Cub Scout Knife Re-handle

[ea42]

Got a minty old Camillus cub scout knife here that had the standard blue plastic handles. The shield was apparently too hot when it was inserted into the handle because melted plastic was smeared all over the top of it, and globbed on the sides. Cocobolo was the requested handle choice. Here are some WIP shots (as usual I forgot to take a before pic ) :

Here's the knife disassembled, forgot to crop the pic, glad I at least remembered how to take the knife apart lol!

The pastic handles have two plastic tabs that are inserted through the holes in the liners and melted in place, kind of like a plastic rivet. The holes are WAY too big for standard cover pins, so I re-drilled some new holes as seen in the next pic:

Here we have the new cover holes, countersunk and ready to go

Handles are cut and fitted, ready for drilling

Handles are pinned on, now I have to trim them down a bit and finish the front edge

Sanded the pin heads off, front edge is finished, center holes are drilled

The unusual thing about this knife is that the bail pin also serves as the bolster pin. Once that's attached there's no wat to finish that end of the knife, so I had to glaze the bolsters and polish everything up on that side before assembly. Never did this before so hopefully it turns out OK!
That's it for today, hopefully I'll have more pics tomorrow.

Eric

[QTCut5]

Great WIP pics, Eric...thanks for posting. Can't wait to see the next batch.

~Q~

[Schradenut]

You are a very gifted craftsman Eric. I am enjoying the step by step re-build of the Scout knife. I look forward to the next installment.
Tony.

[americanedgetech]

That is going to be a gorgeous knife. It is the plastic handles that I never liked on all of those "scout knives" but this post gave me a new way of looking at them.
I think I just might pick one up, and think about some proper handles...

[Duffer]

Wonderful work Eric! Those Cocobolo handles are going to look real pretty on this rejuvenated/rebuilt cub scout knife

[#goldpan]

Nice work Eric! I cant wait to see it finished!

[ea42]

Thanks folks! Just tried adding a little video but it said "invalid file extension", so I'll just post up some more pics tomorrow.

Eric

[TripleF]

Awesome!

[glennbad]

Looking great so far!

[Stakeknife]

Here is a before pic of the sloppy shield.

[philco]

That's going to be one fine and fancy Cub Scout knife.

[ea42]

Geez! I was searching high and low for that shield, thought for sure I'd lost it. Figured I'd give the bench a once over for the tenth time, moved a jar lid that had some gold emblems for a label, and the shield slid right off. The darned thing blended right in with the emblems! I sure know how to make things difficult for myself!
Got a bit further today:

Got it together and pinned up/spun up.

Sanded everything down, glazed the other bolster side and immediately ran into problems. The bolsters in that side actually had a backwards slope, likely due to matching up with the factory handles. In order to be flush with the new handles I had to glaze down to that point, which cut into the handles deeper than the shackle side. This makes that flat center section totally uneven. Worse on the pile side. Now normally all you do is take a bit more off of the shackle side to even things up, but since the shackle is already attached that's impossible. Really not a big fan of this setup, I may just knock it apart 'cause it really bugs me.

Eric

[philco]

"Eric I have complete faith in your ability to make it all work out. You da man !

[ea42]

Thanks Phil!!

Eric

[americanedgetech]

That's the knife it was always meant to be. I would never have guessed how pretty those "scout knives" could be.
For the shackle... I've never been a fan. That's my 2 cents

[OLDE CUTLER]

Wow, that is turning out great. I have an old Imperial scout with shrunken and cracked handles in the process. Hope it turns out that good.

[orvet]

It is looking great Eric! Beautiful wood choice also.

The melted plastic oozing over the shield of this particular knife is pretty common.
I'm not sure if it was a plastic that had a lower melting temperature than the normal handle material or if they just got the shields extra hot.
I am not a fan of the later clear plastic shields that were inserted into the blue plastic. I have not found a way to reuse those. I think those were a later invention to keep the price of the knife down.

[Stakeknife]

Having been a scout in the 50's I recall having a scout knife with a bail. Seems right it should have it.

In fact it would not be a scout knife without the bail! IMHO

[ea42]

Totally in agreement there Ed, bails and scout knives go hand in hand.

Eric