Saving an old Colonial fixed blade.............

Colonial Knife was incorporated in 1926 by three brothers; Antonio, Domenic, & Fredrick Paolantonio. It grew to become one of the largest pocket knife manufacturers in the US during the 1960s. The company shut down in 1998, but was back into production under the Colonial Cutlery International Corporation in 2001. Colonial Cutlery International, Inc. brand is the imported line of knives and tools while the U.S.A.- made products fall under the Colonial Knife brand.
Post Reply
knife7knut
Posts: 10061
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:02 pm
Location: Tecumseh,Michigan

Saving an old Colonial fixed blade.............

Post by knife7knut »

I forget exactly when or where I got this one but it came with the sheath(which looks like it is original)and lacking a set of handles. It has lain around in my box of,"I'm gonna fix em sometime" knives (the sheath has gone MIA somewhere)and the other day while waiting for some gold sizing to tack off on a vintage race car I'm working on,I decided to make a set of handles for it.
I had initially thought to make them out of wood but had nothing around that looked good so I then decided to use Lexan. I have a lot of scrap pieces of Lexan II gleaned from fragments of windows that once adorned a hockey rink. They are of "optical grade" meaning they are super clear and coated with a scratch resistant material much like the stuff they use on eye glasses. The down side is they are 1/2" thick which is a bit large for knife handles.They do grind fairly easy on my 1x30 belt sander(which also has a 5" disc on the side)but it creates an incredible amount of dust;even with the vacuum attachment hooked up to the sander;and dust was the last thing I needed in the shop while doing gold leaf work.I even have to keep the doors closed to avoid breezes which make laying the leaf impossible.
Then I got the brilliant idea of slicing a piece down the middle to make two 1/4" thick pieces.Easy to think but a little difficult to do when all you have is a hacksaw that doesn't have a wide enough frame to cut all the way through. No problem I think;I'll cut as far as I can on one side and then flip it over and cut from the other and meet in the middle! Right!
Well the gods must have been smiling on me that day because I actually managed to cut it from both directions and "almost" meet in the middle.A slight twist of the top piece and it snapped perfectly.
Laying the flat sides(which still had the tape I had put on them to minimize chipping)on the tang of the knife I marked the spot for the rivet holes(I will be using screws to hold them on)I clamped the two handles together and drilled the holes.
Naturally the drill,"walked" a bit and when I went to bolt them on to finish grind them the holes didn't line up! Using a small reamer bit in my drill press and applying pressure in the proper direction to,"walk" the holes into alignment,I finally got them to bolt on.
It was then just a matter of using the disc sander to bring the edges into alignment with the tang and grinding bevels on the handle edges until it felt comfortable to hold.Finish sanding the handles using 220 grit paper wet and finishing with 400 grit wet and then polishing with Mother's Mag Wheel Polish(my universal polish),bolting the handles down and cutting the threaded portion to length,installing the nuts and polishing them and I now had a working knife again.
Upon looking at it though the exposed tang under the handles looked a bit shabby so I decided to brighten it up a bit by applying some prismatic vinyl material I had left over from a lettering job on a vintage speedboat to the tang,bolting the handles back on and trimming the edges. Now it looked a lot better!
Here are some pictures of what it looked like originally;after I put the handles on and after the prismatic tape was installed.The pictures don't really show how brilliant the tape is but it comes alive when light hits it.
Attachments
ColonialRe-HandleBefore.JPG
ColonialRe-Handle 001.jpg
ColonialRe-Handle 002.jpg
ColonialRe-Handle 003.jpg
ColonialRe-Handle 004.jpg
ColonialRe-Handle 005.jpg
ColonialRe-Handle2 001.jpg
ColonialRe-Handle2 003.jpg
Adventure BEFORE Dementia!
doglegg
Gold Tier
Gold Tier
Posts: 17717
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 2:35 am
Location: Grand Prairie, Texas

Re: Saving an old Colonial fixed blade.............

Post by doglegg »

That turned out really cool and a great play by play. How about a picture of the gold leaf?
User avatar
garddogg56
Bronze Tier
Bronze Tier
Posts: 9020
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 2:18 am
Location: Maine Aya up North

Re: Saving an old Colonial fixed blade.............

Post by garddogg56 »

Very nice job ::tu::
"On the Road Again"Willie Nelson
knife7knut
Posts: 10061
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:02 pm
Location: Tecumseh,Michigan

Re: Saving an old Colonial fixed blade.............

Post by knife7knut »

doglegg wrote: Fri Sep 18, 2020 10:32 pm That turned out really cool and a great play by play. How about a picture of the gold leaf?
Still working on it but here is a shot of the numbers.
Attachments
JohnMorton#4 3 004.jpg
Adventure BEFORE Dementia!
User avatar
Doc B
Posts: 3700
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 10:57 pm
Location: San Antonio

Re: Saving an old Colonial fixed blade.............

Post by Doc B »

That's pretty neat. I looked at the pictures first...and my thoughts were...what did he do ...that looks like it lights up!!! ::tu:: ::tu:: ::tu::
Heretical Refurb / Mods of cheap old folders, since late 2018
doglegg
Gold Tier
Gold Tier
Posts: 17717
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 2:35 am
Location: Grand Prairie, Texas

Re: Saving an old Colonial fixed blade.............

Post by doglegg »

knife7knut wrote: Sat Sep 19, 2020 1:09 am
doglegg wrote: Fri Sep 18, 2020 10:32 pm That turned out really cool and a great play by play. How about a picture of the gold leaf?
Still working on it but here is a shot of the numbers.
Thanks k7k, that is pretty awesome. Thank you for sharing. Wow! ::nod:: ::nod:: ::tu::
Post Reply

Return to “Colonial Knife Collector's Forum”