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Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

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Feltorn

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Posts: 116

Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:47 am

Location: Perth, West Australia

Post Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:10 pm

Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

Hey all, some of you may know me, but I doubt anybody does as I seldom post here.

I have a bit of an odd proposition, as you can likely tell from the title. I have an old CCC balisong, don't know what it's supposed to be called, but it's pretty nifty looking with a lovely blade shape. It's been my only and go-to balisong ever since I gave my old one to a cousin as a gift.

Problem is, it's a little worse for wear. It's not exactly falling apart at the seams and nothing is actually broken, per-sey. It's just on the shoddy side.

Now many of you may be nodding your heads and shrugging and thinking to yourself "Yes, so? It's a CCC, it was bound to start falling to bits, just buy a new one!"

Here's the issue: I live in Australia. And for those of you who don't know, our idiotic government (which infuriate me on a daily basis for a large, large number of reasons that I won't go into now for fear of turning this into a big rant) have decreed that Balisong knives are as bad as handguns, rifles and tactical nukes and have banned them totally from the country. Getting a balisong through customs usually requires it to be shipped bit-by-bit (like my old balisong) or to just be extremely lucky (like my current one.)

And while another balisong is on its way from Knifezilla as a Charismas present, there's no guarantee when or even if it will get here.

As you can probably deduce from this, any balisong, even a CCC, is pretty precious to me as they're not something I can just pick up from the local flea market.

And so comes to my issue, I want help and advice on restoring my slightly worn CCC to a point where I can flip it without getting tang pins all over the floor.

ISSUES WITH THE KNIFE:

- Biggest issue with the knife right now is probably its loose tang pins. One of them has a habit of just falling out when I flip the knife, but can stay in the blade pretty well if I leave it alone. The other one is simply loose, but could get just as bad.

- Second issue is the lockup. The handles bang together when I flip, which is a big no-no and the latch seems pretty temperamental, sometimes it'll lock up fine, other times it won't lock up at all. This has momentarily been fixed with two o-rings around the bite handle, but I'd like to be able to take those off.

- Latch itself looks like it's held together by spit and rust right now, it hasn't snapped or anything but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't last much longer.

- The screws are utter crap, and won't come out with normal screwdrivers.

- Blade is mostly fine, but is dull as hell and has a few flecks of rust on it.

- Rest of the knife is generally okay, but I can see a lot of areas of tarnish and such, wondering how best to get rid of that.

PICTURES:

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So, any tips on my odd little proposition? I know it's likely not something that exactly gets done very much, but any tips would be appreciated. I sort of want to find a metalworker or watchmaker to see if they could restore it, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea due to these knives technically being illegal here.

Thanks.
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c.wigum

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Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:03 pm

Location: Land Of The Long White Cloud

Post Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:30 pm

Re: Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

WTF!?! metal worker.. watchmaker???

If you want it fixed, google some knifemakers. Send them an e-mail with some photo's and ask for a quote to get it fixed. You do have knife makers in Australia?

Personally unless your CCC has sentimnental value I'd just buy another one... get a twist for $25 http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/showt ... as-arrived! (and yes, I read all about your legality issues, but honestly they are not that hard to import. I live in NZ and have never had a problem).
10 out of ?.. Roll/.. ALWAYS!!! blow on the pie (safer communities together)
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Feltorn

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Posts: 116

Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:47 am

Location: Perth, West Australia

Post Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:47 pm

Re: Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

Probably should have clarified that "watchmaker" over here is a pretty broad term, most watchmakers here fix up keys, knives, lighters and flasks all the time, hence why they're often called metalworkers. Probably just an Aussy thing.

And as I said, I do have a bit of an odd one on its way, it's an imitation Ring Fighter model, closest I'll ever get to one of those glorious blades. But there's no way of telling if it'll get into customs or not.

