All About Pocket Knives

There has been some pictures recently on AAPK of old knife openers (I have also heard them referred to as knife picks). I took a look at some leftover materials I had and spent the last couple of days making up a few.
Left to right, and old Ulster cattle knife made into a pick, EZ open jack style handled in Padauk, Camillus 72 style handled in ironwood, conventional style handled in oak burl. The Ulster cattle knife was in a bag of junk knives a fellow I see at the local flea market gave to me. The insides were a mass of rust, but I salvaged the liners, bolsters, and the crimson celluloid covers. A new inner made from 18 gauge steel was pinned to the crimson covers. At least some of the old Ulster cattle knife lives on in another form.

Now that there is pretty cool!

Not a bad use for old handles and knife parts. Very creative. I like this.
Mark

I think it's neat!

OC, your brain was working overtime to come up with that idea. Great idea and well executed.

Great idea! I love it. I will have to give it a try because I often use a knife opener when working on knives. I have two or three knife openers I made for use in my shop. I will try to remember to post pictures when I get home.

In the Camillus Forum there are pictures of several different knife openers used by the inspectors in the Camillus Factory. Tom Williams sent me the pictures years ago and I posted them in the topic Nuggets of Camillus History topic.
Many were made from old paring knives or kitchen knives. Somewhere fancy somewhere.

Very nice OC! Great repurpose of the parts.
Good work from both your brain and your hands!!

Very creative OLDE CUTLER, my hat is off to you.

I like the pseudo-blade (with nail nick, no less!) I've got a Buck 303 I've prepped for this mod....by snapping the main blade at the tang

I like that idea!!!

...pictures of several different knife openers used by the inspectors in the Camillus factory.

Here is the link to Dale's photos (scroll down to last post on the page): viewtopic.php?f=63&t=20082&hilit=nuggets&start=30.

Note that all these picks are pointed vs. the blunt ones that Olde made. I wonder if pointed ones mean less chance for blade scratching because there is less metal-to-metal contact?

Dennis

deo-pa wrote:

...pictures of several different knife openers used by the inspectors in the Camillus factory.

Here is the link to Dale's photos (scroll down to last post on the page): viewtopic.php?f=63&t=20082&hilit=nuggets&start=30.

Note that all these picks are pointed vs. the blunt ones that Olde made. I wonder if pointed ones mean less chance for blade scratching because there is less metal-to-metal contact?

Dennis

Thanks for all the comments. Personally, I thought people would be questioning my sanity for wasting time on this project. It was kind of neat to give a new life to the old Ulster cattle knife, which had no hope of being resurrected. Yes, I have seen the pointed ones, but am still experimenting with the business end of these. I saw a recent post on AAPK that showed an original bone handled (Robeson I think) knife opener that inspired the shape I used on these. The three knife shaped ones I have pictured have the "pseudo blades" to make them look realistic. Hopefully others will run with this and come up with their own designs. I basically made the working end of these somewhat oversize with rounded corners to allow for grinding to a preferred shape.

How do you make the center piece? Are you bending a piece, then just grinding it to shape? It looks stamped, bent then trimmed - awesome!

TwoFlowersLuggage wrote:How do you make the center piece? Are you bending a piece, then just grinding it to shape? It looks stamped, bent then trimmed - awesome!

No bending or stamping required. Just a flat piece of 18 gauge steel scrap, cut slightly oversize with aviation snips, then ground to shape and drilled. I cut the fake "pull" with the Dremel tool and a thin cutoff wheel. I don't know if it is necessary or not, but I hardened the working end somewhat by heating and quenching in oil.

Very unique and very cool. Love it

I made this one recently out of a Kabar that had a broken blade. The remaining pen blade was still good, so I left it intact and removed the broken blade and spring and replaced that with a knife opener.

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 6:54 pm I made this one recently out of a Kabar that had a broken blade. The remaining pen blade was still good, so I left it intact and removed the broken blade and spring and replaced that with a knife opener.

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Good work OC! Very innovative as well.

Jim, you are a true knife pick/opener artist! Nothing like creating something out of nothing. Nice work!

Necessity is the mother of invention, cool mods.

Very creative and well done work Jim, we'll have to start calling you "Mr. Pic"!

Retaining that little pen blade takes the utility value of that gismo to a whole new level. Not only will it help opening a knife blade, but it's also available for cleaning under finger nails, opening envelopes, and string cutting duty. Look out Leatherman, OC is about to show ya some tricks.

I fixed up another one to include a knife pick, this one is a Landers, Frary and Clark junior stock knife with the spey and awl blades broken. I removed the broken parts and replaced them with a piece of .032" steel that runs the full length and beyond the end, opposite the remaining clip blade. The broken and missing handle material was replaced with coca bola. Arrow shows the pick on the end.

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Thu Feb 15, 2024 6:40 pm I fixed up another one to include a knife pick, this one is a Landers, Frary and Clark junior stock knife with the spey and awl blades broken. I removed the broken parts and replaced them with a piece of .032" steel that runs the full length and beyond the end, opposite the remaining clip blade. The broken and missing handle material was replaced with coca bola. Arrow shows the pick on the end.

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Great work OC.