All About Pocket Knives

I'm the new owner of the tortoise shell puller knife that Muskrat Man had in his AAPK store. I love the knife. In fact so much that I decided to try and make one of my own. It took me months to find an old knife with shell puller bolsters. Then I had to find the right knife. This knife began life as a German Bartender's knife with shell handles, but it was about the right size I was looking for. A friend of mine told me he had an elk antler I could use for material if I wanted it and that is what the handles were taken from. The knife isn't as good as it looks. The shell pullers are curved and hollow. I tried to solder then to the edge of the liners and wasted half a roll of solder. Ended up using 2 part epoxy to hold them on the liner and then the blade pin went through to help hold them on. It is solid - or so it seems.

That is nice, looks like a classic european hunter's knife. I think I have a bunch of the hollow shellpuller bolsters here somewhere that I have replaced with solid ones if you want them to play with?

Nice work Bob, it looks great!

Just a thought; with the hollow bolsters as a pattern, it should be pretty easy to make new bolsters out of nickel silver or brass bar stock.
I have made a lot of replacement bolsters, it is pretty easy if you have a couple good files and the bar stock.

Dale though I'm retired and supposed to have all of the time in the world I seldom get a solid 4 hour block of time to dedicate to knife repair. I try to find projects I can do in 1 or 2 sittings. I'd like to try and make some shell puller bolsters but right now just don't have time.

just bob wrote:Dale though I'm retired and supposed to have all of the time in the world I seldom get a solid 4 hour block of time to dedicate to knife repair. I try to find projects I can do in 1 or 2 sittings. I'd like to try and make some shell puller bolsters but right now just don't have time.

Boy! Do I ever understand that!
I have never been as busy as I have been since I "retired!"