The first is a Western Bird and Trout that had a rotten leather in the handle. The tang stamp says PAT'D but without any numbers. I believe they stopped using that before the 1950s, though I'm not 100% sure on that. So the 70-year-old leather on the handle was pretty brittle and beginning to rot. I had this nice set of stag handles that I thought ended up looking very nice on this knife. Of course there was no sheath for this knife, it seems 70-year-old leather whether it's compressed in the handle or sewn into a sheath begins to show its age. I use the sheath is a pattern and build the sheath, all handsewn. Western called this type of sheath a tubular sheath. As you can see the leather is folded and then sewn along one side. I guess they consider that a tube.
The last project is not really a project per say it's more of a cleanup although it was probably more work cleaning this old knife up then it would've been to start with a decent knife and make it from scratch.
A few years ago I bought some knives from a dealer that purchase them I believe is part of a collection of theater knives. Of course no provenance came with the knives so I don't know whether this knife was a theater knife or something someone did stateside. Whoever soldered the guard in place managed to fill in most of the tang stamps although it is possible in the right light to read most of the word MARBLES. I know a lot of civilian hunting knives were sent to the military at the start of World War II and the military even purchased the lot of hunting knives at the beginning of the war. Tom Williams from Camillus told me that Camillus sold about everything they had in stock, in the way of hunting knives, to the military at the beginning of the war. So I suppose it is possible that this Marbles was modified by some bored G.I. either overseas or stateside.
The knife had definitely seen better days. The handle was loose, the blade had been ground on, perhaps by a grinder, and the handle rings were twisted around and all out of alignment. I spent quite a bit of time taking the blade down slowly to get the grinder marks out of it, primarily to see if I could do it. It was kind of a learning experience that I felt was pretty successful. The etch is very sharp because it is flat ground and with very little secondary bevel.
I just thought it looked cool and thought I would share what someone, somewhere probably long ago thought made a good looking knife. I must admit it is grown on me since I got it cleaned up. I may put it in with the camping gear in the RV, it’s just too good to the cutting edge not to use! I like the different elements used in the handle.
I wanted to make a sheath for this knife also, but since my local leather stores is closed I will have to wait until I can get some more leather before I built the sheath.
Thank you all for looking at my Boredom Projects today, I hope you enjoyed them!
If you have any knife projects or modifications resulting from the boredom of staying home avoiding the virus, please post them and keep us entertained.
