PAL RH36 for Father's Day

[Reverand]

I recently found an old hunting knife at my Dad's house - an old PAL RH36 that had been stored in the sheath for years. I forgot to get some "before" pictures of the sheath, but it was missing a snap and the leather was dried and cracking.
The knife had some rust on the blade and mold on the leather handle, but was otherwise sound.

I cleaned the active rust off of the blade with oil and a Scotch-brite pad. By hand, not anything motorized. It leaves a lot of patina and character of the blade.
Then I bought a few leather-working tools and tried to repair the sheath. First I cleaned and conditioned it multiple times until it had some flexibility. Then I replaced the strap and the snaps, and added a cross-piece of leather to help where the original had broken.
The stitching looks terrible, mainly because it kept tearing through the old leather. I really should practice a little more and make a replacement sheath instead, but I finished what I could so that I can return it to him on Father's Day this Sunday.

[Madmarco]

Very nice save and clean-up Rev! Also, it's very cool of you to be thinking about presenting your Dad with an old friend of his from the past!

[rea1eye]

You did great Rev. Hope your dad loves it.

Bob

[Reverand]

I just gave it to him and he was very proud of it. He said that his brother-in-law gave him that knife as a Christmas present in 1957. He had carried it a lot back when he used to go deer hunting.

[glennbad]

What a great gesture for your dad! I'm sure you got as much out of doing the work as he enjoyed receiving it from you

[Nev52]

Great job Reverand.

Nev