All About Pocket Knives

I'll never be accused of being a fine craftsman like Dale or Kaleb, but I like to tinker with worn out knives sometimes, to see if I can breathe a little life into them.

I had these two Schrade Cut Co barlows. Both were pretty beat:

This one, the blades were well used, but not too bad, but the pivot was all wrong. Someone had tried to work on it, they actually put the master blade in the front...



Here it is dis-assembled...




Here is the other one, that had nice smooth bone handles, but the blades were used beyond belief. Someone definitely got their money's worth...



I took the best parts from each, cleaned them up some, and started my assembly...



Flash forward...this is what happens when you peen bone to much...your project turns to crap.



Anyway, I used the other bone pieces, which weren't as nice, but they worked out okay. Here is the finished project...





For this type of project, I was not concerned with trying to put a new finish on the blades or anything, just make them serviceable. The knife has obvious flaws, but it was not meant to be a sale piece, just a user.

I learned alot about what not to do... I don't think I have that whole pin spinner thing down yet, and that bone sure does crack easily. I was not a big fan of the barlow, but this thing sits nice in the pocket, and makes a nice user. The half stops are like bear traps.

Can't wait to start my next project...I have a lot of respect for the time people put into the work like I see posted here.

Glenn

Nice job Glenn!
That looks like a good serviceable old Barlow now.

A question on your spinning technique; Did you peen the rocker pin & tail pin before you spun them?
If so, it looks like you need a larger spinner for that size pin.

Pin spinning is a tough technique to master.
I was talking to Wallace Rockwell last week, (Wallace was the guy who made a lot of the high end knives at Camillus), and he told me that even he has problems sometimes when spinning pins. It is part Science and part Art with a good dose of luck thrown in.

You did a fine job on that old Barlow. You brought it back from the junk pile into your pocket!
Nice work!!

Dale

orvet wrote:Nice job Glenn!
A question on your spinning technique; Did you peen the rocker pin & tail pin before you spun them?
If so, it looks like you need a larger spinner for that size pin.

Dale

Yeah, I peened before I spun...I thought the spinner was adequate size for the larger pin, but I guess not. Got a lot to learn, but that's half the fun.

Thanks for the comments.

Glenn

orvet wrote:Pin spinning is a tough technique to master.

I'll jump up and testify to that!

Don't worry Glenn - on my first attempt I broke DELRIN!
I've broken so much bone now, I'm gonna change my user name to "Bonecrusher" - either that or "Hammer Head"

glennbad wrote:I like to tinker with worn out knives sometimes, to see if I can breathe a little life into them.
Glenn

You certainly did!
Nice work and a personal and special Barlow ready for the pocket.
Great pics!

Wow! Nice work. I'm kind of new at this too.
I like to tinker with things and I also do some woodworking projects. I found some old table service with the steel rusting very badly so I took off the stag handles and cleaned them up a bit by removing rust and gunk. Now they are just waiting to be refitted. This will be my first attempt at this as soon as I figure out how to do this and what knife I will use.

glennbad wrote:The knife has obvious flaws, but it was not meant to be a sale piece, just a user.

Glenn, that "just a user" looks like a fine user. Good work!

Jim

Glenn, nothing like putting together a good user every now and then! Just a tip, if you sand all the sawcuts out of the handles and polish you'll have the same look as the smooth handles, they were most likely pocket worn but I bet they left the factory with the sawcut texture.

Thanks for the comments, guys...

Hopefully, Kaleb, I will carry this one enough to make it "pocket-worn" the old fashioned way!

Glenn