Kamp King Rebuild & Restoration

[orvet]

Shell handle knives can be a challenge to repair, the more complicated, the more blades and more liners involved the trickier they become.

This knife is an heirloom so the owner wanted it restored so that he could carry it.

In the beginning-
This is what it looked like before I started. The owner sent me these pictures, as you all know I forget to take before pictures.

This is what the handles looked like after I removed them from the knife. You can see the thin celluloid paper wrapped around the handle that gave it the appearance of having solid handles. Obviously when something carbon steel is not sealed and exposed to water rust happens.

Here is what the knife looked like when I split it in half and laid the pieces of one half out.

This picture shows some of the rust scale on the center liners which all had to be removed.
In this pic part of the scale had been removed then they needed to be polished.

Here are all the parts cleaned and polished, as well as possible and almost ready to be put back together. The cleanup is pretty well done at this point, and the work is getting ready to start.

But first I have to make some bolsters-

And soldier them to the outside brass liners-

Here are the soldered and shaped bolsters and the bone handles being fitted and hafted.

Now that I have outside liners with bolsters and solid bone handles it is pretty much like putting together any other knife.

Here was the final result:

A couple things to note;
I did not put the shield on the new handles as the shield was only .0012” thick. The jigging pattern in the bone was much thicker than the shield. To glue the shield on top of the bone would probably result in it being torn off. And the shield just wasn’t thick enough to inlet into the bone. The owner elected to go without the shield because this knife will be carried and used.
The other thing is the blades are not highly polished. The pitting was deep enough and pervasive enough that if the blades were mirror polished they would’ve been too thin to be useful. So I opted for cleaning the blades up with a ScotchBrite wheeled to remove the rust and try to give some uniformity to the blades. It worked well on the rust but I think the blades were too pitted to show much of a ScotchBrite finish.



I hope you enjoy the pictures.

[313 Mike]

Hey that looks really good Dale! Thanks for taking the time to photograph the process, the glimpse behind the scenes is appreciated. I am sure the owner will love it.

[XX Case XX]

Awesome work Dale!!! Knife looks fantastic!!!!

_________________

Mike

[btrwtr]

Great job Dale. I'm sure the owner will be happy with the restoration!

Wayne

[edge213]

Incredible the way you mechanics can take a POS and turn it in to a beautiful pocketknife. Amazing job Dale.

[orvet]

Thanks guys, I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures.

[TripleF]

Amazing work my friend!!

[Colonel26]

Amazing as always Bro. Dale.

[royal0014]

Great work Dale! You make it look easy, too

[DRS]

Great work as always. You've taking a POS knife and turn it in to
a knife any one of us would love to carry.




Donald

[#goldpan]

Very nice Dale! What kind off solder did you use on the bolsters?

Randy

[1967redrider]

Great post and an excellent job, Dale! Wish I had your talent.

-John

[orvet]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the complements.

Very nice Dale! What kind off solder did you use on the bolsters?

Randy

It is silver solder Randy.
I got it from Jantz.

[#goldpan]

Thanks Dale. I need to get some. I tried electrical solder in the past. I'll get some silver solder now!

Randy

[glennbad]

Another excellent rebuild, Dale! I used to turn my nose up at the thought of modding shell handle knives, but I was sorely wrong. They do require a bit more work, but are worth it when you see end results like that.

Great job as always!

Glenn

[danno50]

Bumping this old thread to ask a question. First off, very nice work on this one!
The question is in regards to hafting the handles: do you glue the handles on as well as pin them? If not, how do you hold the handles securely to the liner while hafting. If you do use glue, what kind do you use? Does the glue you use dry clear.
I am asking in regards to my first project, "Outgassing Keen Kutter". I would like to glue the handles on prior to drilling the pin holes and also to make it easier to do the sanding etc to haft the handles. However, the tortoise shell Kirinite is see through in places and I am not sure if there is a glue or epoxy which dries clear enough that the brass of the liners still shows through the handle material.
Thanks
Dan

[orvet]

Yes, I do glue the bone on; it prevents moisture from getting behind the handle material. I also glue on Kirinite. Then I haft the handle at the bolster.

I use 5 minute epoxy like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bob-Smith-Indus ... Sw2xRYm6Ng

I don’t think it will be visible between the kirinite & the liners.

Good luck with it.
Please let me know if you have any more questions.

[danno50]

thanks for the reply, Dale. I kind of figured you must be gluing them on to get them so perfectly hafted prior to pinning. I have already drilled my handle pin holes, and am somewhat hesitant to trying gluing now. If I glue them without the pin material in place I am afraid of the handles sliding slightly and the pin holes not lining up, also the pin holes will fill with glue and need redrilling. If I glue them with the pin material in place to keep the holes lined up, I likely will not be able to remove the pin material after the glue has set and it will get in the way of hafting? I guess I could try gluing them with the pin material in place and after they are clamped, remove the pin material before the glue sets up?
Thanks
Dan

[orvet]

I have done that and held them in place with toothpicks.
The tooth picks are relative easy to drill out.
My preferred method is to drill them then drill and then haft the handles.

No worries, you should learn a ton of new things with each knife you repair.