All About Pocket Knives

I may have to finally put my fishing gear away for the year. The lake hasn't frozen yet but the temps outside are pretty chilly.
Started out by clearing a spot in the basement and putting a new workbench together (cant work in the garage, its too cold and I'm too old!): Still got a little organizing to do yet but its functional and serves its purpose.
I started looking through my box of knife purchases from last year and found two nice Camco 551 Barlow knives that needed some cleanup. Both had decent blades and good snap. Decided to re-handle the one with Royal Blue American Standard jigged bone handles and the other one with smooth amber colored handles.
The first candidate had some pretty deep grinder marks in the small blade as you can see in these photos: Disassembled and looking pretty grungy: Parts with some preliminary cleaning done; The finished knife; I re-polished the handles after these photos were taken with some pink no-scratch compound and it really brought the shine to the forefront. I left the pivot pin slightly protruding (its a personal preference thing, I know they're supposed to be ground down flush). This one will be headed to E-Bay.

Candidate No. 2 is still in process. Disassembled and looking pretty tired; After preliminary cleaning and a shot of the amber bone handles that will go on this knife; I don't do a lot of work with smooth bone but I like the look of this particular color. It should make for a really nice looking EDC. I'll post the completed knife pics when I get it done.
Jeff

Nice and really like the color and look of that smooth bone!

Very nice Jeff, good job

Doc B wrote:Nice and really like the color and look of that smooth bone!

Ditto!
Can't wait to see the final job.

Good to see you back at it. I wondered if you had been abducted by aliens!

OLDE CUTLER wrote:Good to see you back at it. I wondered if you had been abducted by aliens!

Thanks OC!
I haven’t had the pleasure of being abducted by aliens yet. If it ever happens I want to make sure they fix some of my health issues before they drop me back off on earth!

BWT wrote:Very nice Jeff, good job

Thank you!

Steve Warden wrote:

Doc B wrote:Nice and really like the color and look of that smooth bone!

Ditto!
Can't wait to see the final job.

Thanks!

OLDE CUTLER wrote: I wondered if you had been abducted by aliens!

____________
Mike

Jeffinn wrote: If it ever happens I want to make sure they fix some of my health issues before they drop me back off on earth!

__________
Mike

Waiting to see that smooth amber...

It looks like you are of to a great start!

glennbad wrote:Waiting to see that smooth amber...

It’s hard not to laugh at a Felix the cat pacing back and forth! Got a few Thanksgiving errands to run today then hopefully spend some time downstairs.

orvet wrote:It looks like you are of to a great start!

Thanks Dale! I still have a lot to learn but I seem to learn something with each knife.

Well the amber color changed a bit after cutting, shaping and sanding. Still nice but not the deeper brown color that I started out with. The blades on the amber colored knife were in pretty good shape so I left them as they were. I ended up with a small chip near the one pin hole that's hardly visible. And the bolsters were a little more pitted than I originally noticed but polished up okay. (I didn't want to polish away any more of the lettering so I stopped where its at).
All in all they both turned out decent. I think I'll just put these two together on E-Bay and move on to the next project. Thanks for looking!

SWEET!!
Those are beauties!!

Meridian_Mike wrote:SWEET!!
Those are beauties!!

Thanks Mike!
Still trying to get back in the groove. I’ve got a couple of dozen knives in my project box that are waiting for some attention. The Michigan winters are long enough that I should be able to get to all of them!

Well, there ya' go!
You have just pointed out the GOOD in a Michigan winter!

Love the amber, worth the wait!

glennbad wrote:Love the amber, worth the wait!

Thanks!
I’ve got an Ulster fishing knife up next. I own about 6-8 vintage folding fishing knives and I’ve got 3 or 4 more in my project box. I’m not sure what attracts me to them but I buy them whenever I see them priced right.
I keep saying I’m not a collector.....
Enjoy the holiday!

Meridian_Mike wrote:Well, there ya' go!
You have just pointed out the GOOD in a Michigan winter!

LOL! That’s the only good thing about winter. The older I get the less I like it.

Hope you don't mind but how long does it take you to do something like that?

That’s a good question and I don’t have an answer for you.
Since I do this as a hobby I don’t really pay attention to the time. I guess it depends on how much cleanup is needed, how many blades the knife has, what metal the blades are made of, the type of liners, handle materials etc.
I rarely finish a knife in one sitting preferring to spread it out over two or three sittings. Some of my work is done outside in the garage (bone sanding and rough metal polishing) and other processes are done in my small basement shop.
I guess I’d have to make an effort to track my time to give you a valid answer.
Thanks.