Valley Forge Jack Knife Restoration

[rexstubbins]

Finally able to get started on my next project. Valley Forge 2 blade jack knife. Since Kurt was so kind as to scribe his name in the scales I thought it would be the perfect candidate for a rehandle. I'm not going to re-handle it in wood because I'm partial to jigged bone handled knives. I'm going to jig & dye the bone myself like I did with the last one. Hopefully it will go a bit smoother now that I have experience with dying. (Ha! Who am I kidding?)

Already started out with a booboo. See if you can spot the oops.

[Miller Bro's]

Hey that was Kurt Kobain`s knife You better put it back together

Already started out with a booboo. See if you can spot the oops.

Looks like you peeled the bolster away from the liner

[orvet]

Was the bolster pinned on or soldered?
It appears to have been soldered from the way it pealed away from the liner.

[rexstubbins]

The bolster was pinned and pinned good.

[rexstubbins]

More progress today.

I was able to bend the liner close (but not close enough) to the bolster. I decided to fix it more by putting another pin in it. This seemed to do the trick.

Roughed out the handles and traced where the shield should go. I like to temporarily attach the handles and get them hafted to as close to the liners and finished shape.

Dremeled out the area for the shield.

After jigging. I wanted to try a unique pattern. We'll see how it looks after dying.

From my experience from trying to dye on my last project I noticed that the jigging tool kind of "burnishes" the surface of the bone and it seems to close up the pores. This seemed to inhibit the dye from penetrating. I thought that a wire brush on the dremel tool might scuff it up and help to open the pores back up.

I'm pre-soaking them again in a vacuum chamber. This time I'm trying 90% Isopropyl alcohol instead of olive oil. For those of you paying attention the vacuum chamber is now up to revision E. Glass jar. Steel lid. I've actually had some test pieces in it for the past few days and it never lost vacuum.

Taking a bath for a few days.

[rexstubbins]

WOW! A world of difference alcohol makes.

Soaked it over night in the vacuum and save for a couple of small areas the scales became fully saturated.

Now into the golden oak stain for a day. I'll check them later this evening.

[Miller Bro's]

What are you using for a seal between the glass and metal plate?

[rexstubbins]

What are you using for a seal between the glass and metal plate?

I'm using the silicon gasket from way back to revision B. It came off the flip lid canning jar that I bought from Walley World.

[IMBand]

Another project off to a fantastic start.....Thank You again for the great detail and pics in your threads. Really like the unique jigging pattern on this one, will be following this......

IM

[muskrat man]

curious to see how the stain penetrates, I like the jigging

[coffeecup]

From my experience from trying to dye on my last project I noticed that the jigging tool kind of "burnishes" the surface of the bone and it seems to close up the pores. This seemed to inhibit the dye from penetrating. I thought that a wire brush on the dremel tool might scuff it up and help to open the pores back up.

From the experiments I've done, the burnishing effect seemed to occur when the tool was beginning to dull. Dulling can be a difficult to discern when the tool is in use. I usually check it by turning the tool OFF and seeing if the stationary cutting edges will "bite" into the back of my thumbnail.

A buildup on the cutting tool can also cause the burnishing or pore-clogging. Carbide cutters can be brushed clean with a fine wire brush; high-speed steel cutters can be hit with a bit cleaner, or Easy-Off oven cleaner, then scrubbed clean with a toothbrush. Actually--if you carefully de-grease the bit afterwards--WD-40 and a toothbrush works about as well as anything.

[rexstubbins]

Progress report:

Here is what the scales are starting to look like. I'm going to put them back in and see what they look like in the morning.

The picture below is a test that I did with coffee. I brewed really strong coffee and the bone sat in a vacuum for 3 days. I was hoping it would have come out darker. I did hit it with a wire brush before putting it in the coffee. I didn't use the dremel. Perhaps that would have opened the pores up more. I'm also thinking that if I brew the coffee with vinegar instead of water it might work better.

[rexstubbins]

From my experience from trying to dye on my last project I noticed that the jigging tool kind of "burnishes" the surface of the bone and it seems to close up the pores. This seemed to inhibit the dye from penetrating. I thought that a wire brush on the dremel tool might scuff it up and help to open the pores back up.