Not much a fan of the Twist's design, though. Might pick one up anyway, but I'm sorta leaning towards a bear model at that. Knifezilla got this baby to me fully assembled (with 3 nine inch nails in the box, for some reason) but I'm hoping that wasn't just a fluke because they have a number of other knives I'm interested in getting.

As for sentimental value, I'd be lying if I said I didn't love this knife. I've not seen another like it and for a CCC it's held up damn well under my ham-fisted clumsiness. I wouldn't have posted this thread if I didn't think it was worth repairing.
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Elohim2464

Posts: 8

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:03 am

Location: New York

Post Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:48 am

Re: Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

Hey boss,

I know this reply to your post is a little overdue but I figured its better late than never. You didn’t get a large response to the restoration of your CCC. I know exactly what you mean by having sentimental value for a crappy knife. I actually have a CCC that I call Frankenstein because of all the little repairs I’ve done to it. Hit up this post again if you’re still tryin to fix it up and I’ll let you know what I’ve done to mine to keep it alive.
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Feltorn

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Posts: 116

Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:47 am

Location: Perth, West Australia

Post Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:11 am

Re: Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

Always ready for a bit of advice. New knife doesn't look like it'll be here for some time and as it has the "Ring Fightr" design, I doubt it'll be my main flipper.
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Elohim2464

Posts: 8

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:03 am

Location: New York

Post Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:33 am

Re: Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

Well I guess it’s all about the look when it comes to my knife. I’ve had everything fail that could fail from the original design of my bali. I flipped the shit out of it and wasn’t very good the first month. hahaha I did some basic quick fixes that turned out looking really cool and made my bali completely original. Instead of using tang pins I used screws. Just drive it in with a screw driver and cut the head off the screw. Same thing with the torx screws. I just put a normal screw thru it and used a spring as a nut so it wouldn’t be so bulky. I took my bite handle apart and added 2 washers where my latch is so it stays stiff like a spring latch and doesn’t bounce around or fuck up my blade. I’ve seen a bunch of ppl with lower end balis putting tape on the bite handle or using O rings. I use tape on mine. I’m not sure if doing something like this to your bali is what you’re going for or if you’re trying to legitimently restore your knife. I just thought it’d be cool to throw you an idea that was a little different and in a way somewhat artistic. Let me know what you think.
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Feltorn

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Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:47 am

Location: Perth, West Australia

Post Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:53 am

Re: Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

Well the two biggest issues are the tang pins and the screws that connect the blade to the handles, haven't had much trouble with the latch itself, short of the thing looking like a piece of scrap metal even at the best of times. The main blade isn't in too bad a condition, as it happens.

I think I'll try the screw idea, take out the tang pins and find some screws of a similar size, maybe secure em in with some kind of metal adhesive (any suggestions for brands, there?)

Another issue is, like I said, the screws in the knife itself, I want to replace the bloody things but I can't get them out, the area that's supposed to fit the screwdriver heads has been worn into perfect circles by my attempts so screwdrivers are out of the question. Any way I can get the acursed things out of my knife so I can replace them with ones that aren't crap?
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Elohim2464

Posts: 8

Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:03 am

Location: New York

Post Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:52 am

Re: Restoring my CCC - an odd proposition

Well for your screw issue I think the only thing you can do... and I know it sounds risky... is drill them out. Unless someone else here has a better idea to get them out without damaging the knife. Just use a smaller bit then the screw itself. You might wanna secure the knife too. Last thing you need is your bali to turn into a spinning vortex of doom the second that drill hits it. haha you won’t be flipping much after that. You’ll be collecting your fingers. Also I wasn’t able to order replacement screws for my handles so once again I used a standard screw that was a similar size to the originals to fix it. I saved the spacers though. You can add a nut on the opposite side of the screw to lock it in place. I thought that was a little too bulky though so instead I used a spring and spun it around the screw like a nut to lock it in place. You might be able to use an epoxy to keep the tang pin in. I got lucky with mine and my pin stays in just fine. I wouldn’t recommend throwing the knife on the ground or anything but it works.
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