Battle Scars and Over-sharpened Blades...Keep 'Em or Toss "Em?

[RdKill]

I'll come back later and post some photos. I just had eyeball injections for retina detachment issues. I hope my typing is ok, but I need to see a little better to take pics for this. For a lot of years, I basically had two collections going. One was shiny new mint knives that I kept as new as I could. The other collection was knives I used and abused. Some of them were used and often abused long before falling into my hands. It should go without saying that war knives with battle scars are forgiven. There are some things I do snub, like broken blades. For the love of all that is holy, please stop prying open paint cans with your pocket knife. They give the proper tool for that away for free wherever you buy your paint...stir sticks too! But there are some "ruined" blades I find interesting. If a knife could tell its story...

You know all those stockman knives we all run across with one of the blades ground down so far that it looks more like a leather punch than a knife blade? Well, sometimes that's exactly why it was ground down. Carpenters are also to blame. Splinters hurt. They fester and get infected immediately. We've all gone running to Moma with a festered splinter and let her pick it out with a sewing needle either wiped down with alcohol or heated to glowing red with a lighter. Any carpenter worth his salt sports a fresh splinter at any given time. Does he or she go running to Moma? No way. They keep a small little folder...Seems to always be a Case xx, Shrade or Buck. At least they have taste. Those blades did not get that way from decades of daily sharpening. They got that way from 5 minutes of grinding on a bench grinder so a hole could be punched or a splinter could be extracted. Any other reasons for turning a blade into a metal toothpick you guys know of? Please share. I hope toothpick isn't one. They make a tool for that too. I guess it's not as bad as my uncle Ray always walking around digging ear wax out with his little mini trapper. But it's still pretty cringe.

Somewhere down the line I have grown bored with brand new knives. I have a bunch. But I don't spend any time admiring them. They are all tucked away in my "Yeah, I got 'em, ain't they purdy, so what? Same with coins! Mint coins in my coin collection? Sure but who cares? Well circulated coins that I woke up from a 250 year dirt nap while out metal detecting...What do you think is more special to me? a mint 1879 Morgandollar or a1837 seated half dime I dug up in an old corn field? History matters. Collectible things tell stories. One of my favorite war knives was given to me by the soldier who made it. He and some buddies salvaged some steel from a downed Mig in Vietnam. They had a small machine shop. In his spare time, my friend, Mark liked to make knives. I'm very proud of the one he gave me...pitted and naturally patinaed ifrom a couple of years in the jungle of South Vietnam as it nay be. If it were perfect, it would be less perfect.

My first Case knife was gifted to me when I was 11 back in 1975. I stumbled into a stables with basically one man feeding, watering, haying and mucking stalls for over 200 horses. I started hanging out there when I was 10. I considered it a privilege to help. I was a fixture there about every day. The owner of the stables, Mack Abercrombie Sr, was at the time in his 70s. He saw me busting hay bales open to pull slabs out and chunking them into the hay mangers in the back of each stall. Mr. Mac (That's what we all called him.) sat and watched from an old church pew he had set up in the huge main barn/arena. When I worked my way close to where he was, struggling with big heavy hay bales (Again, I was only 11.) Mr. Mac said, "Son, wouldn't it be easier to just cut the string?" I told him I didn't have a knife. He stood up, reached in his pocket and pulled out a knife and handed it to me. When I finished slinging hay, Mr Mac had gone home. So I put his knife back in his top desk drawer. The next day, I was back like the little barn rat I was. When Mr Mac saw me, he startled me. He was very soft spoken usually. He reminded people of John Wayne...And he used to be Sheriff way before I was born. He kind of yelled at me, "HEY! I don't remember asking for this back" He told me to come up where he was, sitting on the old church pew with his cane and Stetson. I sat down. He handed me the knife back and asked me if I knew anything about Case and Sons. He told me about the Case family and a bunch of other knife makers moving here from Germany in the 1800s selling their knives out of a horse drawn wagon for something like 18 cents. Wouldn't you love to snag a few of those original 1889 Case xx knives? Hell, I'd give them 18 buck a piece for all of them. That was 50 years ago. I still have that knife. It's still in very good condition. It's a swell end Large Jack Case xx made between 1940-1964 with carbon blades. The scales are smooth black...guessing Delrin or Buffalo horn? I love the full length fuller doubling as a nail nick. Anyway, that's the SOB that got me hooked on Case knives. Crack or Heroin would have been a whole lot cheaper and a lot less addictive!

