A winter project!

[Madmarco]

I just received this knife as a gift from my buddy Herb (herbva) and it's in poor condition, so I'm going to take a shot at restoring it over the winter. It's a 7 7/8" "Italian slant bolster" model that I've admired for some time, but the button and safety cap are missing, and the front horn cover is completely destroyed. I have most of the necessary tools as well as some suitable cover material, so let's find out what kind of knife-restorer I am!

[cudgee]

Keep us updated with regular reports.

[orvet]

Marco be careful my friend, knife repair is at least three times as addicting as knife collecting! You will start by repairing your own knives, but eventually you run out of knives to repair. Then, unless you own a tech company, you will start selling off your collection to buy more parts knives to repair. As your need grows, you will dip into your Safe Queens because they no longer mean what they once did. You are overwhelmed by an insatiable desire to repair, rescue and restore old broken knives!!

Then you end up like I am, a broken man, sitting in a shop full of broken knives, waiting for my shoulder to heal from rotator cuff surgery so I can repair all the waiting beauties!
But you will love it!!

I just got a parts knife in the mail today for a Henry Sears cattle knife.
The bone is spectacular, and I can't wait until my shoulder and hands work so I can fix this old knife. It is magnificent!

[rea1eye]

Marco be careful my friend, knife repair is at least three times as addicting as knife collecting! You will start by repairing your own knives, but eventually you run out of knives to repair. Then, unless you own a tech company, you will start selling off your collection to buy more parts knives to repair. As your need grows, you will dip into your Safe Queens because they no longer mean what they once did. You are overwhelmed by an insatiable desire to repair, rescue and restore old broken knives!!

Then you end up like I am, a broken man, sitting in a shop full of broken knives, waiting for my shoulder to heal from rotator cuff surgery so I can repair all the waiting beauties!
But you will love it!!

I just got a parts knife in the mail today for a Henry Sears cattle knife.
The bone is spectacular, and I can't wait until my shoulder and hands work so I can fix this old knife. It is magnificent!

Well if that is not the best reason to do physical therapy and do all the healing than what is ??

Bob

[orvet]

Thank you, Bob!
It's always best to look for that silver lining!

[Nev52]

Go for it Marco
It is fun and addicting Keep us informed of your progress.

Nev

[glennbad]

Can't wait to see some progress pics!!!!

Go for it!!!

[Madmarco]

Thanks guys for all your most encouraging comments. I will definitely post picture as the work progresses, but it's gonna be a slow progression since I am so inexperienced at this, as well as being limited to tools but I'll ask for your help along the way should I run into any brick walls. Dale, thank you for your excellent advice and detailed explanation on what I can expect, I'm addicted to anything I like so I probably won't even recognize my addiction to restorations. And I hope your injury heals quickly so you can get back to doing what you love. I posted in the "Some of my autos" thread about my attempts to repair my AGA Campolin ""Maltese" lockback, and unfortunately that project was my first and didn't go too well, so hopefully all the mistakes I made with that one won't be made again with this knife. Please be patient guys, I will carry-on as best I can! Mark.

[Kramersknife]

I have this exact knife with rosewood scales and brass bolsters. Pretty unique knife and not often seen. In my hobby shop we have helpful metals for repairs such as brass stainless steel for pins and copper tubing for mosaic Pins, sheet metals epoxy, polishing stuff, small tools etc..(all standard Hobby sizes not huge stuff) so you need anything LMK

[Madmarco]

Thanks for your generous offer KK, if I get jammed up, I might take you up on it. Right off the bat I have a question for you or anyone who might know, what is the spring set-up in these knives? Is it a 1-piece backspring, or one that has a slot to slide the spring down into and seat? When I look into the blade channel all I see is the spine, no round or flat leaf spring, no slot at the butt-end to seat the spring into, nada, just the spine all the way at the back. Thx guys!

[Madmarco]

I need to amend my OP fellas. After much thought, which actually should have been done BEFORE I posted my intention to attempt this restoration but wasn't, I've come to the realization that I am ill equipped to be doing knife tutorials. As I've mentioned many times in my posts, the only camera I have is the one in my laptop, I don't have a mobile, which results in me needing to hold the item with 1 hand, and click the button with the other, so to even just show you the knife apart in pieces I'd need to take multiple single piece shots, and that's just downright boring. So, I think what would be best is to post pictures at some of the stages of completion and let your imaginations fill-in the blanks. I'm really sorry about this guys, judging from your responses you were looking forward to watching the rebuild, but since that's not possible I'll do mt best to keep it entertaining. Right off the bat I can tell you that the knife is apart in pieces, and brother, was it ever filthy inside. I removed all the old pins and took the bolsters off, but I found that the front-top and bottom-rear bolsters were aftermarket soldered on, so they stayed on. I had asked in an above post if anyone knew what kind of spring set-up was in these knives, but I answered my own question when I took it apart cuz I found a 2-piece spring with the part that propels the blade squished right up against the spine part, and when I tried to lift it of course it broke off. Not a problem cuz I had intended to install a stronger spring anyway, which I already have, and it slid smoothly into the slot it seats in. Had it been a 1-piece spring things would have come to a halt cuz I don't have the knowledge or skills to build one, and to find the exact aftermarket spring that will fit the knife would be like finding hen's teeth. So, I steel brushed the dirt off the pieces and submerged them in isopropyl alcohol for a soak before an oil bath. I'm not 100% happy with the condition of the sear-pin, it doesn't come through the hole in the liner as far as I'd like, and If I had the correct tools and parts, I'd likely replace it, but it's a D stamped set-up and I'm not certain I could get it back together properly. Before I took it apart the only thing that worked properly was the bo/bc, and the sear-pin was holding the blade in perfectly with no peaking, but when I was able to physically see it, I thought it should be longer. Might just be my OCD!

[Samb]

Sounds like you're off to a good start on it.

[Madmarco]

Yah, it came apart fairly easily Sam, now for me the trick will be to stop and finish something when it's not right, instead of thinking I'll come back to it like I did with my Maltese, only to find it can't be fixed at that point. Those were hard lessons to learn my friend!