All About Pocket Knives

Hi Guys - Recently won this knife (Miller Bros Jack (4 & 1/4") for a good price and happy with the purchase overall - all is very good on it and I'll post full pics in the near future on the Knife Lore subforum (jigged bone handle perfect with no cracks - brass screws all good - main blade is close to full length with little sharpening) except the following: In the past life of this blade someone took a "grinder" - ughh - and touched the backside of blade on/under what looked like a swedge on the blade! Hate when I see this or hear of it - any grinder to an old blade - but as they say BS happens )... The photos will hopefully make it more clear but overall not much was shaved off - as the profile from the top, bottom and sides doesn't look too bad.. and the area has a patina making me think it was long ago.. and the front side of blade with pull is in great shape.. thank goodness )

So can this be buffed out or fixed? I think I would have to send it out for the repair - unless someone has a simple fix that I can do (a buff pad on a dremel for example with a proper buffing agent to take out scratches - if that makes any sense)... As you can see even this area has a patina so I assume it was done long ago but who knows... I assume if it can be buffed out the area would lose the patina and than I would need to decide if whole knife should be brought back to near new looking... I prefer the patina but professional clean jobs also have a great look on some knives...

Here is the pics (4 but can do another angle if needed - just let me know) and thanks for any advice on how to do it or recommendations of professionals who do this work, possible price, so I can consider what to do? Or would you just live with it?? I prefer blades with character and a story but not sure what to do with this one... I feel caught in the middle on this one (and not unhappy for a second I bought the knife at the price I offered - took a chance on it based on photos I had seen)... much appreciated!

Thanks - Lee

You can do a lot on that yourself with sandpaper. Start with a coarse grit and work to fine. The blade won't be back to original looking but you can clean up the grinding on it. Sending it out for repair is going to cost you some $. I was told about a guy in southern Indiana that charges $30 a blade to put a mirror finish on, but that probably depends on condition. If it is too bad then I doubt it could be done.
The obvious solution here is to find a replacement blade. Someone may have one, but if not watch ebay and try and find a damaged knife like yours with a better blade. The process of replacing a blade is simple. Dimitri (Miller Bros.) has a lot of Miller Bros blades and may have what you need?

The blade angles can be squared up and a patina re-applied, I would charge about $15 to do it. A full pro clean would be $35 and accomplish the same reprofiling. I however am not taking anything new on until at least october. You could do it by hand with sandpaper on a shim but the angles will usually end up rounded off slightly, no matter how hard you try to keep everything flat.

Here is a decent example of what can be done to clean up a ground up blade

That's nice work. man. Hope ya can get back to taking on new stuff soon, I need your help, too. Dang backsprings....

I have a skill orbit sander, and can use 80 medium sand paper, until it looks like the problem is gone, then I go down to 220, and pretty much can almost put a buff job on it, but then I use brasso with my 220 by hand to put a nice shine on the blade. I don't have a buffer, but this works fine, and looks good. Should have shown you a before and after, but to late.Doing it by hand is a long tiresome job. Think I paid forty bucks for the orbit sander at lowe's, and about ten bucks for sand paper, plus I can use it on a lot of other things. Paid for it's self on my last blade.

Thanks all!! If I attempt this myself what is the method for using 3M grit (wetordry finishing sandpaper) - work from 400-600-800-1000 or start at 200 or 320 and work up step by step (and I do have an orbit sander - is that not too aggressive? - may give the hand method a shot first - the scratches look bad in pic but can hardly feel them when dragging my nail across them). Dry blade or do I need something on it? Do you rub in only 1 direction - from tang to tip? I had read, I think, somewhere that 0000 steel wool does not affect patina - but is that too fine to remove the scratches? If the patina is removed what is the best way to put some back on... I guess if I do one side of blade I should do the same to the other so they match?? And finally and importantly - what should I avoid so as not to make the problem worse??

Be nice to not see the scratches though I know it will never be perfect - it is a Miller Bros equal end jack similar to the one on page 146 of Levines 3rd edition but this one with brass screws and 4 & 1/4" - the jigged bone, shield and bolsters are exactly the same... so will be keeping this one for me in the collection - just want to fix those annoying scratches - when I look at them I cringe LOL...

Muskrat Man (sorry I do not know your name) - in the end it may be best for me to send to you even if I attempt some simple fix as in first paragraph (if I understand the do's and don'ts correctly I may give it a shot).. I'll pm you.

Thanks very much again!
Lee

Everyone has their own way of doing things. There are no specific steps - find what works for you through experimentation. Here is a link with one person's method. Probably a good starting point.


http://www.100yearknives.com/knife-care ... ife-blade/