All About Pocket Knives

I bought three switchblade knives recently, all in need of repair. The first one was an 8.5 inch model with broken scales and severely damaged bolsters (it looked like someone had thrown it against a brick wall). That one turned out pretty good, I straightened everything out and rescaled it with light canary wood: I just finished up switchblade number 2 which was an 11 inch model supposedly made in Italy (the tang stamp seems somewhat suspect). I was surprised to find that the rear bolsters were not soldered on. I'm guessing that on the cheaper knives they don't bother with this detail. No worries, I soldered them on if for no other reason than I like them that way! So for the second knife I used Bubinga wood for the scales and on the rear scale I inset a patterned wood accent strip. The strip was a little bit wider than I would have liked but its living there now. Here's a pic of all of the parts with the scales attached to the liners and the rear bolsters soldered in place. For the scales for both of these knives I used a water based polyurethane because I was working indoors and the fumes from regular poly are somewhat intrusive. That being said I wont I wont use the water based product again. It doesn't do much for the wood, requires 6-8 coats for adequate coverage and isn't anywhere near as durable as the mineral based product.This is just my opinion of course so take it for what its worth.
I'm not a real fan of this size of switchblade, it seem a bit too large for my liking but it came with the lot. So I put everything back together and it fires and locks as expected so it goes on my shelf with the other one.
Here's a few pics of the finished knife: I'm learning as I go. I've got a few more Italian switchblades that I'm going to work on later this year. For now I'm moving on to a Mikov kit that I purchased directly from the Czech Republic.
I'll post some pics of that later this week.
Jeff

Great job Jeff! Those knives are really nice.

You are becoming quite the prolific mechanic with very eclectic tastes!

I very much enjoy the fact that you kept the "proud" scales on that switch (as they are supposed to be).
Some day soon sir... I will be "THAT" guy. Not today tho

Landersknives wrote:Great job Jeff! Those knives are really nice.

Thanks Ed!

They look good! What's the tang stamp on the one you're thinking isn't Italian?

americanedgetech wrote:You are becoming quite the prolific mechanic with very eclectic tastes!

I very much enjoy the fact that you kept the "proud" scales on that switch (as they are supposed to be).
Some day soon sir... I will be "THAT" guy. Not today tho

Thank you Ken! I appreciate the kind words.
I'm going to be working with some more of the wood insert strips on some additional knife handle scales over the next few weeks. I also just ordered some acrylic handle materials to try on some regular folding knives that need repairing (brightly colored with nice swirl patterns).
I'm starting to enjoy this hobby and hope to keep improving as I work through my next handful of projects.
Jeff

sam eib wrote:They look good! What's the tang stamp on the one you're thinking isn't Italian?

It's a simple stamp just Made Italy (Made is over Italy).
Thanks.
Jeff

Dude! I have some "Iron Wood, and some Purple Heart that I can send you slabs of.
The Iron wood is much like Mahogany when finished or it can be dyed as Ebony because the grain is so similar.
The Purple heart I do not know too much about but it looks like any tan/straight grain wood until you cut, and sand it.
It oxidizes into a BEAUTIFUL purple color.

If you are interested... Not asking for money... Just IF you are interested because I have a #hit load of both.

americanedgetech wrote:Dude! I have some "Iron Wood, and some Purple Heart that I can send you slabs of.
The Iron wood is much like Mahogany when finished or it can be dyed as Ebony because the grain is so similar.
The Purple heart I do not know too much about but it looks like any tan/straight grain wood until you cut, and sand it.
It oxidizes into a BEAUTIFUL purple color.

If you are interested... Not asking for money... Just IF you are interested because I have a #hit load of both.

I'm interested in both. I've worked with purple heart previously and like the color! I've never had the pleasure of working with ironwood but it looks like something I'd like to try. Feel free to drop me an e-mail or IM with the details (sizes, cost etc.).
Many thanks!
Jeff

Hey Jeff that's some real nice work you did there. Very impressive. Well done.

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Mike

XX Case XX wrote:Hey Jeff that's some real nice work you did there. Very impressive. Well done.

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Mike

Thanks Mike, I appreciate it!

Really nice work Jeff.

orvet wrote:Really nice work Jeff.

Thanks Dale!

Very knice!!!

Those look really nice! I haven't worked on any autos yet.

TripleF wrote:Very knice!!!

Thanks Scott!

glennbad wrote:Those look really nice! I haven't worked on any autos yet.

Thanks Glennbad!