From the experiments I've done, the burnishing effect seemed to occur when the tool was beginning to dull. Dulling can be a difficult to discern when the tool is in use. I usually check it by turning the tool OFF and seeing if the stationary cutting edges will "bite" into the back of my thumbnail.

A buildup on the cutting tool can also cause the burnishing or pore-clogging. Carbide cutters can be brushed clean with a fine wire brush; high-speed steel cutters can be hit with a bit cleaner, or Easy-Off oven cleaner, then scrubbed clean with a toothbrush. Actually--if you carefully de-grease the bit afterwards--WD-40 and a toothbrush works about as well as anything.

Yeah. It looks like the cutters are clogging up. I'll try cleaning them before the next go around.

[orvet]

Roughed out the handles and traced where the shield should go. I like to temporarily attach the handles and get them hafted to as close to the liners and finished shape.

I am curious, what is your purpose for attaching them temporally?
Why would you need to remove them again?

[rexstubbins]

Roughed out the handles and traced where the shield should go. I like to temporarily attach the handles and get them hafted to as close to the liners and finished shape.

I am curious, what is your purpose for attaching them temporally?
Why would you need to remove them again?

I use the liners as a guide to haft to. I remove them so I can dye them.

[rexstubbins]

Here's what we're lookin' at today. I still want the one with the shield to darken up a bit more so back in the bath.

[rexstubbins]

Checked her again this morning. The scale with the shield darkened up a bit more where some of the denser bone is. I think I'm ready for the next step.

Now I used the Fiebing's mahogany oil dye. I dipped in the tip of an exacto knife and used very little. When you touch the dye to the scale it really wicks into the bone. I'm going to let it dry and see how it looks. I may put more mahogany on it if I want to darken it up. Starting to think this will be my favorite EDC when it's done.

[Miller Bro's]

Now I used the Fiebing's mahogany oil dye. I dipped in the tip of an exacto knife and used very little. When you touch the dye to the scale it really wicks into the bone.

Why didn`t you put this Fiebing`s dye in when it was in the vacuum chamber?

[rexstubbins]

Now I used the Fiebing's mahogany oil dye. I dipped in the tip of an exacto knife and used very little. When you touch the dye to the scale it really wicks into the bone.

Why didn`t you put this Fiebing`s dye in when it was in the vacuum chamber?

This is a good question Dimitri.

After the unintended result I probably should have. The intended result was to have a darker mahogany and golden oak 2 tone.

Here's what I can piece together as to what actually happened:

1) I was impatient.
2) The scales were way too wet when I put the mahogany dye on it so it almost fully penetrated the scales and left them a kind of s__t colored brown almost like this:

2 cont.) I say almost like this because this is what they looked like after putting them back in the golden oak under vacuum for a few hours. This is them after having taken them out last night and letting them dry over night. The brown is actually starting to grow on me.

3) Now because I am somewhat stubborn as to what my intended result was; my thinking is that because they are dry they will now wick less of the mahogany dye so I put a wee bit less on this time and hopefully they won't turn more poo-ish. Here we are with the smaller amount of mahogany:

[Miller Bro's]

I have some questions, do you think this process will be permanent?

In other words will it hold up in time to handling, pocket wear, etc. also did you put a scrap piece in and dye it along with the finished scales? Then you could cut it in half and see what the penetration of the dye is...


Inquiring minds want to know

[rexstubbins]

I have some questions, do you think this process will be permanent?

In other words will it hold up in time to handling, pocket wear, etc. also did you put a scrap piece in and dye it along with the finished scales? Then you could cut it in half and see what the penetration of the dye is...


Inquiring minds want to know

Unfortunately I didn't put a scrap piece in. However. Based on my observation of how quickly and thoroughly the mahogany wicked in I suspect that it fully penetrated the bone and if I were to cut it in half it would be all the way through. It may not be as permanent where the denser bone is.

I think I'll try a scrap piece and see what happens.

[rexstubbins]

Hadn't posted progress in a few days.

This is what showed up in my stocking on Christmas morning. I think one of Santa's elves had too much adult grape juice on the eve of Christmas and ventured into my garage to cause some mischief.

[orvet]

That looks nice!
Good work!

[Miller Bro's]

The color of the bone looks really good

[ricky]

That bone looks awesome