When to rework and when to hold off?

[gjphoto1970]

Hi,
I have this old Remington knife and if I use the tang stamp to tell how old it is the result is somewhere between 1924 and 1933. One of the previous owners replaced one of the sides with a resin thing with a small fish hook. The other side is missing. So the question is;"would the knife be worth more if the hook handle was replaced?" Sometimes I have found that reworking the ka knife takes away the original character of the knife. Every knife has a story and I wish I knew this one. Anyway, what do you guys think? Is there a certain time to either rework it or just leave it as is? For example, I have some case knives with some problems. Would I reduce the value by working the original sides?

tangstamp.jpg (25.03 KiB) Viewed 727 times

[edge213]

No offense meant with what I'm about to say.
In this condition the knife is worth almost nothing, so attaching new handles will only help.
In the pictures it looks like quite a bit of blade loss, the main blade is sitting proud, so even with new handles it won't be worth much. If you can do it yourself it might be a fun project, but not worth paying someone.

[rugmar]

As David said, it’s worth is not much because of its current condition. Doesn’t mean it’s not cool though. If it were mine I would fix both handles the same, fix the proud standing blade, sharpen it up and carry it. I actually love the fish hook in the resin. Might consider doing that on both sides.

rugmar

[FRJ]

Hi,
I have this old Remington knife

Welcome here!

These guys are giving good advice.
Have your way with that knife. There's not much kick left at the tang
but you can bring the spine down at the tip with a file and get your tip in the blade well.
I think the fishhook is a fine accessory.

[1967redrider]

With a resin fishhook scale, I'd say that knife has plenty of character. If anything, I would try to have another resin scale attached.

to AAPK!

[gjphoto1970]

Thanks for the great comments. I am going to make a matching side out of resin and of course another fish hook. I will see if I can adjust the blade so the tip is seated better in the frame. Thanks again everybody!