A while back I saw this knife on Ebay, and thought it was kind of unique, and deserved to be fixed up. It has a stainless master blade, with everything else being carbon steel. It also has a Prest-o-lite valve wrench. I am guessing, it was made in the early days of stainless(1920), and the end of the Prest-o-lite era? It was in pretty much unused condition, but a victim of gassing celluloid.
I was going to send it off to Muskratman, but decided to try my hand at knife fixing instead. One of my favorites, is the KA-BAR's of this era, with the gator looking jigging, and the Dogs head shield, so that is what I tried to make it look like.
When I took it apart, one liner was cracked clear through, as well as a crack from a bolster pin, out to the end. It would have been easier to make a new liner, but I wanted to see what I could get away with, and just generally experimenting. I was able to weld the cracks with brazing rod as a filler. Not the easiest thing to do on .030 material, but it worked.
I didn't do anything but remove the rust from the carbon steel blades, and got a soup bone at the grocery store, and tried to jig it like an old one. I cut the dogs head out of a nickel, punched in the details best I could to match an old one, and inletted it. Pretty time consuming, and only worthwhile if you are enjoying it.... I was pretty happy with it, but cracked it when compressing the spring.
I don't think I will ever let go of it, but I signed BA2012 inside the liner, in case someday someone tries to sell it as original.
What's your next project ?
Mark.
I am so proud of Bret & his KA-Bar Camp knife! He took his time & worked at it a while. The shield he made impressed me the most... 