All About Pocket Knives

Hi there,
I've been trying to collect knives now for about 2 years. As much as I love sharp objects I'm particularly interested in finding old pocket knives, cleaning them up and sometimes carrying one. I'm not much for new knives although I do have a small collection of those too.
I need advice on how to clean up and exactly how much I should clean up the knives I find. I find lots of them at pawn shops, antique stores, yard sales, and flea markets. I see those old, dirty, grimy, sometimes crusty, often black blades on these poor knives I just wanna bring them home and fix them.
So far, all I've really managed to do is use 3 in 1 cleaner/lubricant to clean them a very little bit and I have sharpened quite a few of them to a pretty good edge...I think. So what else can I do? I've got a great knife that may not be worth anything except to me but I really wanna clean it better. How can I get inside it to get rid of all that grime? How can I clean up the blade? If the blade is corroded is there anything I can do? And how do I tighten up loose plates?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've got lots of questions and have so much to learn.
Thanks in advance,
Grayson

Hi GraysonKelly,

We are glad to have you join us here at AAPK. If you're interested in repairing or restoring older knives, I'd suggest you check out the "Knife Repair and Restoration" section on this site. There are lots of threads there dealing with this topic and I'm guessing you can get a lot of your questions answered there.
Also, don't be afraid to ask questions. There are lots of friendly, knowledgeable folks who will be happy to help you.

GraysonKelly wrote: How can I get inside it to get rid of all that grime? How can I clean up the blade? If the blade is corroded is there anything I can do? And how do I tighten up loose plates?

I'm new here, too. Here's what I've learned so far:

Clean up of the blades (assuming you've got carbon steel, not stainless) can be limited to hand buffing with steel wool, and a coat of 3-in-1 oil. This will leave the blade dark, which is fine for an old knife, but will get rid of the grungy junk. Lay the blade on the table ledge, on a rag, with the edge of the blade at the lowest level, right on the cloth. That way when you hit it with the steel wool, the sharp edge is grounded, and not dangerous to your fingers.

Sharpening without touching anything other than the edge is a good idea. Sharpen last, not first.

If the loose scales (plates) are held in places with brass pins, you can clamp a nail punch (like a drift punch, but with a dimple in the end) in a vise, dimple pointing up, and place the pivot pin (the center one) on the dimple. With a small ball peen hammer, use the round end to gently peen down the top end of the pivot pin. Make sure all force is exerted upon the pin itself, not upon the scale, or the scale will break.

The small brass pins in the end will usually just hold the scale in place, and they go no further into the knives than the inside liner (the full length plate nearest the blade). If the scale is loose on the ends, use a flat toothpick to squeeze some 60 minute epoxy under the scale, clamp the scale back down, wipe off the excess epoxy (have the blade open to prevent accidental blade affixation by the epoxy), and take the clamp off the next day. voila, one reattached scale.

Don't throw away anything that isn't damaged. Get some small boxes, baby formula cans with lids, etc., and sort and save every bolster, scale, blade, etc. that you think could be reused.

If you're cleaning down in the hinges of a folder, and you have an air compressor, get a "blow tip" on the air hose, and blow out any collected trash that might be down in the hinge. WEAR EYE PROTECTION BEFORE BLOWING, as tiny trash under pressure may fly into your eyeballs. This would be classed as a "bad thing".

If the tip of a knife is broken off, and you intend to reshape it, file the top of the blade tip so it becomes lower, rather than bringing the tip up by reshaping the bottom of the tip. Bringing the bottom edge up creates a tip that doesn't drop between the liners, and it will snag when dropping it into your pocket.

Tightening the rivets in the wife's oldest butcher knife, sanding the handles smooth, and soaking the handles three days in boiled linseed oil, wiping them down, letting them dry about a week, and then hand buffing them with 00000 steel wool, polishing the blade lightly with steel wool, putting a clean, sharp edge on the blade, and putting it back on the hanger in the kitchen will give some credibility and a practical air to what you're doing out in the shop all hours of the night.

