Salvaged Western USA L66 Hunting Knife w/ Paracord

[TripleF]

She was an ugly mess when it arrived here. Had more rust.......

Stripped the leather scales, wire brushed, cleaned isopropyl alcohol, added gorilla glue and strips of blue paracord
to "beef up" the paracord scales I was adding.

Then I sharpened 'er.......mmmmm....mmmm.....mmmmm!

Now, she's back in business!

[djknife13]

Those look good Scott. I find a lot of those Western 66's with leather that is rotting. They are the easiest fixed blades I have found to replace handles on with hardwood or even a seasoned bone I dug out of the ground working on a neighbors house. I just cut the wood slightly oversized to fit between the bolster and guard and epoxy it to one side of the knife and let it dry. Then I fill the space between the double tang with a sliver of wood and drill two holes from the backside through to the face of the glued handle and glue and clamp the other side on. When that"s dry I drill the holes again so the hole goes through both handles and epoxy a pin through them and then sand the handles to fit> It looks like it came from the factory with those scales. I'll post some pictures of some of them when I don't have a show to rush off to. __ ___Dave

[FRJ]

Dave, I'd love to see those handles.

[edge213]

Good job Scott. That looks pretty cool.

[glennbad]

That'll work, nice job!

[djknife13]

Scott, I don't know how you get that cord so even and tight, especially at the end where you finish without a big ugly knot showing. Here are some of my wood ones and one sheep horn, all Westerns with bad leather or celluloid. The Sheep horn slabs I bought at a knife show, the purple heartwood was given to me, the oak was dyed with red leather dye and the others were scraps from deck jobs we did. I going to give the para cord another try one of these days. ___Dave

[TripleF]

Awesome stuff Dave

To do paracord you pull with all you got!

[FRJ]

Great job on those knives, Dave. Thanks for taking the time to show them.

[#goldpan]

Dave, Scott nice knives guys. Good imaginations too! Thanks for the inspiration!