Just inherited a German Eye - could use some advice

[Stathol]

I just came into possession of my grandfather's old pocket knife, which had been stored away in a box in my grandmother's garage for a little over 20 years. I don't really know anything about knives, but I spent some time today doing research and trying to get at least conversant in knife terminology.

Here's are some photos of the knife (click for gallery):



As you can see, it's a German Eye Stockman with reddish-brown jigged bone scales.

In the past couple days, I've done some restoration and documentation of his old shaving brush and my great-grandfather's (his father-in-law's) old safety razor. I'd like to do the same with his knife.

Which leads me to a few questions:

• What's the best estimate of its vintage? If I understand the GE stamps correctly, it's somewhere from 1970 to 1981, right? Is there any way to narrow it down any further? It seems like not many of their knives bore the "surgical steel" etch. I was wondering if that might help date it.
• Is there anything in particular I should use to clean the scales? An antique's dealer put me on to Blue Magic a long time ago for restoring just about any kind of metal or plastic. That's my plan A for cleaning the scales and bolsters, but I'm not sure about bone. I've yet to see Blue Magic damage anything, but you never know.
• The rusting on the backspacer is the worst issue. For the outside surface, I was thinking of using a narrow fine grit bit on my Dremel, with mineral oil to lubricate/cool. I have no idea if/how to clean the inside surface, though. I might be able to wrap some sandpaper around a narrow punch and use that, but it's pretty cramped. Is there a good way to do this?
• The shorter blades have minimal rusting, so they should be pretty straight forward. I've got various metal polishes at my disposal, including the Blue Magic. I'm not sure how to proceed with the etched side of the main blade, though. As you can see in the pictures, there are some rust spots smack dab in the middle of it. How can I best remove that without damaging the etch?
• Finally, there seems to be some warping on the tip of the spey-point blade. I'm not sure if it's an original defect or if someone sharpened it too aggressively and heat warped it, or what. The cutting edge itself doesn't seem to waver any; I think it's just a variation in the thickness of the blade. Do you think I can correct this with a proper edge sharpening?

I like the "character" of this knife, particularly the bit with the Forest Cruse/Austin connection. I've heard several sources comment on their popularity with Texas ranchers. My grandfather wasn't a rancher, but he was a Texan, and this is a ranching knife. I'd love a more detailed history if anyone knows it.

[rangerbluedog]

That is a nice old knife. I like it a lot.
I don't know much about the Eye brand, but I am a fan of Boker, so I'll say that a knife made in Solingen Germany is gonna be a good one for ya! The shape of that knife would be called "serpentine" BTW.
I can tell you that it will be difficult to get the rust completely off the blade without damaging the frosted etch.
I've attempted to use the "rust erasers" and it will destroy the etch. They work great on every other part of the knife though.
A good rubbing with mineral oil, followed by a good metal polish should work fine. If the patina on the main blade really gets to naggin' at you, try using a pencil. Learned this trick from Owd Wullie on this site. You can write all over that main blade with a lead (or graphite now) pencil, and many times the rust spots will vanish.

[Stathol]

Several hours of cleaning and polishing later...

(as before, click for gallery)



My arms are really tired

This was pretty much all done with just the Blue Magic polish. In the end I even wound up using it, fairly dilutely, to remove the rust spots on the etching and to polish that portion of the blade. I used basically no pressure other than just the weight of the cloth. It took a little patience, but it got the rust off and doesn't seem to have harmed the etching any. Other than that, I used some rubbing alcohol and q-tips to get down into the pitting of the scales. I can't tell that it really made much difference. I didn't have to resort to any sanding or the Dremel, although I did use the Dremel with a cloth buffing bit to help buff out the polish in a few places.

There's still some work to be done on it. I need to loosen the action on blades a bit. The main blade and sheepsfoot are only a bit too stiff, but the spay tip is very ... contrary. It's not just stiff; the backpressure when trying to open it is way too high. What works best for this? I was thinking maybe lock lubricant (very light oil + graphite) -- work it in a little at a time until it feels right.

I'd still like to fix the rippling on the tips of the two short blades. And they all need sharpening, at least if I decide to carry it. I'm not quite sure if I'm going to or not. The inside still has a ton of tarnish and rust. I can't find any way to get at it. Total disassembly would do the trick, but I'm not that dedicated. At least not yet.

Feels good just getting it all cleaned up and sparkly again.

[gino]

Welcome and great lookin knife!

[keithw]

Stathol,

The "Solingen" shield probably puts the date range to the mid to late 1970s to 1981.
The earlier ones had a plain (blank) shield.
Nice knife, I like the old Eyes that show some use

[TripleF]

Absolutely beautiful!! Knice knife. Knice clean-up

[Paladin]

Stathol,
Nice old knife. I love the old Eyes. You've done a good job of clean-up. Use some oil on the joints and it should help the stiff blades and make it walk and talk better. It won't hurt the bone either. It needs a little oil every now and again. I use Rem Oil and Quick Release. Both work nicely.
As to cleaning the inside, a friend of mine always used a dental pick just like the dentist uses when cleaning your teeth. I usually see some for sale at gun/knife shows. No doubt you can turn something up on-line also.
By the way, I am reasonably sure that Schlieper was the first to refer to his stainless as Surgical Steel. I have no idea which steel formula was used but it is a high quality stainless.

Ray