiss Army Knife needing repair
Swiss Army Knife needing repair

We’ve all got or seen an old SAK somewhere about, if it’s in need of some TLC has a read of this and give it a go to create something new but rather cool.

My dad gave this Spartan to me back in 1992 and I’ve been carrying it on my key chain for my daily use. Although I have many others SAK’s with me, this one seems special to me.

Bent old scale

 

Faded logo – can some one tell me what generation logo is this?

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Chipped off the small blade

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First of all, remove the old scale with my P4 blade

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The inside of the scale – I glued it with Dunlop glue long time ago.

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Next, I pulled out the PCB from a used DVD-ROM and traced the scale on it.

 

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Made a rough cut.

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Ground out to -1mm size (to be explained later)

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Drill thru PCB

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Next, I prepared the mold for the new scale using 5mm thick PVC board

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Pasted with double sided type to hold in position

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Prepared the resin using this.

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Into this

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Make sure it is water levered for uniform thickness

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Also, make sure the surface which contact to resin is free from oil or water, or you will have yourself this

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The white color area looks like not fully bonded with resin.

The next morning it turns to this ugly looking chocolate bars

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It warped during the drying process, and this required a lot of grinding later

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More grinding on the center area to compensate the warp phenomenon.

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** Notice that the -1mm? I want the resin to fully cover the surround so that there will be no chance for the PCB to be exposed.
** I skipped a lot of photos for 2 hours of grinding and polishing job, I left my camera behind

Finally, with some epoxy and another 12 hours of drying time, I made myself this:

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Next, I will find myself some time to get all the blades and tools polished to mirror finish.

 

Thanks to Landroza and ©BritishBlades for allowing us to use this article

If you have any comments then please drop us a message on our Outdoor Revival facebook page

We love this sort of thing on Outdoor Revival and we’ll be bringing you a lot more of it over the coming months, if you enjoy making or designing kit let us know about it on our FB page, we’re also happy for article or review submissions, we’d love to hear from you.

 

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jack-beckett

jack-beckett is one of the authors writing for Outdoor Revival