To tighten the aforementioned butcher knife rivets, clamp a drift (a flat tipped punch, with the end as close to the size of the rivet as possible, without being bigger than the rivet) point up in the vise, place one side of the rivet on the end of the drift, and tap the top side of the rivet lightly two or three times with the round end of a small ball peen hammer. The gap between the handle and the tang should be gone. If not, use a slightly harder tap and check again.

Read these forums, read bladeforums.com, and any other forums that give bandwidth to people who monkey around with knives. You'll learn a lot from what's already been discussed. Don't be afraid to ask questions, especially if you've already used the search function to see if the question has already been answered.

Accept that you're going to goof up some of what you work on. Some if it will get goofed up repeatedly. That's normal, and it's part of the learning process.

Safety first. Wear eye protection. Buffers are DANGEROUS. Grinders will hurt you. Hand sanding can be tedious, but it's relatively safe. Belt sanders can hurt you.

Patience is a virtue. Being virtuous will improve your life.

That's about all I've learned about fooling with knives (so far).

I apologize for resurrecting this thread, but this is exactly the info I have been looking for. If anyone else have any tips or suggestions, I would be eternally grateful.

Hey gruntmedik, welcome to AAPK!
Are you a Corpsman?

Keep reading these forums:
Knife Repair and Restoration: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... m.php?f=37
Customized Factory Knives: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... m.php?f=14
Knife Related Tutorials: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... m.php?f=38

You will find a lot of info in these three forums.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome guys, you are in the right place as these guys now there tuff and go above and beyond to help out,

.....And if you can't find the answer you need, just post a new thread and ask. An old fella once told me that the only dumb question is the one you don't ask because it becomes the only one you you don't know the answer to. Welcome to AAPK and I hope we'll be able to assist you as you become more and more addicted to this hobby/way of life.

The one piece of advice that I can pass on is that you will need time and patience; don't get ovely aggresive with cleaning because that can ruin a great old knife. Depending on the amount of room you have to devote to cleaning it's always good to put several sheets of newspaper down first in case you spill anything and it also keeps you from harming anything with the blade. As several of the other vetetrans have said you can access great info from Restoration Section of this site. Welcome and happy collecting!

orvet wrote:Hey gruntmedik, welcome to AAPK!
Are you a Corpsman?

Keep reading these forums:
Knife Repair and Restoration: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... m.php?f=37
Customized Factory Knives: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... m.php?f=14
Knife Related Tutorials: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... m.php?f=38

You will find a lot of info in these three forums.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for the welcome. No, I am not a Corpsman, but I have the utmost respect for them. They did everything we did, and fixed us when we were broken. I was an 0331 (machine gunner) in the USMC--grunt. I've been a Flight Paramedic for the last 10 years--medik. When I first got on the internet, gruntmedic was already taken.

I've been reading here the past few days until I'm cross-eyed, trying to soak as much as I can. I'm sure I will ask several questions, but I promise to use the search function first.

gruntmedik wrote: Thanks for the welcome. No, I am not a Corpsman, but I have the utmost respect for them. They did everything we did, and fixed us when we were broken. I was an 0331 (machine gunner) in the USMC--grunt. I've been a Flight Paramedic for the last 10 years--medik. When I first got on the internet, gruntmedic was already taken.

Oorah!
Well, as a fellow Jarhead you know you know how I feel and why I had to ask!

I had a Corpsman put 90+ stitches in my face around my right eye!
I think most Corpsmen are better doctors than the Navy doctors!

Glad to have another Leatherneck on AAPK, we must have a couple platoons of us by now!

Semper Fi!
Dale

orvet wrote:

gruntmedik wrote: Thanks for the welcome. No, I am not a Corpsman, but I have the utmost respect for them. They did everything we did, and fixed us when we were broken. I was an 0331 (machine gunner) in the USMC--grunt. I've been a Flight Paramedic for the last 10 years--medik. When I first got on the internet, gruntmedic was already taken.

Oorah!
Well, as a fellow Jarhead you know you know how I feel and why I had to ask!

I had a Corpsman put 90+ stitches in my face around my right eye!
I think most Corpsmen are better doctors than the Navy doctors!

Glad to have another Leatherneck on AAPK, we must have a couple platoons of us by now!

Semper Fi!
Dale

Amen Brother!