All About Pocket Knives

Ok, so I'm afraid I may should have left a ( Rare or uncommon) knife alone..I am not an Ulster collector specifically more of a general collector with lots of different knifes..ok enough bush beating..I bought this knife, and here is how I read it..tang stamp was old ulster ..sherief 1940s era steel liners but nickel silver bolsters the unusual part is its smaller than a military engineers knife and has a steel liner lock on the awl blade similar to the brass one on a cub scout knife , the knife was in really good used condition but had a soft tang..or hard spring your choice and most of the base up to the pivot pin was rounded away no stops at all and so bad it wouldn't even close all the way..not due too the kick touching the spring. But due to the rounding and loss of material, I disassembled the knife cleaned the blade and tried unsuccessfully too add material with my tig to the base of the tang ..then since the temper was out already I tried redrilling it and reshaping remaining tang.this didn't work and I drilled thru part of the tang stamp,so I gave up and put a donor blade in it..this works fine and has half stops . But now the knife is sterile....my questions.

1. Does anyone know anything about this knife?

2 are they considered more valuable broken?

3 did I ruin something rare by making it function again?
I haven't found any info on my searches for this knife..and really thought the cost of a correct blade and having it professionally repaired would far out way its value...i hope this was the case but if I am wrong be gentle..and let me know what to do next time ...thanks

Ps. Pictured with a Camillus engineer for scale

I am not an Ulster collector either, someone may be along to offer the info on that. But as far as the knife is concerned now, you have a good EDC knife to carry and use. I don't think there has ever been a case of something broken being worth more than is was originally unbroken. As you stated, the knife had a bad blade with no snap and was not a collectable knife. After you put the donor blade in it , it became a usable knife that was not collectable. So you have gained a usable knife and some practical experience from this effort.

I think you're going to get a few different answers to your question depending on the leanings of the forum member. At the end of the day, You gotta live with the knife. If you have a fix-broke-stuff-type of disposition it's gonna drive you nuts looking at a broken pocket knife you know you have the ability to fix but you don't fix it because some other folks decided the knife should be preserved as close to the way it left the factory as possible. But then your upholding someone elses idea of "value" and "worth."

In a world where so much is completely out of our control everyone needs a healthy way to feel some control over things. Some find it by lining up Case Tested era Trappers in a display case. Some find it by knocking apart a utility knife with a broken blade and finding a way to make it whole again. Some do both. It's all good!

Wbyonder wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:26 pm Ok.....

That looks like a nice edition of Treasure Island.

Thank you all for your kind replies...and honestly though it works perfect now..I kinda wish I hadn't fixed it...I do both enjoy fixing things and appreciating history..and there are plenty of cheap dime a dozen ones I can save...and honestly..it wasn't like I needed to work. I think I could find 1 or 2 around here that do but I really am curious about what it was..I'm pretty good with my searches and have turned up nothing...so hoping someone can still tell me a little about it.. again thank you all who have replied..

That is a nice knife, but I don't think that the value was high enough to worry over.
I buy old and broken knives to repair, just because I like learning to do the repairs. Most of the time I could buy a new knife cheaper, but the work relaxes me.
Now if your knife had been a super-rare, very expensive knife then you would have hurt the collector's value. As it is, you possibly improved the value of the knife, instead.
Everything else is subjective.
I personally think that you should be proud of the work you did. It looks great!

Reverand wrote: ↑Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:16 am That is a nice knife, but I don't think that the value was high enough to worry over.
I buy old and broken knives to repair, just because I like learning to do the repairs. Most of the time I could buy a new knife cheaper, but the work relaxes me.
Now if your knife had been a super-rare, very expensive knife then you would have hurt the collector's value. As it is, you possibly improved the value of the knife, instead.
Everything else is subjective.
I personally think that you should be proud of the work you did. It looks great!

Thank you for your kind words..if nothing else .I will try too research them more before attempting repair, the bone handle ones always make me nervous cutting the pins and taking them apart..I have fixed lots of cheap ones..and rehandle some in bone, antler and wood I've even hand made springs for a few.. but still consider myself an amateur or extreme novice, and I preffer to find them nice and leave them alone I do love the look and feel of an old unmolested bone knife..so most of my repairs are on basket cases..but as you say it is very satisfying when it works out..WB

New_Windsor_NY wrote: ↑Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:29 am

Wbyonder wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:26 pm Ok.....

That looks like a nice edition of Treasure Island.

LOL. I truly wish it was , but its one of those book safe things ..from the 80s..If I had a rea" Treasure Island" addition that old I would probably sell it to buy knives