Old Camillus #25 SS Fishing Knife Rework

[Jeffinn]

I've developed this thing for fishing knifes so I've been acquiring a few when the prices are right. This one was an old Fisherman's Luck model. The blade had some weird discoloration possibly from overheating the metal during one of its sharpening episodes with the previous owner. But It still had some life left so I decided to fix it up.
The original handles had numerous cracks and the knife itself had the usual grime and corrosion:

Disassembly was pretty straight forward, seven pieces and a few pins:

I did a quick cleanup of the brass pieces and the surfaces of the springs. Then I took a look in my bone handle selection for a couple of pieces that would fit this particular knife. I settled on some Amber Wormgroove pieces and cut them to size. Thanks to a tip from Dale I was able to sand the scales and fit them to the bolsters with a little less trouble than usual using a small drum sander (thanks Dale!). I finished the bone with progressively finer grits of sandpaper and then polished them with some pink scratchless compound.It shows up a little darker in the photos.
It turned out pretty good:

I've been selling most of my knives on E-Bay to finance other knife projects but I may keep this one for myself.
Thanks for looking!

[orvet]

Hey Jeff, you are really getting pretty good at this!
Very choice on the bone, the color looks very good and the jigging enhances the length of the knife!
It also appears that you got a good fit of the bone against the bolsters.

Outstanding work!

[Jeffinn]

Thanks a lot Dale!
I owe a lot of my successful knife rebuilds to you and a few of the other guys who are always willing to share tips and techniques with us newbies. In my opinion that’s what makes this group one of the best on the internet!
Little by little I’m getting the hang of working with bone. I’ve had a few cracked scales but I chalk that up to the learning process. There’s nothing that looks quite as nice and it feels nice in the hand too!
Thank you sir for all that you do for this group!

[XX Case XX]

That turned out real nice Jeff. Looks like a completely different knife from the one you started with. Good work!!

__________
Mike

[Jeffinn]

Thanks Mike!

[doglegg]

The before picture gave no encouragement to be adopted. But that after picture says 'you would be proud to own me'. Beautiful work.

[OLDE CUTLER]

Wow, that is some great looking bone. You are urging me on to do something with that old fishing knife that I have that needs to be rehandled. It turned out great, and you are right about there being nothing like bone on an old knife.

[Jeffinn]

The before picture gave no encouragement to be adopted. But that after picture says 'you would be proud to own me'. Beautiful work.

Thanks doglegg!

[Jeffinn]

Wow, that is some great looking bone. You are urging me on to do something with that old fishing knife that I have that needs to be rehandled. It turned out great, and you are right about there being nothing like bone on an old knife.

Thanks OC!

[ea42]

Excellent job Jeff! I'm with everyone else on that bone too, perfect choice.

Eric

[glennbad]

Nice work!

[Jeffinn]

Excellent job Jeff! I'm with everyone else on that bone too, perfect choice.

Eric

Thanks Eric!

[Jeffinn]

Nice work!

Thank you!