1960's Case Railsplitter Redone in Desert Ironwood

[herbva]

I just finished restoring this 1960's 3299 1/2 "railsplitter", and rehandled it in desert ironwood. This is my first try using ironwood. A you can see in the first 2 pics, the celluloid scales were pretty far gone and I am surprised the outgassing hadn't done any significant damage to the metal parts. The first 2 pictures are screen shots from the ebay auction. (When I received the knife, I was in such a hurry to get the celluloid scales off and into the trash that I forgot to take any pictures.) The seller described this knife as "Case yellow composition, blades are perfect but the handles have shrinkage". Fortunately for me, at least the "blades are perfect" part was pretty close to correct. I have been wanting to try desert ironwood for quite some time and finally sourced some in the right thickness for a pocket knife around the same time as acquiring this knife, so of course I had to try it on this one.

[Steve Warden]

"BOOM!"

Gimme a sec to pick my jaw up off the floor.
That is sweet!

[Byrd]

Man! You knocked that one out of the park! It looks better than factory.

[doglegg]

That is an unbelievable transformation! It is truly stunning. I am impressed. Wow!!! the

[Tony_Wood]

Great work, Herb.
Love that ironwood.

[Meridian_Mike]

ULTRA NICE!!
Great job! I love the look of the iron wood.
WOW.... just WOW...
2 thumbs up my friend!

[Colonel26]

Very nice! I love the pattern and those scales. A big thumbs up on thinning those slabs down to match the bolsters and not leaving a big palm swell. Just like I like em!

[XX Case XX]

Extra cool!!!!

____________
Mike

[Cletus Awreetus]

so Herb, buddy, whatcha thinkin a doin with that knife?

[OLDE CUTLER]

That looks great. Ironwood is one of my favorites for rehandles. About the only drawback, is it really reeks when power sanding it.

[glennbad]

Wow, that is quite nice!

[Doc B]

Inside and out...she's a beauty! Nice job

[Reverand]

Schweet!

[treefarmer]

Very nice!
Treefarmer

[herbva]

so Herb, buddy, whatcha thinkin a doin with that knife?

I think this one may be a keeper and I will park it safe and dry with the rest of my railsplitter collection and maybe let it out once in a while for some lovin and a few drops of oil. (Of course, that is always subject to change without notice.) Thanks for all of the nice compliments everyone!

[Sharpnshinyknives]

so Herb, buddy, whatcha thinkin a doin with that knife?

I think this one may be a keeper and I will park it safe and dry with the rest of my railsplitter collection and maybe let it out once in a while for some lovin and a few drops of oil. (Of course, that is always subject to change without notice.) Thanks for all of the nice compliments everyone!

Love this rehandle. Big fan of Desert Ironwood. This one turned out fantastic.
I have a question I ask out of my complete ignorance of how you did this. Did you have to take the knife apart to put a new handle on it? Or can that be done w/out taking it apart? I have few project knives I have thought about doing this same thing to, but don’t have the tools to completely disassemble and reassemble a knife with.
Thanks

[Winchester M21]

Very nice!!

[herbva]

so Herb, buddy, whatcha thinkin a doin with that knife?

I think this one may be a keeper and I will park it safe and dry with the rest of my railsplitter collection and maybe let it out once in a while for some lovin and a few drops of oil. (Of course, that is always subject to change without notice.) Thanks for all of the nice compliments everyone!

Love this rehandle. Big fan of Desert Ironwood. This one turned out fantastic.
I have a question I ask out of my complete ignorance of how you did this. Did you have to take the knife apart to put a new handle on it? Or can that be done w/out taking it apart? I have few project knives I have thought about doing this same thing to, but don’t have the tools to completely disassemble and reassemble a knife with.
Thanks

Sharpnshinyknives, that is a very good question and I'm sure there are many opinions on this and some may disagree with me. I almost always disassemble a knife completely if I am going to replace the handle scales. I could write a whole page of reasons for this, but I will give you the first few that come to mind. To replace the handle scales you need to remove and replace the rocker (center pin), so once you have that done, it's not that much more work to disassemble the entire knife. If the scales are worn out or badly damaged, the rest of the knife likely needs attention that requires the knife to be apart to properly address. Things like replacing the end (blade) pins and removing all corrosion and smoothing out rough areas on the inside of liners where the blades pivot will cure wobble and many times restore some snap. Finally, I am very particular about getting the new scales properly attached. I use epoxy and then pin them. There is a method for pinning the scales without disassembling the knife, but I would rather have the knife apart and then can properly pin the scales with peening from the inside of the liner and then filing the peened pin heads down just flush. (If they aren't filed down flush or nearly flush, the blades sometimes snag on them.) With all that said, if I get a knife with a damaged scale that needs to be replaced, and the other scale and everything else is fine, I will replace it without disassembling the knife. i really don't like doing it this way, and feel like I can do a much better job with the knife completely apart. I am retired and work on knives for my own personal satisfaction and enjoyment. If I was doing this to make a living, or had severely limited time to do this, I would probably have given you an entirely different answer. Sorry for the long-winded reply!

