Where to start?

[EmTea]

Hello everyone,

My girlfriends father was going through some of his fathers old things last weekend and found his collection of pocket knifes. He was a farmer and used to always keep a knife on him at all times. So my girlfriends father decided to give me one, I don't think he knew exactly what kind of knife it was and knew I'd like it. The knife is in pretty bad shape. It's a Queen Steel #47, I only found this out after searching "Steel #47" because the blade has been worn down so much that the only word which shows up is Steel and #47. There's no mark on the tang as well. Before I get to the really bad news, here's some good news. The handle seems to be bone and is in good shape. That's about it. Both blades are non existant, there's no edge to be found, just a few jagged areas. The only thing you can cut with this is butter. It also seems that one of the bolsters was either hammered or dropped severly. Whatever the case it prevent's the smaller blade from opening fully. Enough talk, here's the pictures.



*Here's the hammered in bolster


Fully open


Close up of larger blade


Close up of smaller blade


So I'd rather not have to take the whole thing apart, I really don't want to go through the process of finding a doner knife and risk ruining the handle. What I'd like to do is make it sharp again, and get the blade rather presentable. I don't think there's any way to fix the hammered bolster without taking the whole knife apart so that I can deal with. I've cleaned it with some toothpicks and cotton swabs, but I'd like to get it more clean. How do I go about doing all this?

Thanks everyone.

[muskrat man]

first off the handles appear to be delrin, not bone.

Second. the tips and edges can be fixed by reshaping with a smooth cut mill file 8" works best for me. You'll need a thin file to go inbetween the liners becuase the hammering smashed the liners out and if I had to guess it also prevents the blade from snaping open and/or shut. Fine sandpaper on the filed parts of the bolsters and liners to smooth them out and a medium-coarse stone to help true the blades up after filing.

[EmTea]

first off the handles appear to be delrin, not bone.

Second. the tips and edges can be fixed by reshaping with a smooth cut mill file 8" works best for me. You'll need a thin file to go inbetween the liners becuase the hammering smashed the liners out and if I had to guess it also prevents the blade from snaping open and/or shut. Fine sandpaper on the filed parts of the bolsters and liners to smooth them out and a medium-coarse stone to help true the blades up after filing.

Delrin huh? From pictures of others I thought it was bone. Yes the hammered end prevents the secondary blade from locking open, that is to say even opening fully at all. What you see in those pictures is as wide the blade will open. The primary blade opens and locks fine.

After doing some more research I feel like that I can take one of these apart and put it back together. After cleaning it multiple times I can still feel/hear some resistance/grit when opening and closing the blades.

Do you think that I could fix that hammered in area more easily if I take it apart? Also what things should I look out for when I take it apart that most new comers forget to do?

I have a million questions don't I?

Thanks again

[muskrat man]

Matt, it would be easier to fix if disassembled.
As for tips, pin size is everything, too big a pin will bind the blade or crack the handle, too small will weaken snap becuase of less tension from the spring, and make sure to use a sslackener around .007-.008 thick when you reassemble.

[EmTea]

I figured as much. I'm just having a hard time finding all the information needed to disassemble and reassemble the knife. This is not a hobby I would pick up, no offense to anyone here, I've just got too many hobbies in the first place. I've got the basic idea of taking it apart, using a vise, a hammer, and a razor blade. But putting everything back together is where it get's tricky. I need new pins, I've figured out that much, but where do I get them from? What is a "slackener"? Is it a special tool, or can one be fabricated pretty easily? I feel like a total nimrod for asking all these questions but I've searched and searched and can't really find much of anything about putting these knifes back together.

Thanks for putting up with my ignorance.

[redferd]

Hi Matt, welcome to the forums. I have a Queen pocketknife very similar to yours. It has the large and small blades on the same end. Yours are on different ends but the handle material looks identical. It is delrin. I cut slots in my knife's handles and it smelled like plastic not bone being cut. I cut the slots to get a beter grip while I was using it as a dental lab knife. As for the blades on my knife, I never could get them sharpened no matter how hard I tried and finally gave up. I think Queen used very cheap butterknife stainless steel for these knives. If I can find my old Queen, I'll try to take a photo of it. I could have bought a Case for the price I paid for the Queen when I bought it sometime in the late sixties or seventies. Wish I'd bought the Case. I would have a good knife instead of the Queen I have. MM has good advice if you care to keep working on it. I'd try to shape the blades and get the one small blade to open and close. Let us know how you do with it.

[Darksev]

A slackener is basicly a thin strip of metal with a U shaped cutout. you slide it into the joint, with the U around the pin, and it gives you a little slack (hence the name) when your peening down the pins. If you don't use one, you end up peening to tight, and you won't be able to open or move the blades at all.

They can be easily made from a set of feeler guages, here's mine:

As Kaleb said, around .008 or so is usually enough to give you what you need. This would be used on either blade pivot during re-assembly

[EmTea]

Alright, that makes sense. Thanks. Could I use just feeler gauges without the u shape cut in them?

[Darksev]

you could, but the results might not be as good. The point of the cutout is to surround the pin, covering the tang of the blade to keep it away from the frame. to that end, since that picture was taken I've actually deepened some of my cutouts tot he point where I have little metal "tabs" sticking out the other side of the frame. helps to keep it in there when I'm hammering away

[coffeecup]

Just a thought: before disassembling the knife, you might try cleaning up the burrs and such with an ignition file. I had to dig one out to check, but it looks like that would be thin enough to fit between the bolsters. You can always knock the knife apart if that doesn't work.

[glennbad]

That brass is pretty soft. I'd just take a thin jeweler's file and knock down that mashed-up brass. That looks like all that needs.

As a fledgling knife tinkerer, I avoid taking things apart if I can help it. Of course, it is fun to take things apart.

But other than some blade dings, which should hone out pretty well, it looks it would make a fine user.

Come back and show us how it turns out!

Glenn