Welcome to ETS!

<<...with the essentially useless corckscrew...>>

Now, where did I put that "warm welcome" flamethrower... probably most folks agree with you, but some do not.

The "Fieldmaster" or BSA Huntsman is the same knife as the Huntsman but with a Phillips screwdriver instead of the corkscrew. Similar variants exist for most models equipped with a corkscrew.

So you guys leave my corkscrew alone and go cut off your Phillips screwdriver instead <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm curious how it will be scraped if it is permanently attached to the SAK - does that mean a second knife or scraper? If you want to give this a shot, maybe you could cut off your phillips screwdriver (why not the parcel hook instead?), attach a socket to the sawn-off stub such that it will hold a sparking rod. Flip it open, remove rod, and scrape with an SAK blade... just a suggestion. It might be difficult to hold onto, but if you give it a shot, please give us a report - pics, too!

***EDIT Hard to quickly measure, but the OD of the corkscrew looks to be about 7.75mm - about 0.3 inches. The Phillips screwdriver-in-lieu-of-corkscrew appears to be about 5.5mm or around 0.213 inch, give or take. Easy to cut either down to a stub (maybe try to keep the stub at least 1 diameter long) and epoxy on a piece of 1.2" to 1.25" long tubing. Probably some aluminum arrow shafts are close and for certain one could get some K&N brass or aluminum tubing from a hobby store in a close enough diameter. A piece of brake line (preferably stainless steel) may work or may be too soft (bend on opening?) In any event - That way, one could slip a rod into the tubing. Or cut the tubing shorter and use it as a socket (see above) to epoxy in a section of rod. Still dunno about graspability and other practical matters, so I'm interested in reading about it if someone takes this on. Someone who has no use for a corkscrew want to volunteer? END EDIT***

No flames, really - I understand that many folks don't see a need for the corkscrew. But if y'all will check around, you almost certainly can find the model SAK you want with some other tool in lieu of the corkscrew.

Hope you have as much fun learning here as I do.

Regards,

Tom

Garrett,

Not a bad idea. I think a 2 inch/ 50 mm ruler is useful for this as well. See my suggestion on ruler marks on the saw. Military maps in any scale are trivial with a millimeter ruler - a simple multiplication and you have the distance or UTM grid coords. You can even read some scales directly with a mm ruler. The 7 1/2 or 15 MOA standard USGS maps are a bit more of a PITA to convert, but again, it's just multiplication by a constant. Worst case, just transfer the measurement to the scale printed on the bottom margin of all topo maps - no math involved...

Tom

Just sticking this here in the thread - I know I keep seeing the suggestion to make a sparking rod to slip into the corkscrew, but I can't find the most recent suggestion to do that... anyway:

The spark-rod-in-the-corkscrew has been suggested many times here and on other forums and keeps getting re-invented. I have yet to actually hear of it being done. I just checked two SAKs with drill rod and it appears that the largest diameter that will slide into the corkscrew is a 3/32 inch rod (~ 2.38 mm).

So I put calipers on a Zippo brand cigarette lighter flint and guess what size it is? 2.37mm - almost exactly 3/32 inch. That's a pretty slender diameter if one is thinking of scraping along the side of the rod. It might work if someone can obtain a long enough piece of rod this diameter, although I have mental pictures of the rod snapping after just a few uses.

Has anyone actually done this? Theory is fine, but I'd like to see pics/read how it works - maybe it is a good idea; maybe not.

For the terminally curious:

I am so certain the following will work that I'm not even going to try it out, but suggest it here for other tweakers:

Purchase an eyeglasses screwdriver "replacement part" for the corkscrew. Make a 2 part plaster of paris mold of it (if you've never done this, there are plenty of how-tos on the web). Decide what "tool" you want screwed into the corkscrew - maybe a small drill bit, maybe a small phillips, maybe a skinny sparking rod, maybe a little allen wrench - you get the idea. Just keep the inscribed outside diameter no more than 3/32 inch. If it is larger than the screwdriver blade, scape the impression of the blade in the mold to fit - check by closing the mold on the part. Now mix up a little ball of epoxy putty. Stick on the end of the selected tool, set in the mold (grease the mold first with a release agent like Vasoline or oil) Press the mold halves together to form the epoxy ball into the shape of the screwdriver insert. You may have to fiddle a bit with the volume of putty required - probably about "1/2 pea" size, I'm estimating. A little too much should not be a big problem - trim the flash after it sets. In about 10 minutes you should have a nifty new gadget that slips securely into the corkscrew. Minor polishing can be accomplished two ways: 1) after the putty sets up but before it reaches full set (perhaps 30 minutes), run the tool in and out of the corkscrew many times - that will burnish the mating surfaces. 2) Let it cure overnight and then polish/ tweak the mating surfaces with needle files or rolled up fine abrasive paper or cloth.