RIP Mr Mac. You are very much missed. He passed away in the mid 1990s deep into HIS 90s

[RdKill]

Hmm Fail...I used to own a reptile website with PHP forums "back in the day." You'd think I'd know how to upload a photo. Back then, we used Photobucket. I think it went pay to play. I'm too cheap for that. I tried to upload as attachment from my computer. But I don't see them. Link from FB Gallery maybe? I really did try Q&A first. But it wasn't the kind of Q&A I thought it was going to be. I'm sure you get this a lot. And I truly hate to be that guy. Please understand, I have a couple of really bad retinas. Reading black text on a white background is rough. Everything keeps fading to middle gray. So I have to stop and rest my eyes a time or two per line. Reverse it to white text on a black background. I can read all day. If there's a tutorial someplace where new members like me can go so as not to bug people, please point.

[New_Windsor_NY]

Hmm.....

Try here:
https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... m.php?f=98

[bestgear]

Even a broken clock is correct twice a day, the notion of tossing a knife is pure blasphemy under any circumstance (says the Connecticut Yankee who was taught to toss nothing).

[OLDE CUTLER]

I totally agree with the statements above. I buy a lot of really decrepit worn out knives and spend an outrageous amount of time restoring and rehabbing them back into usable shape. Sorry to hear about your recent health issues, they can be really testing to the endurance of humans to discomfort and pain. I have been basically under house arrest for the past couple of months, unable to walk until I have my hip replaced about 5 weeks from now. I have been busy working on what old knives I have had on hand. My friends here on AAPK also helped out by sending me some project knives to keep busy with until this ordeal is over, and thanks to them for that. I have some brand new knives in boxes, but I dont find them to be half as interesting as an old knife that needs help. Even an old knife with broken blades can be restored back into usable shape with some 1095 bar stock. Below is just one recent example on a beat up 32029 Cattaraugus sowbelly.

[Dinadan]

I have never thrown away a knife, though I have lost a few, maybe more than a few. I agree that an old knife can be more interesting than a new knife. Depends on the knife. A couple of my EDCs are old knives that had tipped blades when I got them. After reprofiling the blades they have a bit of a special, or personal, feel for me.
Here is one that I use sometimes. And I am sure not the first user!

[doglegg]

I totally agree with the statements above. I buy a lot of really decrepit worn out knives and spend an outrageous amount of time restoring and rehabbing them back into usable shape. Sorry to hear about your recent health issues, they can be really testing to the endurance of humans to discomfort and pain. I have been basically under house arrest for the past couple of months, unable to walk until I have my hip replaced about 5 weeks from now. I have been busy working on what old knives I have had on hand. My friends here on AAPK also helped out by sending me some project knives to keep busy with until this ordeal is over, and thanks to them for that. I have some brand new knives in boxes, but I dont find them to be half as interesting as an old knife that needs help. Even an old knife with broken blades can be restored back into usable shape with some 1095 bar stock. Below is just one recent example on a beat up 32029 Cattaraugus sowbelly.
IMG_5951.JPG
IMG_6080.JPG

A good example!

[Mumbleypeg]

Never toss one. I have rescued and re-purposed them from the “your choice $1” box at flea markets. Have worked with scouts for many years, taught “Totin’ Chip” classes, and gifted many a knife having even just one usable blade to a kid that doesn’t have a knife (always with prior permission from their parents). Haven’t been turned down yet!

Like the old saying “One person’s junk is another person’s treasure. BTW there is a Scouting unit near you, with some kids who’d probably be delighted to get a useable old knife. Here’s where you can find one. https://beascout.scouting.org/

Ken

[DonNord]

This is my Buck 112 from 1983ish, it's been through the ringer, It was by my side for many years while at sea as a Merchant Marine. Its still my garage knife and gets used frequently.