The,"SABRE SKELETON".......
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 7:58 pm
A couple weeks ago I was at the flea market and a woman who was set up outside had this in the bottom of a box of "knives of lesser quality". It looked interesting but both handles were broken and some pieces of them were missing entirely. When I mentioned that it was too bad it was in such bad repair she wound up giving it to me. I of course immediately gave her a penny and told her the tradition of giving a coin when presented with a knife.
It had been sitting on my work bench ever since and the other day I decided to repair it. Went down to the local building supply shop and got a small piece of 1/8th inch Plexiglas for a couple bucks and proceeded to make some new handles.Ground off the heads of the rivets on one side and drove them out with a small punch. Traced what remained of the handles and transferred it onto the Plexiglas.Measuring the rivet diameter I selected a drill bit and put it in my Exacto hand drill and clamping the old piece of handle to two layers of Plexiglas carefully drilled out the new rivet holes. I find that if you use a hand drill you will have less chance of the plastic cracking. After making sure that everything fit together properly I ground the handles to their almost final shape(still clamped together)and fitted them to the blade,back spring and rocker lock. I finished the bevels with a file and 320 grit sandpaper and polished them with Mother's Mag Wheel Polish.
On final assembly I noticed the blade had some side to side play so I VERY gently tapped the pivot pin with a hammer against the flat on my vise. I was afraid I would crack the handles if I hammered too much. Not leaving well enough alone I decided to firm up all the rivets and while doing one of the rear ones cracked the handle!
I decided to leave it as is for now and maybe make another handle at some future date.
The finished knife is nothing valuable to be sure but kind of a unique piece and unique is what I like.
It had been sitting on my work bench ever since and the other day I decided to repair it. Went down to the local building supply shop and got a small piece of 1/8th inch Plexiglas for a couple bucks and proceeded to make some new handles.Ground off the heads of the rivets on one side and drove them out with a small punch. Traced what remained of the handles and transferred it onto the Plexiglas.Measuring the rivet diameter I selected a drill bit and put it in my Exacto hand drill and clamping the old piece of handle to two layers of Plexiglas carefully drilled out the new rivet holes. I find that if you use a hand drill you will have less chance of the plastic cracking. After making sure that everything fit together properly I ground the handles to their almost final shape(still clamped together)and fitted them to the blade,back spring and rocker lock. I finished the bevels with a file and 320 grit sandpaper and polished them with Mother's Mag Wheel Polish.
On final assembly I noticed the blade had some side to side play so I VERY gently tapped the pivot pin with a hammer against the flat on my vise. I was afraid I would crack the handles if I hammered too much. Not leaving well enough alone I decided to firm up all the rivets and while doing one of the rear ones cracked the handle!
I decided to leave it as is for now and maybe make another handle at some future date.The finished knife is nothing valuable to be sure but kind of a unique piece and unique is what I like.
Not Crazy about the Covers , Would have looked more modern with some Acrillic or G10 , plastic just looks too clear, nice knife thought ,Good Job !__ K.C. 
