All About Pocket Knives

A while back, I managed to put a dent into the plastic bumper on my wifes car. My brother in law, the retired body man looked at it and said he could fix it. He brought a heat gun and laid on the floor in my garage with the heat gun from the backside and he popped it back out to the point that you can't even see it was there. I asked him what I owed him and he said he was going to bring me an old knife he had that "needed some work". The Schrade 225 below is what he brought me. It is the worst piece I have ever drug back from the grave for sure. I got the two blades from Orvet to replace the broken one and the skinner was also badly pitted and worn (thanks Dale). The owner, preferring wood for the rehandle, decided on ironwood. The replacement blades had 1/8" pivot holes as they were from the Swinden pin era and the knife had 3/32" pivot pin holes. After running a 1/8" bit thru the bolsters, and finding my piece of 1/8" nickle silver pinstock, everything fit together perfectly. It was not even necessary to adjust the kick or do anything to the springs. The wood finish is 6 coats of True Oil gunstock finish.

The Schrade 225 that "needed some work" All done

Wow!!! Now that's a custom job, great work!

LOL.... needed SOME WORK....
I'll say it needed some work!

Great job on the save!
Nice job for sure!
Your bro-in-law has a NICE knife there!

The before and after is very COOL!!

That ironwood is spectacular!
Great job and a great save on a beat up old knife.
Jeff

Beautiful scales, and a great fit! I would have told him that I polished the blade, just to see his reaction!
Great job all the way around.

Almost unbelievable, except I have seen your work already. Those might be the prettiest wood handles I have ever seen. That turned out awesome!!!

Very nice!
Treefarmer

Phenomenal!!!! That wood is gorgeous!!!

Wow! is an understatement. FYI - True Oil is illegal in California due to environmental concerns. Can't find it at a retail store and online sellers cannot ship it to CA.

Truly amazing ! Only the liners, springs and caps/bolsters are original now.
There are lots of Schrade 225 knives 'out there' in very good condition that you could have installed wood handles on so i am surprised you resuscitated a knife cadaver.
Maybe he will bring more knives in similar state.
kj

That Ironwood Is Popping Daddy Oh

Very nice work!

Just beautiful, Jim; you are a talented craftsman in several areas. I always enjoy your work.

kootenay joe wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:32 am Truly amazing ! Only the liners, springs and caps/bolsters are original now.
There are lots of Schrade 225 knives 'out there' in very good condition that you could have installed wood handles on so i am surprised you resuscitated a knife cadaver.
Maybe he will bring more knives in similar state.
kj

If this was mine, I probably would not have done this "cadaver knife". This is what the "customer" wanted to do with it. I think this one is some kind of family relic with sentimental value. Beside, I had to pay my body shop bill! lol

That's a resurrection knife! You brought it back from the dead!

That is spectacular Jim!
Great job and outstanding save!

That’s really amazing work!

Reverand wrote: ↑Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:29 pm I would have told him that I polished the blade, just to see his reaction!
Great job all the way around.

HA!!! Yeah, you should have told the recipient you just buffed it a little and oiled the joints.

Thanks to all you for the comments on the 225. Thanks again to Dale for supplying the 2 replacement blades. You seriously under charged me for them!

Super Impressive Save OLD CUTLER....

Very impressive! I’m not typically a fan of wood handled knives, but those scales are down right fine!

I found out a little of the history of this knife from my brother in law when he picked the knife up over the weekend. Seems this Schrade has had multiple chapters that it has gone thru in its lifetime. Once upon a time it was new, and I am sure the owner was very proud to own it. But one day something happened, and the owner lost it out in the country on a farm in South Dakota. He must have been devastated to have lost such a fine knife, which he no doubt paid good money for. The knife lay on the ground for who knows how long, until it eventually was buried in the dirt. It probably laid there buried for some time, not a long time or there would not have been anything left of the steel blades and springs, but long enough to cause some deep rust pits in the steel. But then one day a kid who then lived on that farm was walking around and something caught his eye, something in the dirt. He kicked at it and saw it was an old knife in the ground. He dug it up, and saw that it was a two blade folding hunter knife that some body had lost. He wondered how long it had been there. He wondered if maybe a cowboy or maybe an Indian had lost it. But now it was his, and he took it with him and kept it for over 40 years. He wondered how the blade had gotten broken, and thought maybe someone had been using it for prying, and the blade had broken that way, or they had laid the knife down with the blade open and lost it. Then a piece of farm machinery may have run over it and broke the blade. But he kept the knife for all that time until he heard that his brother in law was fixing old knives after he had retired. So then it came to me to rejuvenate and try to give another life to. The owner made his choices and I did the work and it is now back among the living, the working knives. After I had gotten it apart, and the owner decided on replacing both of the blades, I told him the springs were still usable with good snap to the blades, but that some rust pits were going to show and maybe the springs should also be replaced. He said "No, those pits are the reminder of the knifes previous life for every one to see, I want to keep them". Anyway, he took the knife home with him to start another chapter of its life. He was real happy with the way it turned out.

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:37 pm Thanks to all you for the comments on the 225. Thanks again to Dale for supplying the 2 replacement blades. You seriously under charged me for them!

What type of wood did you use for the scales? It really turned out beautiful.

Landersknives wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 5:07 pm

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 5:37 pm Thanks to all you for the comments on the 225. Thanks again to Dale for supplying the 2 replacement blades. You seriously under charged me for them!

What type of wood did you use for the scales? It really turned out beautiful.

The wood used is ironwood, very hard durable stuff.