Chaparral FRN????

[sal]

Some people just get lucky. Of course flying to Europe at certain times does help turn the wheel of luck :cool:

Hey RS, the hex pattern is pretty awesome (I'm an ex bee keeper). Can you put me in touch with a supplier?

Many of the suggestions are very nice and will be studied, but the main purpose of FRN is to make the pattern more affordable.

sal

[jabba359]

I follow Steve on Instagram and don't remember seeing this Chap. This is probably the nicest aftermarket scale job I've seen on a Chap so far. Congrats on owning such a nice piece!

[SpyderNut]

With regard to what Sal said, I am curious if making FRN "more affordable" might eventually include making it without a mold?

[araneae]

Hi Holland,

We're working on one but we're still a ways out on final design.

sal

Glad to hear its in the pipeline Sal. Liners or no liners? That is the question...

[araneae]

Some people just get lucky. Of course flying to Europe at certain times does help turn the wheel of luck :cool:

Hey RS, the hex pattern is pretty awesome (I'm an ex bee keeper). Can you put me in touch with a supplier?

Many of the suggestions are very nice and will be studied, but the main purpose of FRN is to make the pattern more affordable.

sal

CTek here Sal:
http://www.compositecraftinc.com/C-TEK.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RadioactiveSpyder]

Some people just get lucky. Of course flying to Europe at certain times does help turn the wheel of luck :cool:

Hey RS, the hex pattern is pretty awesome (I'm an ex bee keeper). Can you put me in touch with a supplier?

Many of the suggestions are very nice and will be studied, but the main purpose of FRN is to make the pattern more affordable.

sal

Holy crap, sorry Sal, didn't see that you wrote back! Araneae has the maker's site listed and I think Steve buys that Ctek from USAKnifeMaker:

http://162.252.85.131/knife-handle-part ... c-tek.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It holds up very well, a bit surprisingly so even. Thankfully I haven't tried a drop test yet, but standard banging on tables, hitting keys in pocket, etc hasn't seemed to scratch it much at all! There are a few craftsmen making cool versions of Ctek, Steve's worked with a fellow named Travis Zumwalt a few times and he makes different styles like "crazy" (below) and "ice dragon" Ctek, very pretty stuff!! Cheers, Radioactive :)

[Holland]

Those are stunning!

[Joris Mo]

An FRN Chaparral would definitely become my first Chap, I would love to see fish scale FRN return on anything but also very interested to see a possible new pattern!

[sal]

Thanx much for the link. Perhaps a future Chappy, though not FRN.

The priority for an FRN Chappy would be function, affordability, appearance.

sal

[VashHash]

Would this be the first FRN from Taiwan or would production move to golden or Japan? I know that the molds are a fairly expensive investment.

[The Deacon]

Must admit to having mixed feelings when it comes to an FRN Chaparral. For me, the original CF Chaparral was, and still is, pretty close to perfection. It's attractive without being gaudy and offers decent grip without looking tactical. On top of that, the CF laminate scales are light weigh and highly resistant to damage. It's also reasonably inexpensive, to the point where I have to wonder how much of a cost savings an FRN version would bring to the table. Given the Chaparral's construction, I can't see FRN scales offering much, if anything, in the way of weight savings.

Still, any alternative to yet another technically sophisticated but relatively fragile exercise in precision CNC metalworking has to be a good thing.

[sal]

I agree Paul. I don't think there would be much of a weight savings, if any, over the CF. I guess I'll find out if there will be much of a cost savings.

sal

[bearfacedkiller]

It really depends on the need for liners. If you could incorporate the stop pin channels into the frn and ditch the liners it could be lighter and cost less but if you have to keep the liners to make the stop pins work then it may not make a difference.

My favorite thing about frn isn't cost or weight anyway. What I like about frn is it's durability and the grip due to the texturing.

[Holland]

It really depends on the need for liners. If you could incorporate the stop pin channels into the frn and ditch the liners it could be lighter and cost less but if you have to keep the liners to make the stop pins work then it may not make a difference.

My favorite thing about frn isn't cost or weight anyway. What I like about frn is it's durability and the grip due to the texturing.

I 100% agree Darby

[sal]

Hi Darby,

Yes, liners are the question. Once the design is finished, we'll speak with the maker, Maybe a partial liner in the interest of weight reduction.

sal

[awa54]

The question for me is; does the liner/pin blade stop make the Chaparral what it is, or does the form factor? It might be cool to see a Dragonfly style one-piece handle with traditional blade to lockbar stop for the lightweight version. It seems like that could be the most economical route as well?

Is the country of production decided yet? I could see a partial/nested liner pin stopped version in BD1 with g10 handles from Taichung, a single piece Dfly style FRN handle/lock in GIN1 from Seki City, or a BD1 and two-piece FRN or translucent FRCP (scaled down N5LW/M2LW anyone?) from Golden all being a huge hit!

[awa54]

Oh, no... I thought it and now I'm gonna want a ball bearing lock translucent Manix-mini/Chaparral LW and I know I can't have one

[sbaker345]

Honestly, I'm gonna have to be the weird one here, and specifically ask for Sal NOT to ditch the liners. The chaparral is not exactly hard use, but stealing some pics of the native off the net, you'll see that the lockbar, which serves as the stop pin is backed by a steel backspacer. Also note how precisely the lockbar fits into the blade, any wear and deformation of the lockbar or blade, and also any shift in the lockbars position could cause play.



Now notice the lightweight version, the lockbar is effectively kept in place only by the pins through the FRN scales.



My personal experience, which will not be the case for everyone, and probably hardly anyone, is that this design allows enough flex to cause wear and tolerance issues.

Compare it to the lightweight manix 2, which I quite appreciate, and you'll notice the blade stop is a large metal bar with 2 instead of 1 rivot per side, but also with the way the ball bearing is pushed down into the blade to wedge itself in between the bar and blade and should be self correcting at to least some degree, even if the ball bearing, tang, or blade stop bar were to wear, or shift, the design should still create a tight lockup. Just my 2 cents, not really worth much.

[awa54]

Compare it to the lightweight manix 2, which I quite appreciate, and you'll notice the blade stop is a large metal bar with 2 instead of 1 rivot per side, but also with the way the ball bearing is pushed down into the blade to wedge itself in between the bar and blade and should be self correcting at to least some degree, even if the ball bearing, tang, or blade stop bar were to wear, or shift, the design should still create a tight lockup. Just my 2 cents, not really worth much.

So you're with me on the Manix-mini concept? It would take some work to shoehorn the ball lock into the available space in a Chaparral without changing the handle dimensions, but I bet it could be done for a light use blade like the Chap.

[jabba359]

Isn't the Chaparral supposed to be a backlock platform with the only difference being scale materials? I feel like the Sage series is more likely to get the ball-bearing treatment, seeing as that's the Taiwan platform for various locks.