All About Pocket Knives

When Jack (TexasJack) sent me this knife for restoration I was intrigued by the old design and the fact that the stamp on the blade was obviously an old one. I could not find anything on it in my library so I emailed Bernard Levine some pics and asked if he could help me establish an approximate date of the knife. Jack said a friend gave the knife to him. The friend’s father had brought the knife home from WW II.

Bernard estimated the date of the knife to be in the 1920s and then when he checked the trademark in Carter’s book he found that particular version of the trademark was registered in 1922 and used until about 1940. Bernard said Carl Tillmanns introduced pattern in the US when he as at Utica (previously he had been at Camillus). Tillmanns had emigrated from Solingen. Tillmanns ended up at Remington and this pattern was the basis of the Remington R1306 without the lock release lever. Interesting historical background! Bernard’s estimate fit nicely with the known back ground of the knife.


A-This is how the knife arrived and came out of the box. B-Blade stamps of storks. They were called cranes when they were marketed in the USA. C-Knife in component parts – note rust. Moisture had gotten between handle & liner causing rust and some rot of the wood. I sanded the wood to get to solid wood and then glued it on with epoxy to prevent moisture from getting between them again. D-this shows the wedge of some type material (possibly Bakelite?) that is the rear spacer between liners & a stop for the end of the spring. E-Knife in pieces F-Note enlarged pile side pivot pin hole G-My home made device for making big heads on larger pins, I this case .0980”, slightly larger than 3/32”. It was made from a flaring tool, the part that holds the tubing. I reversed the halves and drilled a 3/32” (.0938”) hole to hold the .0980” pin while hammering on the end with a ball peen hammer. H-Cutaway of device I-Pin stock in device, head being formed with hammer J-Large head pin ready K-Finished pin
I will end this post and continue in the next post so I can add more pictures.

L-Test fit of pin M-Test fitting of parts in knife to show knife as cutaway N-Knife pinned together O-Filing pivot pin P-Sanding bolsters. Note: NEVER leave a knife unattended in a vise & NEVER put a knife in a vise without protecting the tip, i.e. protecting yourself from the tip! Q-Knife all finished except for sanding, waxing and polishing. I used a coat of Birchwood Casey Gun Stock wax and then applied a coat of carnauba wax with a loose buffing wheel.
Since this is about a 90 year old knife I did not remove the history from the knife by removing all the dents, dings, nicks and scratches from the knife. I did use a Scotch Brite wheel on the blade and liners to remove the rust. Unfortunately it also removes most of the patina, but rust removal is necessary if the knife is to survive another 90 years in usable condition. I did not try to make the bolsters look perfect, but left evidence of the large pivot pin hole in the form of an outline of the head. To remove all evidence of it would have removed too much metal and not looked right on the old knife.

Here are some scans of the finished knife. These were taken on my scratched old scanner, but you can get an idea of what it looks like.

An inside view. Compare to pic 'D' in the first post. The inside rust is gone. This is the restored knife in the fully open position looking at the mark side. Another view of the mark side. Pile side view. I believe the little fine scratches are not scratches but fibers from the buffing wheel.
This was a fun restoration project. I got towork on a design of knife I had not worked with before, learned a bit of knife history I was unfamiliar with and really enjoyed myself. It took a lot of time, but this is my hobby. Hobbies are supposed to be time consuming, but what is important to me is learning, making friends and sharing what I have learned. I feel I have accomplished all three with this project.

Thank you Jack, for trusting me to restore your treasured piece of history!

It looks great. Just for my knowledge why did you have to flare the pin before putting it in?

rexstubbins wrote:It looks great. Just for my knowledge why did you have to flare the pin before putting it in?

Someone had wallowed out the pile side pin hole to over 1/8” (see pic D first post).
In order to make the knife look as original as possible I needed to fill the hole, adding a washer was not a viable option, IMO.
In order to fill the hole yet still have a pivot pin the correct diameter I just made a big head on one end of the pin and still had the 3/32 pin for the blades to pivot on.

It worked easier than I thought. I had never made such a large head on such a small pin before; usually I use that device for making heads on 1/8” pins to add a little taper to set the pin in a beveled hole.

The process worked like a charm, in fact the pin head was about ¼” after I made it, I had to turn it down before installing it.

Now I get it. I don't think I'd want to drill the blade to 1/8" either.

I am looking forward to getting it back

I am already getting that feeling that I will probably only have it for a few days because I really think I will give it back to my friend as a surprise. It was his father that captured it in WW2 and I know it will mean more to him than it ever can to me.

I'm sure he gave it to me because he saw it falling apart. Now it's good for another 100 years.

That came out great , Dale! It looks just like the one I did some time back, the construction was exactly the same. I too, found it to be a very interesting project. You put some great life back in that one!

I found that old thread. You kept yours much more original than mine. The only thing left original was the blade and the spring...

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 37&t=36209

I like how you approached the project and treated the knife with dignity Dale.Nice.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

Glenn- I forgot that you had done one like it.
(Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most!)

My Friend picked up his father's knife today. He was so happy about it and this whole restoration couldn't have ended better.
The Knife is back where it belongs and it can be passed down to future generations.
A real piece of History!
Thanks again Dale for bringing this old knife back to life.

Glad he liked it Jack.
That was a fun knife to work on.
Restoring knives that have a family history and special meaning to people is the most rewarding part of knife repair for me.