Deregulation can be a good thing! Especially if you like your Scrap Yard steel with a single guard.
A small number of test team members expressed their preference for a single guard on their Regulators. We fear that some Dogs might try to accomplish this by grinding, melting, or sawing on their Regulator handles. So, in the hopes of preventing some pretty rough and possibly damaging hatchet jobs on Regulator handles, we have set up a CNC program where we can mill off the top guard leaving behind a set of really nice thumb grooves. Of course, being Resiprene C which is quite cushy, it is impossible to get a perfectly clean cut without some “fuzzy” edges.
These grooves can easily be smoothed out by light sanding with some 320 – 400 grit sand paper or emery cloth wrapped around a ball point pen or piece of 1/4” dowel. This only takes about 10 -15 minutes of light sanding or scrubbing while sipping your bourbon (probably less than 5 minutes if you're not drinking, but then where's the fun?). This operation will be done by the owner as we do not have the time to hand finish each and every handle. I'm sure that we could find the time, but I don't know anyone who would want to pay our shop rate for this operation.
We will offer this machined handle option on the first issue of Regulators for a nominal fee of $10.00. If it is popular, it may be offered again. If not, this will be the only offering. Keep in mind that the machining doesn't take very long but fixturing the handle onto a Regulator tang and pinning it in place so that it can be machined is a bit more time consuming. This can only be done before we assemble your knife.
Dan
This pic shows the finished Deregulator
These next two pics (Below) show a close-up of the finished thumb grooves.
These two pics (Below) show what the handle looks like after machining and how it will look when you receive it.