Schrade switchblade celluloid - repair, remold, or replace with a different material

[Doc B]

Nice job! Looks good!

[BFORSE]

If anyone is wondering whatever happened to the schrade double switchblade; right now he is on the back burner. I have been volunteered to design and build a 12’x6’ chicken coop and run with all the bells and whistles. The motivation for completing this project first is the chirping box of chicks in my kitchen. Some friendly advice: build the coop BEFORE you take your kids to Tractor Supply.

[Byrd]

That's OK! We're a patient bunch! I hate it when other projects interrupt the important stuff though!

[BFORSE]

Thanks Byrd! Well, I’ve pretty much finished the chicken coop and painted a cat portrait by the time I started my week long thanksgiving break.

So, originally I had decided to go back with faux ivory, then it was suggested that I go back with bone. I liked the bone idea better. I knew this would be a massive undertaking but I also knew that I would learn a lot in the process... this was definitely not a plug and play project and I didn’t have much to work with.

I decided to use one bone slab as a test piece and use the other nicer looking bone as my slabs. I had just enough width to cut two pieces from one slab. My thinking was that the two slabs would be, for the most part, identical in grain and color.

Of course I took my time and sawed it but hand so I wouldn’t be in a hurry and make a mistake with the band saw. So that took some time. I also had some mineral spirits left over from painting so I through the knife in to loosen up any old grease oil and lint.

80+ years and you could make soup of what settled out from that old pocket knife.

So while the knife cooking in the mineral spirits I tried my best to compensate for the shrinkage and tape together the remnants of the celluloid handle for a template.

I then taped the template to the bone slabs and use a one-sixteenths bit to drill the pin holes.

I noticed that one of the tiny pins fell out that was holding one of the buttons in place. I had originally decided not to disassemble the knife more than was absolutely necessary but I decided to carefully drive out the pin on the other side as well to clean everything a bit more thoroughly than the spirits could do alone.

Now, I knew that the odds of the bone being the correct thickness from the manufacturer was highly unlikely. But I don’t own another knife like this and don’t know anyone who does so I stilled a YouTube video and estimated the thickness.

I just want to mention that if you don’t own calipers, do yourself a favor and go pick up a set. Also for a project like this you will probably want a dremel set, a portable drill press, bench sander, band saw, pliers, wet/dry sandpaper and a ball peen hammer... for when you need to hit something because your bone slab split in half while drilling a pin hole. Yes, that happened to me. Fortunately, I had that test piece of bone left.
Next comes the hours of thinning the slabs and routing the holes for the buttons and locks.

I would periodically hold the scales to the light to see my thin spots.

[BFORSE]

It is important to test fit your button and lock with the bone slab as you take material away.

While test fitting one of the slabs I found the reason why one side originally split and fell off. The dimensions were slightly off from the factory; the spring and button were putting excess pressure on the scale. I notice that the curvature of the spring did not match the other.

So.... i knew the odds of success going in, and for me personally bending a spring had been about 50/50... but not this day.

100% fail... WHERE’S MY BALL PEEN! Obviously there must be something wrong with my head that needs fixing. So now what? Where do you go to buy a NOS spring for a 80 or 90+ year old schrade double switchblade??? To the best of my knowledge you don’t....You pull yourself together and start thinking of a solution. This popped into my head, but would it work? It had to!

A little dremel and hand file work and you have yourself a replacement spring! Make sure you go slow and constantly cool the metal before it gets hot.

Now I think I had originally said I would do a pick bone but I don’t think that would be an accurate jigging pattern for the particular date of this knife so I tried replicating the pattern that might fit it the best. It turned out alright but not as close as I would have liked, partially because of the thickness of the bone and me not wanting to jig as deep Incase it broke.

Time to DYE!!!

All I had was a water based leather dye and by this time I was ready for this project to come to and end so I dyed it several time till it dried, wiping off what would come off in between coats. It was finally done. A good EDC that may hold up for another 80+ years.

[danno50]

Wow BFORSE, beautiful work! Excellent job on the jigging, I would say, also on the spring rebuild!

[BFORSE]

Thanks danno50!

[bestgear]

I’m digging the cat portrait, great eye!

[stockman]

Nice Job, looks like you do his everyday. Beautiful knife.

Harold

[edge213]

Great job on the rehandle.

[BFORSE]

Thanks guys, I hope this post might be able to help someone working on this same type of project, and as far as this and any other project is concerned (including pet portraits) there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

[doglegg]

BFORSE, an absolutely amazing job. Thanks for the pics and the walk along. That turned out wonderful and without all the tools you needed. Excellent!!!

[Mumbleypeg]

Great job, and some ingenious work to create a new spring.

Now, where is the picture of the chicken house?

Ken

[Reverand]

Way to keep going, and overcome all obstacles!
That is a sweet knife now!

[1967redrider]

Excellent!!!

[glennbad]

Wow, nice rebuild!

[Landersknives]

Very nice! Awesome job! Your spring solution is great. Standing ovation. Beautiful job on the bone. What more could I say....wow.

[BFORSE]

Great job, and some ingenious work to create a new spring.

Now, where is the picture of the chicken house?

Ken

This is what has been done so far. It still needs a few more things.

[TPK]

Wow! Knives, paintings, chicken coops. You have many talents Sir!

[BFORSE]

Wow! Knives, paintings, chicken coops. You have many talents Sir!

That is kind of you to say TPK; I thank God for what He has given and what He has withheld in my life!

[TPK]

Wow! Knives, paintings, chicken coops. You have many talents Sir!

That is kind of you to say TPK; I thank God for what He has given and what He has withheld in my life!

Sounds like a very mature way of looking at things. I'll get there some day.

[Ropeman]

Amazing job! I have wanted to start taking apart and fixing knives, but I thought I didn't have enough tools. You have proved to me that it doesn't take many tools, just determination.

Great idea on the spring replacement!

I do have one question, how did you get the jig marks in the bone?

[BFORSE]

Amazing job! I have wanted to start taking apart and fixing knives, but I thought I didn't have enough tools. You have proved to me that it doesn't take many tools, just determination.

Great idea on the spring replacement!

Thanks Ropeman, some things that have helped me is:

Starting with something inexpensive and common

Taking my time; using hand tools sometime to slow me down

Having a plan “B” in case things don’t go so well

And keeping in mind that in the end, knives and such are cool, but they are just things, and I shouldn’t fret over them.


There were a few tools and supplies I left out of the list most of which you can find just about anywhere like, a small set of little files, sandpaper of various grit, and small “c” clamps.

The things that I had to special order was:

Culpepper & Co. smooth bone mahogany 3 1/2 x 1 x 1/8

1/16” Diameter nickel silver rods

[BFORSE]

I do have one question, how did you get the jig marks in the bone?- Ropeman

Ok so my old dremel set had one of these guys I think. It is like a grey powdery stone wheel

So I put it on the the dremel and went outside and found some relatively smooth concrete block (the one on the ground in front of the chicken coop). Turned the dremel to 10 and held the wheel at a very acute angle against the concrete block. Then I flipped the wheel over and did it to the other side till I was satisfied with the sharpness of the new edge. It took a long time. Whatever that stuff is made out of is tough.

[BFORSE]

I then just studied some pictures of that type of jigging, and the general angle it was laying. Then I tested my method on the scrap piece of bone until I got the feel of how much pressure and time I wanted to spend for each cut. Then when I felt confident enough: