KA-BAR Stockman
- OLDE CUTLER
- Gold Tier
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:11 pm
- Location: South Dakota
KA-BAR Stockman
One of the knives I got in the 2021 POS exchange from KLJ77 (Ken) was this KA-BAR stockman that had seen better days. I have a couple of the round ended stock knives by them, but not a squared bolster one like this. So I decided to give it a facelift and make an EDC out of it. The master blade does not have a lot of snap, but both the other blades still do. The original handle material was a black jigged synthetic that I can only describe as "black crap-osition". You have all seen this, it gets kind of slimy and exudes some kind of sticky goo from all the years and decades of dirt, oil, sweat and who knows what on the handle material. Also this knife suffered from decades of poor sharpening technique that resulted in blades that tapered badly from the tang toward the point. I really dislike the profile of this type of abuse on the blade, so I tried to re profile the blades to have a more parallel line between the spine and the cutting edge. Fortunately, the metal in the blades was soft enough to cut with a file, so removing some metal from the tang end of the cutting edge helped to straighten things up. The handle material was replaced with scales made from Bocote, a South American hardwood. It has a tannish brown background with some darker brown streaks in it. Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil was the finish used on the wood. After some time spent with the Lansky sharpener, a razor edge was put on all 3 blades. Actually, now that the original clip blade has been re profiled from the sharpening abuse, it looks somewhat like a muskrat blade, Is there such a thing as a "muskrat stockman"? A muskman? A stockrat?
"Sometimes even the blind chicken finds corn"
- Steve Warden
- Posts: 6326
- Joined: Wed May 27, 2015 4:18 pm
- Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
Good save!
Take care and God bless,
Steve
TSgt USAF, Retired
1980-2000
But any knife is better than no knife! ~ Mumbleypeg (aka Ken)
Steve
TSgt USAF, Retired
1980-2000
But any knife is better than no knife! ~ Mumbleypeg (aka Ken)
- Meridian_Mike
- Posts: 4981
- Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:36 pm
- Location: Mississippi
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
Sho 'nuff!
You actually polished a turd..... After all, it was a POS and you made a NICE knife out of it!!
Way to go!
You actually polished a turd..... After all, it was a POS and you made a NICE knife out of it!!
Way to go!
"Life is tough.... but it's tougher if you're stupid."....John Wayne
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
Great work! Now you have something you can carry with pride!
Guy
Guy
- tongueriver
- Posts: 6841
- Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:01 pm
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
Good one!
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
Wonderful save/transformation! I vote for "MUSKMAN".
"Better to do something imperfectly, than to do nothing flawlessly." ~ Robert H. Schuller
Herb
Herb
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
OC, I have observed on other occasions that you are adept at making a silk purse out of a sows ear. Great work.
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
That's a fine looking knife now!
Re: KA-BAR Stockman
That looks better now than it ever did when new! Good choice on handle material, and a great job of reprofiling the blades!
Jesus is life.
Everything else is just a hobby.
~Reverand
Everything else is just a hobby.
~Reverand