[1967redrider]

Awesome work, Herb!

[Sharpnshinyknives]

I think this one may be a keeper and I will park it safe and dry with the rest of my railsplitter collection and maybe let it out once in a while for some lovin and a few drops of oil. (Of course, that is always subject to change without notice.) Thanks for all of the nice compliments everyone!

Love this rehandle. Big fan of Desert Ironwood. This one turned out fantastic.
I have a question I ask out of my complete ignorance of how you did this. Did you have to take the knife apart to put a new handle on it? Or can that be done w/out taking it apart? I have few project knives I have thought about doing this same thing to, but don’t have the tools to completely disassemble and reassemble a knife with.
Thanks

Sharpnshinyknives, that is a very good question and I'm sure there are many opinions on this and some may disagree with me. I almost always disassemble a knife completely if I am going to replace the handle scales. I could write a whole page of reasons for this, but I will give you the first few that come to mind. To replace the handle scales you need to remove and replace the rocker (center pin), so once you have that done, it's not that much more work to disassemble the entire knife. If the scales are worn out or badly damaged, the rest of the knife likely needs attention that requires the knife to be apart to properly address. Things like replacing the end (blade) pins and removing all corrosion and smoothing out rough areas on the inside of liners where the blades pivot will cure wobble and many times restore some snap. Finally, I am very particular about getting the new scales properly attached. I use epoxy and then pin them. There is a method for pinning the scales without disassembling the knife, but I would rather have the knife apart and then can properly pin the scales with peening from the inside of the liner and then filing the peened pin heads down just flush. (If they aren't filed down flush or nearly flush, the blades sometimes snag on them.) With all that said, if I get a knife with a damaged scale that needs to be replaced, and the other scale and everything else is fine, I will replace it without disassembling the knife. i really don't like doing it this way, and feel like I can do a much better job with the knife completely apart. I am retired and work on knives for my own personal satisfaction and enjoyment. If I was doing this to make a living, or had severely limited time to do this, I would probably have given you an entirely different answer. Sorry for the long-winded reply!

Herb, Thank you for the answer. I appreciate the time you took in answering my question. From what you have said it is certainly more prudent to take it apart. I’m a perfectionist so I would want that to be as well done as possible, so for me it would be a good idea for me to learn how to disassemble a knife first before I tackle the other aspects. I like your idea of peeling from the inside, cracking the handle would be less likely that way and I am sure looks better.
Thanks again.

[Reverand]

Herb, you did a great job on the knife, and also in answering Sharpshiny's question. I enjoy seeing your work, and I always enjoy learning from you and other more seasoned knife mechanics!

[Meridian_Mike]

Sharpnshinyknives, that is a very good question and I'm sure there are many opinions on this and some may disagree with me. I almost always disassemble a knife completely if I am going to replace the handle scales. I could write a whole page of reasons for this, but I will give you the first few that come to mind. To replace the handle scales you need to remove and replace the rocker (center pin), so once you have that done, it's not that much more work to disassemble the entire knife. If the scales are worn out or badly damaged, the rest of the knife likely needs attention that requires the knife to be apart to properly address. Things like replacing the end (blade) pins and removing all corrosion and smoothing out rough areas on the inside of liners where the blades pivot will cure wobble and many times restore some snap. Finally, I am very particular about getting the new scales properly attached. I use epoxy and then pin them. There is a method for pinning the scales without disassembling the knife, but I would rather have the knife apart and then can properly pin the scales with peening from the inside of the liner and then filing the peened pin heads down just flush. (If they aren't filed down flush or nearly flush, the blades sometimes snag on them.) With all that said, if I get a knife with a damaged scale that needs to be replaced, and the other scale and everything else is fine, I will replace it without disassembling the knife. i really don't like doing it this way, and feel like I can do a much better job with the knife completely apart. I am retired and work on knives for my own personal satisfaction and enjoyment. If I was doing this to make a living, or had severely limited time to do this, I would probably have given you an entirely different answer. Sorry for the long-winded reply!

That is a great explanation for PROPERLY and COMPLETELY cleaning up and restoring a folding knife!
I feel the same way as you. If you want to do the job right, then you have to completely take it apart. The tang area of the blade is the hardest thing to get completely clean while it is still fully assembled.
.
I have done a few re-cover jobs with the knife still assembled but that was only if there was NO clean-up required.
GREAT job!
Very good explanation of procedure!
A+++