KA-BAR Stockman

[OLDE CUTLER]

One of the knives I got in the 2021 POS exchange from KLJ77 (Ken) was this KA-BAR stockman that had seen better days. I have a couple of the round ended stock knives by them, but not a squared bolster one like this. So I decided to give it a facelift and make an EDC out of it. The master blade does not have a lot of snap, but both the other blades still do. The original handle material was a black jigged synthetic that I can only describe as "black crap-osition". You have all seen this, it gets kind of slimy and exudes some kind of sticky goo from all the years and decades of dirt, oil, sweat and who knows what on the handle material. Also this knife suffered from decades of poor sharpening technique that resulted in blades that tapered badly from the tang toward the point. I really dislike the profile of this type of abuse on the blade, so I tried to re profile the blades to have a more parallel line between the spine and the cutting edge. Fortunately, the metal in the blades was soft enough to cut with a file, so removing some metal from the tang end of the cutting edge helped to straighten things up. The handle material was replaced with scales made from Bocote, a South American hardwood. It has a tannish brown background with some darker brown streaks in it. Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil was the finish used on the wood. After some time spent with the Lansky sharpener, a razor edge was put on all 3 blades. Actually, now that the original clip blade has been re profiled from the sharpening abuse, it looks somewhat like a muskrat blade, Is there such a thing as a "muskrat stockman"? A muskman? A stockrat?

[Steve Warden]

Good save!

[Meridian_Mike]

Sho 'nuff!

You actually polished a turd..... After all, it was a POS and you made a NICE knife out of it!!

Way to go!

[Va Guy]

Great work! Now you have something you can carry with pride!

Guy

[tongueriver]

A muskman? A stockrat?

Good one!

[herbva]

Wonderful save/transformation! I vote for "MUSKMAN".

[doglegg]

OC, I have observed on other occasions that you are adept at making a silk purse out of a sows ear. Great work.

[glennbad]

That's a fine looking knife now!

[Reverand]

That looks better now than it ever did when new! Good choice on handle material, and a great job of reprofiling the blades!