Soldier rig: Mightor and Little Rok

[Stormcrow]

This was a commission from a soldier who ran into up close and personal trouble the last time he was in Afghanistan and wanted to be better prepared the next time he goes.  We discussed this project for a good while, and I have to say that if I was a soldier stationed in the rockbox, I'd want him to be the guy in charge of me.

 

He wanted a pair of blades, a big fighter that could reach out and touch someone and a smaller utility that would still be good in a scrape.  He wanted the big one to have an exposed pommel and wanted both of them to have fully sharpened clips.

 

This is what I sketched out:

 

 

He approved and I got on it when I could.  Somewhere along the way they got named Mightor and Little Rok as a nod to his time spent living in caves in Afghanistan.  Mightor ended up with a 9 3/4" blade that is 2 1/8" wide and an overall length of 15 3/8".  Little Rok has a 4" blade and an overall length of 8 3/4".  The steel they were forged from was 1/4" 5160, triple normalized, triple hardened, and triple tempered.

 

Here they are forged out:

 

 

 

 

Little Rok has lightening holes to keep it from being overly handle heavy (though it ends up balancing at the first handle pin), but Mightor needed to balance out that long blade so only the rivet holes were drilled.  With the handle slabs on, it balances right at the touchmark.

 

Here they are after stock removal, ready for heat treatment:

 

 

Natural brown canvas Micarta was the choice for the handle slabs and olive drab Kydex for the sheaths.

 

 

 

Along the way, he decided he needed a flat prybar.  I suggested a roller head prybar as well (his term for such is a cat's paw; he gets the name from his grandpa and I get roller head from my dad) and he agreed.  I wasn't quite sure about how to sheath those, but came up with this:

 

 

And all together:

 

 

After sharpening it all up where both blades will shave coming or going and oiling everything down, it was time for some nicer pictures.

 

 

 

I really like the shape of Little Rok.  When I get a chance, I need to make a single edged version for my EDC.  As a double-edge, it would work quite viciously with pikal techniques.

 

 

 

He's a lefty like me, so the roller head prybar is built for use with the left hand.

 

 

 

He's done some rearranging of the rig now that it's in his hands.  I'll get those uploaded and posted later on.

[Solano]

I'd give you 5 stars for those tools. Better get ready for more orders.

[homeshow]

What is that small a pry bar used for? Doesn't seem like there is enough torque.

Leftys are the best smartest people on the planet. One here in Tn is awesomely handsome too.

[Robert Yates]

Awesome Job James , good set of Door breaches you have made . we often had to make our own in field or have the Maintenance shop buddy make them for us light weight is very key to the use and ability to keep them yet they had to be tough  too .

 

Sam

[switchjv]

I don't care what anyone says. I really like the look of leaving the hammer marks on the blade.

[Pault17]

James, Your style is very impressive.  I spent a short time in the green machine, and appreciate the support you are giving them.  Again, love your style.  thanks for sharing

[Stormcrow]

Thank y'all!

 

Homeshow - For prying, of course!  :)  Seems like little prybars have become common military equipment these days.  These are kind of in the middle as far as size goes, at around 6" long.  They give you more options than just using the point of your knife.  With these two, you have four different ways of prying things.  Not enough to demolish a house, but cetainly opening up your options.

 

Here are the changes he's made so far:

 

The handle on Mightor felt a bit small to him, so he wrapped it in paracord.  The previous Micarta handles I've done felt a bit thick to me, so I stepped the size down; this one felt fine to me.  I've offered to take off the handle slabs and put on thicker ones if he prefers but haven't heard back yet.  We'll see what he decides.

 

 

 

He's wearing the rig attached to his belt with it stuck down into his pocket.  He decided the roller head prybar would be used the most, so used the sheath for the flat prybar to cover the end and has the flat bar stowed in his go bag and arranged the sheath so it would fit in the pocket (which must be rather deep!).  He also took Little Rok and attached it at a cant to the back side of the main sheath, allowing quick and easy access.  I've also offered to build an enclosed sheath specifically for the roller head prybar so the flat prybar can keep its own sheath.  Like I said earlier, I wasn't sure how the prybar sheaths would work out and was figuring there might be some tweaking to get everything situated.

 

 

 

 

He took part of an old rigger's belt and cut a long enough loop to hook onto a wide pistol belt and let the rig ride at the appropriate height in his pocket and then attached it with some Chicago screws.

 

 

After that, he added some paracord to the outside to smooth things up and add some extra cordage.

 

 

 

And here it is as worn.

 

 

I like modular gear; it's like Legos for big kids.  :D

[Gibbo]

Awesome work love it

[TheoRockNazz]

Wowsas, you honor their use with amazing craftsmanship.

[metalmangeler]

Nice job, I seem to really bog down when doing custom work. I sometimes think I should just refuse, so I am impressed.