All About Pocket Knives

One of the fellows at one of the local flea markets brought me a box of knives for repair. In the box was this old knife marked REHWAPPEN/SOLINGEN, I did some research and found that Rehwappen was a brand made by the Carl Linder company in Solingen.
http://www.worldknives.com/info/linder- ... hf-60.html

I even found a Rehwappen knife in one of the stores here on AAPK: http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 31199.html

From a search of the web it seems that most of the Rehwappen branded knives being made today are made for kitchen use.


Of course I forgot to take a picture of the knife in the original condition before I began working on it! But this pic was taken after I have removed the rotten stag handles and cleaned up the blade. My customer wanted a usable handle on the knife because he felt it was an excellent piece of steel. He said, “This knife will make someone an excellent user! It had really good steel in the blade!”

Here it the first pic I took of the knife; note the rotten stag handles on the bench in the upper right hand corner of the picture. The aluminum pommel of the knife was frozen to the threaded end of the tang and would not come off, the end of the tang broke instead. There is a process called electrolysis, IIRC, where dissimilar metals bond to one another (maybe someone else knows more about this than I do). Between the steel of the tang and the brass of the nut and the aluminum of the pommel it was pretty well fused solid. There is where I am gluing the first few layers of the handle. This is where I am gluing the last sections of the handle in blade. Because of the slant of the crown of the antler it was difficult to get as much downward pressure as I wanted, but with the improvised twisted wire clamp I was able to achieve adequate pressure. This is the shaping and sanding phase of finishing the handle. I decided to experiment with a different marking system on this knife so I made a shield and inlet it in the end of the stag crown. These are views of the finished knife: These are different views of the handle itself: The layers of the handle are as follows:
First the guard, which I made.
Next a ring of stabilized leather.
Black, red & black spacers.
A round of water buffalo horn.
A leather ring, red spacer and leather ring. These rings are not stabilized.
Lastly a section of deer antler with the crown intact.

It was a fun project and different than anything I had made before. I can see why knives made with this method are so expensive, it is very time consuming. It probably took me 12 to 15 hours to complete it, though no doubt the next one will go a bit faster.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Looking good Dale!

Beautiful work Dale!

Wow Dale, that looks awesome!

You never cease to amaze me with your skill and creativity.

Thanks guys!
I am glad you liked it.

This knife took me a ways out of my comfort zone, but I learned a few things and that keeps me in learning mode. Learning mode is exactly what I need on the next two projects coming, one of which I am already working on.

It ain't no "user" anymore.....it's a collectible now!!

Gorgeous Dale!!

Wow, you nailed it...great work!

Looks great! If you don't mind me asking - Did you stain or p-permanganate the antler?

I used potassium permanganate.

Great job on that one Dale! I like how you found a new way to inlet the shield to hide it but keep your sig on the hunter at the same time,,,,well done my friend!

Thanks Orvet, I am going into my p\p experiment stage.

Nice work, thanks for showing it.

That is very way cool. Nice work!

Great job Dale!

I like the piece of stag you used on that knife

Thanks Dimitri et al.
I was quite pleased with the results, especially for the first fixing a stick tang!

Beautiful!! Dale, you really knocked it out of the park with that one. Like the inletted shield on the crown.!
Dan