Andrew, our Domestic Manufacturing Specialist, has been busy in the shop looking for new ways to customize what's already there. He's come up with a bunch of cool stuff lately. His latest project — milled titanium scales for the Spyderco Paramilitary 2.
I wandered over to Andrew's area to learn more.
He told me, "I wanted to do this project as a way to offer customization options for scales on a level that I have not yet seen. Because these are made to order, we can offer a wider range of patterns. It will be exciting to see what we can accomplish now that the fixturing is made. There's plenty more to come!"
Fishes, Ridges & Spirals
Talking more with Andrew, he explained what it took to get to the final product.
"Getting the fixture to work properly was the most difficult part. It is much easier to add machined features during their manufacturing process than it is to add them after the fact. Getting the textures just right took a couple dozen attempts, and dozens of hours between AutoCAD, computer-aided manufacturing, and then actually machining them."
Taking advice from fellow machinists, Andrew designed a fixture that could hold the scales without getting in the way while the surface was machined. This also made it easy to set up and run one set after the other.
With the fixtures in a good place, he was ready to find visually intriguing patterns.
"Once I found cool looking patterns, I needed to evaluate how well they would translate to being machined. Would they be too complex? Would they fit on the scales? How long would the machining take? How was the spacing?"
Andrew then tested the patterns at different depths to see which option gave the best look and feel.
To complete the process, he made final adjustments to the toolpaths to increase efficiency and clean up the surface finish.
"I've learned a ton while working on this, and it'll open up many possibilities for knife modification."
We take our time to find exciting new customizations, and when one of us gets an idea, we do what we can to bring it to life.
We're happy to finally share our new milling options with you — current patterns are Fish Scale, Knurl, and Spiral — get your own Milled Titanium Scales for Spyderco Paramilitary 2 by hitting the link below!
Happy 4th of July
Thanks for keeping up with us. Stay tuned to our Weekly Recap to hear fun stories from our team.
You're the best fans in the knife game. We'll talk soon.
Have a nice weekend,
The Flytanium Team
