A Case for a buck;can it be saved? Good Luck!!!!!
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:28 pm
Went to an estate sale yesterday and found a couple of items;one of which is the knife pictured here. The other is a vintage chronograph that may turn out to be worth some serious money. But on to the knife.
It was sitting inside one of the many tackle boxes that were being offered there and from the looks of it had spent an extended period of time submerged in water. My first thought was:"Can it be fixed?" Always one to take up a challenge(I think it is called,"Don Quixote Syndrome")I asked the person conducting the sale if he would sell me just the knife. He knew me from my frequenting his sales and buying knives and offered it to me for a dollar which I readily accepted.
Getting home I pondered what method I would use to begin restoration and started by saturating the knife with Marvel Mystery Oil which I use to keep my lettering and pinstriping brushes soft when not in use. After about 30 minutes I decided that would take too long so I grabbed my trusty Leatherman Wave and using the needlenose pliers attempted to open the knife.To my surprise both blades came loose!
They both looked full(actually I don't think they were ever sharpened) and so I began by scraping the rust from them using my trusty old Remington jack that the broken pen blade had been converted into a knife opener. After removing as much crud as I could I started scraping the blade wells using a very thin file and finishing up with a piece of folded sandpaper.
Both blades showed extensive amounts of corrosion and I started on the pen blade by laying it flat on a Smith's coarse diamond stone and rubbing it back & forth until it was pretty much flat and shiny but still has some corroded area.I will leave that as to remove it completely would make the blade way too thin.
The master blade was another problem:it is concave ground and the only way to remove the rust was by the same method I used on the pen blade.This will make the blade thin but still usable. After a couple hours of rubbing I decided that I had removed enough and did a bit of finish rubbing with 220 grit sandpaper and oil.Did the same with the pen blade.
The back springs were scraped and then sanded with 220 grit paper and oil.Polishing of the handles and bolsters was done with Mother's Mag Wheel Polish.
The final result was not a pretty picture but a strictly serviceable pocket knife that I will be carrying for awhile. And that was the story of my,"Case for a Buck" Was it worth the effort? I think so.
It was sitting inside one of the many tackle boxes that were being offered there and from the looks of it had spent an extended period of time submerged in water. My first thought was:"Can it be fixed?" Always one to take up a challenge(I think it is called,"Don Quixote Syndrome")I asked the person conducting the sale if he would sell me just the knife. He knew me from my frequenting his sales and buying knives and offered it to me for a dollar which I readily accepted.
Getting home I pondered what method I would use to begin restoration and started by saturating the knife with Marvel Mystery Oil which I use to keep my lettering and pinstriping brushes soft when not in use. After about 30 minutes I decided that would take too long so I grabbed my trusty Leatherman Wave and using the needlenose pliers attempted to open the knife.To my surprise both blades came loose!
They both looked full(actually I don't think they were ever sharpened) and so I began by scraping the rust from them using my trusty old Remington jack that the broken pen blade had been converted into a knife opener. After removing as much crud as I could I started scraping the blade wells using a very thin file and finishing up with a piece of folded sandpaper.
Both blades showed extensive amounts of corrosion and I started on the pen blade by laying it flat on a Smith's coarse diamond stone and rubbing it back & forth until it was pretty much flat and shiny but still has some corroded area.I will leave that as to remove it completely would make the blade way too thin.
The master blade was another problem:it is concave ground and the only way to remove the rust was by the same method I used on the pen blade.This will make the blade thin but still usable. After a couple hours of rubbing I decided that I had removed enough and did a bit of finish rubbing with 220 grit sandpaper and oil.Did the same with the pen blade.
The back springs were scraped and then sanded with 220 grit paper and oil.Polishing of the handles and bolsters was done with Mother's Mag Wheel Polish.
The final result was not a pretty picture but a strictly serviceable pocket knife that I will be carrying for awhile. And that was the story of my,"Case for a Buck" Was it worth the effort? I think so.
Turned into a great EDC!
