As a follow up to my last article, this article contains three short interviews with three very well known modders in the community. These modders are Arthur Goins (@arthurs_anos), Kyle Stoff (@revenge_of_the_blades) and Casey Edwards (@TurboJackelope).
I asked them some questions about the mod work they do to showcase some of their work. If you want to learn more about some of the types of modwork done to balisong knives, click here and here!
Arthur Goins
Jess: What's your favorite mod to do and why?
Arthur: My favorite mod to do is a fade, it's fairly straightforward and gets a really nice result.
Jess: What's your least favorite and why?
Arthur: My least favorite is a toxic ano, it's very labor intensive and hard to get right, plus it's not my favorite look for a knife.
Jess: What's your favorite mod piece you've done so far?
Arthur: The dual tone fade AB that I did is my favorite!
Jess: What modwork takes the shortest amount of time for you?
Arthur: The shortest would definitely be a satin single color ano, since it has easy prep and is a generally simple ano.
Jess: What about the longest?
Arthur: The longest would be my laser anos, they have lots of steps with masking off parts, cutting the mask, stenciling, etc.
Jess: Is there a bit of modwork you want to get into in the future?
Arthur: I would like to get a blasting cabinet and compressor so I can do bead/sand blasting and blackened Ti as well as cerakote.
Jess: What's the easiest modwork that anyone could really do?
Arthur: Solid colors are things anyone can learn to do with enough practice and taking good care to clean the piece.
Kyle Stoff
Jess: What was your first reblade you ever made?
Kyle: My first ever was a Triton reblade (as shown below)
Jess: How hard are reblades to make?
Kyle: The process has gotten much easier overall, but sometimes it does also get harder as I reblade more different knives that I haven’t done before.
Jess: What's your favorite part about making reblades?
Kyle: My favorite part is grinding the bevels on the blades.
Jess: What about your least favorite?
Kyle: I hate tuning the bushings on them.
Jess: What's your favorite reblade you've done so far?
Kyle: My favorite blade that I have done so far must be the cold-blued Bowie Rep blade I did.
Jess: How challenging were tang pins to install in a reblade?
Kyle: Tang pins actually can be super easy. I just have not had the time to practice with them yet.
Jess: If you could reblade any knife, what would you want to reblade, given the chance?
Kyle: I’m happy with all the knives I’ve been able to reblade. I can’t really think of a dream reblade.
Casey Edwards
Jess: What was your first rehandle or bali that you made?
Casey: First knife was a Barebones v2. It was made outta junk aluminum, had no bushings, and barely worked
Jess: What's your favorite part about making rehandles?
Casey: The brainstorming and realization of the idea at the end.
Jess: What's your least favorite part?
Casey: Fudging things up or when the fixture you have the work on breaks or comes loose! Oh and the initial profiling of the shape. I've done it hundreds of times, but it's probably the most important. As well as tuning.
Jess: How hard are bushing installs and did it take you long to figure out?
Casey: It wasn't hard to figure out surprisingly. I just got lucky with the thought as well as the fact that it worked the first time.
Jess: Do you have a favorite piece you've done so far? If so, which one?
Casey: The Turbones is my favorite. All of em! Very proud of what Puddin and I did!
Jess: Which turbo rehandle was the biggest pain in the rear?
Casey: The worst one was a while back, it was on a blade that Hammer had made to fit quarter inch bushings. In the end I rebuilt it like 4 times I believe, and to this day that build still haunts me. For whatever reason it just would not work without the handles slapping eventually.
Another bad one was a roosterfish. Huge waste in material and couldn't get it tuned. Last one was every single 51. I hated doing all the 51s.
Jess: Any future plans for rehandles or are ya moving solely into bali making now?
Casey: I'm sure I'll build rehandles in the future, but there will probably be a lot less of them. If you look at my post history, I kept all the old turbones posts! You should be able to find all my rehandles there!
A special thanks to the three interviewees for participating in this article! You can find their instagrams and websites listed below!
Arthur’s Instagram: Arthur Goins (@arthurs_anos) • Instagram photos and videos
Arthur’s Website: Mod.arthurgoins.com
Kyle’s Instagram: Kyle (@revenge_of_the_blades) • Instagram photos and videos
Casey Instagram: Casey Edwards (@turbojackelope) • Instagram photos and videos
Me: 👸🏻🔪💜The Penguin Princess💜🔪🐧 (@blade.wielding.queen) • Instagram photos and videos
