All About Pocket Knives

A while back I saw this knife on Ebay, and thought it was kind of unique, and deserved to be fixed up. It has a stainless master blade, with everything else being carbon steel. It also has a Prest-o-lite valve wrench. I am guessing, it was made in the early days of stainless(1920), and the end of the Prest-o-lite era? It was in pretty much unused condition, but a victim of gassing celluloid.

I was going to send it off to Muskratman, but decided to try my hand at knife fixing instead. One of my favorites, is the KA-BAR's of this era, with the gator looking jigging, and the Dogs head shield, so that is what I tried to make it look like. When I took it apart, one liner was cracked clear through, as well as a crack from a bolster pin, out to the end. It would have been easier to make a new liner, but I wanted to see what I could get away with, and just generally experimenting. I was able to weld the cracks with brazing rod as a filler. Not the easiest thing to do on .030 material, but it worked. I didn't do anything but remove the rust from the carbon steel blades, and got a soup bone at the grocery store, and tried to jig it like an old one. I cut the dogs head out of a nickel, punched in the details best I could to match an old one, and inletted it. Pretty time consuming, and only worthwhile if you are enjoying it.... I was pretty happy with it, but cracked it when compressing the spring.
I don't think I will ever let go of it, but I signed BA2012 inside the liner, in case someday someone tries to sell it as original.

That's fine work for a first try.

Great job Bret!

That sure is a nice one...careful. As Dale would say, it's addicting!

Great work.

Glenn

Looks super!


What's your next project ?

And that is your first repair?

I wish my first repair looked that good!
That dogs head shield is killer!!!

Nice job!
Very impressive!

Thanks guys, and Dale, your tutorials were a big part of my success! I read everything I could you and Elvis and Muskratman wrote, and a few emails from Elvis. I still don't have the bone dyeing like I would like, and struggle with the center pin, but it is getting better.
I did one scale on a XX Moose, and welded up the tangs on it and an Olcut Cherry chopper before this knife.
Phil, I am not sure whats next, but we have plenty of junkers in need of work, that I got because "someday" I wanted to start working on them.

Looks like a fine job from here

I really like that shield! Mark.

Bret888 wrote: I am not sure whats next, but we have plenty of junkers in need of work, that I got because "someday" I wanted to start working on them.

It is all over now Bret, you are almost hooked.
Soon you will be selling your good knives to buy more "project" knives.

It is a good thing Kathy likes knives as much as you do!

3rd, 5th or even 20th project knife, ya done real good, Bret!! That ol' jewel was an ambitious undertaking from the start, way to stick with it!

WB

great job Bret!

I agree that is one fine job

Thanks everybody!
I did do one scale for a Case XX Moose before this. It had no snap, and both the spring and the tangs were worn badly. I welded up both springs and both blade tangs, made a soup bone scale, but broke a piece out at the center pin. I didn't relieve the hole at all. I guess if you don't have any problems, you don't learn anything.

The 1st tang job I tried was this Olcut Cherry chopper, that was broken apart with a nail for a pin. The spring was not worn, but the tang was down about .110.

Nice little chopper!

Glenn

I have to admit, with all the wedding planning I am doing, I didn't even know about this thread until today. I am so proud of Bret & his KA-Bar Camp knife! He took his time & worked at it a while. The shield he made impressed me the most...

When Bret puts his mind on doing something, he always does well. I have never met a more talented man. I am so excited to be his wife & spend the rest of my life with him!