Gerber Restoration

[orvet]

Here’s a nice Gerber Folding Field II. The handles had rosewood inlays and I don’t think the rosewood had been treated to stabilize it. I have found a lot of these over the years with pieces of the rosewood missing, the wood cracked, even getting punky in a couple of cases and of course the inevitable initials carved into the rosewood.
My first couple attempts at replacing these inlays were marginally successful, but as I gained a little bit of experience and developed a technique it became a little easier to replace the inlays. The knife is so well-made and feels so good in the hand that they seem to cry out to me to replace the inlays. On this one I removed the bits of remaining rosewood and replace them with water buffalo horn. You can see how translucent the horn is on the mark side, it has a little golden/brown color along the spine. On the pile side inlay is opaque black.

The knife it not been used a lot, the blade is 95% full with just a few scratches on it from sharpening. Besides replacing the inlay with buffalo horn I shined the brass a little better than the factory finish, but not to a high polished finish. I will probably put it in my store, or it may end up in my pocket or in my keepsake knives along with the Gerber FS II on which I replace the rosewood inlay with ivory. That knife was much rougher than this one but the checking in the ivory and the dings on the knife make it look like a well used, tough old soldier.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

[TripleF]

Absolutely beautiful Dale! Love it!

[bladebuddy]

Beautiful work Dale. First I've seen of a Gerber with horn inlays. The 97223 on the blade. Is that the zip code?

[SteelMyHeart85420]

No pins to be seen, is that done with strictly epoxy to hold scales in place?

[orvet]

Thanks guys, I am glad you like it.
Yes Steve, 97224 is the Zip code of the Gerber factory.

No pins to be seen, is that done with strictly epoxy to hold scales in place?

It was all done with adhesive, I don't think the original was epoxy but that is what I used.
Gerber and Kershaw both had knives in the 1980s and 1990s with handles attached only by adhesive. Having re-handled a number of those knives, I can testify that removing that old adhesive is difficult. I have to put it in a freezer for days to get glue to fail.

[glennbad]

Big improvement, IMO. That water buffalo horn looks great, Dale! Great work, my friend.

[#goldpan]

Beautiful work Dale. Doing inlays are difficult at best and your work is outstanding!