Re-Grip Your Knife with Sugru

My pocket knife of the last seven years needed a new grip. The blue Neoprene inserts in the handle to help with grip had begun to breakdown. When I would reach into my pocket, if my nails brushed against the Neoprene I'd end up with blue stuff under my nails. This didn't happen when my knife was new. In fact it didn't really start until last year. Anyway this told me it was time for new grips. Originally I was going to replace them with wood. But then the Sugru contest came up and this seemed to be the perfect use for it.

I wanted to do something a little different than just plain Sugru though. So I attempted to embed a pattern and fill it with another color of Sugru. There was some slight distortion so the bear ended up looking a little bit like a beast from one of those highly speculative Discovery Channel specials on pre-historic animals. But overall I was happy with the result.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

Here's what I used for the project:

Tools:

• 2.5 mm allen wrench
• Utility knife
• Chisel (or other prying implement)
• Clamp
• Forceps
• Probes
• Cotton swabs
• Old key card
• Something with which to make an impression

Materials:

• Sugru (black and orange)
• Petroleum jelly
• Rubbing alcohol
• Tape
• Wax paper

Comments

[Mr. Rig It]

Nice project! It looks really good.

[RadBear]

Thanks! Be sure to vote!!!

[Kiteman]

Nice project - I like the two-colour approach.

Did you clean the petroleum jelly off the black Sugru before you added the orange?

[nagg]

are you a teacher?

[Kiteman]

Allegedly.

Why?

[RadBear]

Maybe he can hear the red pen in your voice. :)

[RadBear]

I hate to admit this but no. I left it to sit for few days and when I came back there was no evidence of it. So either the Gnome of Chaos who occassionally sabotages my projects cleaned it for me, or it dried out and the residue flaked away with handling. I made sure to use a really light coat of petroleum jelly so that may have had something to do with it. I would recommend that people do clean it off after Sugru sets though, as you may not have a Gnome of Chaos in your workshop that does you the occasional good turn.

[Lithium Rain]

I have the Gnome, but generally he just throws away my superglue and randomly breaks things (although he has been known to bless solder jobs that really shouldn't work).

[ChrysN]

Nice, I like the bear inlay.

[RadBear]

Thanks!