Winchester 2994 Rescue
Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 6:18 pm
I have been having eye problems the last couple months and had a hard time seeing until I got my new glasses last Friday.
I didn’t want to work on a customer’s knives, but I really wanted to work on a knife so I did a rescue job on a Winchester 2994 jack for myself.
Here are the BEFORE pics:
The knife had cracks in both handles, a broken pen blade, and a chip out of the mark side handle. The pile side handle was so badly cracked I didn’t think I could take it apart and get it back in with the pieces.
I cut the pins to dissemble the knife. Had I been able to see better I would have drilled the pins out but I didn’t feel I could do that without damaging the handles. Cutting the handle pins with a razor blade can stress and crack old bone handles. Perhaps that happened, but I think the bone on the pile side was so weak and even a bit pithy at the middle upper handle pin that I would have had real problems if I tried to remove the bone from the liner. Cutting the pins with a razor blade places most of the stress on the handles at the rocker pin, however there are no cracks at the rocker pins; but the handle pins above the rocker pin had cracks on both mark & pile side handles.
I pressed the pins from the bolsters with an arbor press so as not to further stress the bone by hammering on the pins to drive them out.
The mark side handle had a long pin crack at the upper handle pin in the middle. These pics were taken between coats of glue.
The pile side handle was cracked through the upper handle pin hole across the handle, and there was some pithy bone right at the pin. This pic was also taken between coats of glue.
I used Zap-A-Gap Thin on both sides of the crack, putting several layers of the thin CA glue in with a hypodermic needle. I used the same technique on the pile side after squirting alcohol under the scale to flush out the dirt. I used the needle to squirt the glue under the scale then clamped it until dry. Then I used multiple layers of thin CA into the crack injected with the needle. I kept the needle sealed when not in use and was surprised that the Zap Thin CA did not set up on the needle and syringe until a couple hours after I was finished using it.
After I was all finished with the gluing and (very carefully) reassembling the knife, I polished and buffed the handles to remove any excess glue and give it a little shine.
I decided not to try and repair the chip in the mark side handle. It doesn’t bother me and gives the knife a little character as well as showing its age.
I was quite happy with the results and the knife has been riding comfortably in the watch pocket of my jeans since I finished it! I do like that Winchester carbon steel, it takes a nice edge!
PS: Jerry, Mike and all other Marines- The background I used for the final pics is called a "Mug Rug." I picked it up at a local coffee shop for a few bucks. They are hand made by the owner’s mother. Sorry, but it has iced tea stains on it. I use it to set my glass of iced tea on when I am working at my bench so the condensation doesn’t get things on the bench wet. Pretty cool huh?
I didn’t want to work on a customer’s knives, but I really wanted to work on a knife so I did a rescue job on a Winchester 2994 jack for myself.
Here are the BEFORE pics:
The knife had cracks in both handles, a broken pen blade, and a chip out of the mark side handle. The pile side handle was so badly cracked I didn’t think I could take it apart and get it back in with the pieces.
I cut the pins to dissemble the knife. Had I been able to see better I would have drilled the pins out but I didn’t feel I could do that without damaging the handles. Cutting the handle pins with a razor blade can stress and crack old bone handles. Perhaps that happened, but I think the bone on the pile side was so weak and even a bit pithy at the middle upper handle pin that I would have had real problems if I tried to remove the bone from the liner. Cutting the pins with a razor blade places most of the stress on the handles at the rocker pin, however there are no cracks at the rocker pins; but the handle pins above the rocker pin had cracks on both mark & pile side handles.
After I was all finished with the gluing and (very carefully) reassembling the knife, I polished and buffed the handles to remove any excess glue and give it a little shine.
I decided not to try and repair the chip in the mark side handle. It doesn’t bother me and gives the knife a little character as well as showing its age.
I was quite happy with the results and the knife has been riding comfortably in the watch pocket of my jeans since I finished it! I do like that Winchester carbon steel, it takes a nice edge!
PS: Jerry, Mike and all other Marines- The background I used for the final pics is called a "Mug Rug." I picked it up at a local coffee shop for a few bucks. They are hand made by the owner’s mother. Sorry, but it has iced tea stains on it. I use it to set my glass of iced tea on when I am working at my bench so the condensation doesn’t get things on the bench wet. Pretty cool huh?
brought another one back to life 
Nice job on an awesome knife!!! 