Worst case, you now own a tiny screwdriver that stows in your corkscrew. And some epoxy putty. Both good.

QUESTION FOR LOUIS: Could you do this with geltrate (SP?) and then cast the insert with liquid epoxy or casting resin?

Man, I hope somebody tries this and comes up with some neat ideas! (OK - I'm thinking of a couple already...)

Tom

Tom : Although accurate enough for this purpose, Jeltrate, IMHO, would be unsuitable as a result of it's fragility. Rubber base or silcone base type impression materials should work as far as the impression goes. Pouring the model in dental stone (plaster) is another story. I can't even imagine getting the stone to follow such a torturous path as well as eliminating air bubbles. Also, remember that such impression materials (including Jeltrate) must be supported by a close fitting tray. The materials do not have enough inherent strength to resist distortion even from such a small, lightweight amount of dental stone. I mentioned a close fitting tray since the accuracy of the impression is impacted if it is too thick or if significantly irregular in thickness. Perhaps a split mold would work, and with your machinist skills such could be fabricated. This project would not appear to require accuracy measured in angstroms, though. Now, that should be all you'd ever want to know about dental impressions and then some. heheh. Personally, I'd just remove a corkscrew from an old SAK and use it considering what you would be getting into. ~ Lou

I certianly had no intent of throwing flames! Please don't misunderstand me, I use a corkscrew quite often. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I just respectfully disagree on their usefullness in a survival situation. For that matter, if we are talking survival then we might address that all screwdrivers are not needed as well. I would prefer to see a SAK with two blades, scissors, saw, magnifier, and awl/reamer. I carry a WAVE on my person at all times, along with my Benchmade 940 Osborne. I use the screw drivers on an almost daily basis. And that is perfectly fine for EDC. But if we were to think of outdoor survival only, a great deal of our beloved SAKs could be modified. I think if we were considering EDC then a corckscrew is perfectly fine. I only meant that in a survival situation there would be other things that I would rather have on my knife. I have an old Huntsman and as soon as I get some sparking rod I'm comfortable with (larger diameter) then I'll try it and let you know.
The question of how to spark a rod that's attached to your knife is a good issue. Any suggestions?

No, no, I was teasing about ME flaming, not you! Sorry for the confusion!

I would like to read how you would like to see a "custom made" SAK made up - that was the whole purpose of this thread in the first place. I mean, some things are not feasible - like fitting everything on a Huntsman PLUS a file into a 4 layer knife - that takes 5 layers. But within the realm of what can be done - regardless of if you like 2 layer, 7 layer, 91mm, 95mm, 111mm, or whatever, what would your ideal SAK look like?

Gee, sorry for the confusion!

Tom

I was only concerned about not starting off on the right foot. I have been following this forum for quite some time and have learned enough to know that I don't know nearly as much as some of you.
I feel the 95mm 4layer is the best sized knife. But again we run into the problem of if everything I wanted was on it, it would be like carring a brick in my pocket. Perhaps the 111mm also could be configured in such a way as to not make it too uncomfortable. Otherwise I would find myself "surviving" my equipment. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
The I deal set up for me would be as follows:

Single Large Plain Edge Blade
Single Small Plain Edge Blade (clip point?)
Sissors
Large flat screw driver w/cap lifter and wire stripper.
(I would possible like to see the stripper sharpened like the one on the WAVE)
Can Opener w/small flat screw driver.
Wood Saw-- perhaps a double sided file--I don't know
Phillips Screwdriver <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Reamer/Awl (do they even consider it an awl?)


I think this may be in production already. I don't know the models well enough. -- Maybe I could put the spark rod on a key chain I read about on another thread. Just a thought.

--Luke

Thanks for the thread! I found exactly what I was looking for. I can't wait to learn more!

Citizen : Ferrocerium can be sparked with many sharp, hard objects. Broken glass, sharp rocks, etc. all work although the largest shower of sparks seem to come with the old reliable hacksaw blade.

Strangley, the striker that I have had the best result with is an actual bit of flint. It was the only thing I had at hand and it worked great. The advantage of it over a hacksaw blade is that it doesn't wear down the blade as fast. This is because, as our archaeology teacher keeps telling us "flint can be struck sharper than a modern razor blade" <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />