Valley Forge Harness Jack Restoration

[orvet]

Here is a Valley Forge harness jack that has been kicking around my shop for a few years & I finally got tired of looking at it so I put new ebony wood handles on it.

The pile side had a chunk broken out of it. Looking at the broken wood it really looks more like a hard wood that was dyed black with something like India ink. It looked black on the outside, but was much lighter in the center.

I replaced it with real ebony wood, black as night all the way through!
The shield was missing a piece off the right side. It looked to have had part of it worn off. Since I didn’t have another shield the same shape, (all were longer or thinner) I elected to leave it off rather than putting on the shield with a missing piece.

Not a really extensive restoration, just cleaning the inside and replacing the scales and shaping them, which is a bit of a challenge freehand with sandpaper. The blades are in excellent shape, some good patina and full. Who doesn’t like a nice swedge ground spear blade?
I was reasonably pleased with the result.

[singin46]

Great work Dale! Good call, leaving the shield off.

[Dinadan]

Really nice work bringing that old knife back into user condition. The blade looks full, like it was hardly sharpened at all.

[gino]

Great looking job Dale!

[glennbad]

Great looking mod, Dale. I think the no-shield look works well.

The knife looks like the blades should be very "snappy", is that the case?

I think that would be a great carry. Nice!

[orvet]

Thanks guys for the encouragement.
I agree that it works well without a shield.

Great looking mod, Dale. I think the no-shield look works well.

The knife looks like the blades should be very "snappy", is that the case?

I think that would be a great carry. Nice!

The blades have good snap to them because of the square end design of the tang.
The punch has a little better snap than the spear, just because typically the punch gets used less than the spear, but both blades have good snap.

[FRJ]

That turned out to be a very handsome knife, Dale.
Very nice work and great looking blades.

[#goldpan]

Looks very cool Dale. 2 thumbs up