All About Pocket Knives

Here are some old junk knives I've had and now I want to practice cleaning and restoring them
with new scales. The 2nd one from the top is a 6 Dot CASE XX U.S.A. #64052. You can't tell it
in the picture, but the scale from the right side of the shield to the bolster is like it's been
scraped off. The four blades have anywhere from 25% to about 50% blade loss due to use and
sharpening. The knife as a whole is still tight and has some life left in it. My dilemma is, do I
use it to practice restoring, send it to CASE or just put it back in the draw and leave it alone?

Also I'm soliciting input on the other knives as to what type of scale material would look like a
good match for them, if any. Remember this is my learning and experimenting time.

All comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

David, I would leave the Case knives alone for now and find some inexpensive, "beater" knives to practice on. People sell knives like these in large lots on ebay all the time. There are some very good tutorials available here in AAPK. I got started years ago with a very good tutorial by Muskratman that I think is still available here. Then, if one thing leads to another and you get hooked on this, like many of us have, you will be glad that you saved the more valuable knives. You can always send them out later to Case or one of the excellent professional mechanics here on AAPK if you decide you don't want to take them on. In regard to your question about materials, I started with wood, as it was much easier to learn hafting and assembly skills and a lot less expensive. You can get a variety of inexpensive exotic slabs from Rockler already cut to 1/8" thickness. Once you are confident working with wood, then move on to micarta and bone. Just my 2 cents.

I agree with Herb.
If you lack the confidence to tear into a knife you see as "special" you need to work on some others first and build your confidence.
.
It took me a while to build enough confidence to tear into a 2OT.
I fixed my 3rd 2OT last week. I am happy with the results.
.
You will learn how to do some things as you go. No matter how many times you read about "how to do it", there is NO substitute to hands on work.

Keep working!!

The orange handle, I personally don't believe can be rehandled. It's a copy of a Buck MiniBuck, and the handle and frame are integral, and I bet the spring that is attached to the lockbar is molded into the plastic. Good thing to throw on your keys, and not too expensive to replace.

I'd go for horn on the Peanut and Case Congress. Wood though, looks great. My Case Peanut is an older Curly Maple knife.


Trapper, wood.

The first knife would look good in some black Buffalo horn (or even black Micarta).
The fourth knife looks like a shell handle knife to me. If so, the handles are not going to be replaceable.
Jeff

Ditto what has been said - start with the cheaper knives, and work with wood first. The shell-handled knife can be redone fairly easily if you don't want bolsters on it. Thin slabs of bone or wood do not hold up well on the ends of a knife though, which is why most knives have bolsters.
Work on them. It will be fun, and an old knife is no good at all if it is laying in a drawer.