Restoration of a Couple Western Products
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 8:55 am
Here are a couple more Western products that I restored recently.
The Coast Cutlery knife is a Western product made for Coast Cutlery Portland Oregon. Coast Cutlery was one of the companies I bought from when I managed the cutlery store in the 1980s. At one time they were a large distributor as well as a jobber for a number of companies. They did a lot of private-label knives, or what we as collectors known as SFO's. I have had a few of their fixed blades made by Western and I think they are every bit as good as the Western knives, may be even better. They are still in business.
For this knife I replaced the rotted leather handle and I also made some of the colored rings from spacer material and replaced about half of the rings on the handle. It was not difficult to do, just a little tricky figuring everything, out after that it was straightforward.
The W66 was in pretty good shape except for the ugly wood handle!
The new handle of the W66 is a color of Culpepper bone I have not used before, Culpepper calls it Crimson Fire Oak CSB. It turned out to be very red, but not quite fire engine red, which pleased me. I also use some liner material to build up the handles because the bone was not thick enough to rise to the level of the guard and the pommel. There was no sheath with the W66, so I made one that is patterned after one that Western made. The snap on the strap is covered with leather inside so that it does not scratch the bone handle.
I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Knife Mechanics note:
The star mosaic pins were made by Sally Martin, a member of the Oregon Knife Collectors Association (OKCA). She and her husband Gene run Provision Forge: https://customknife.com/index.php
Her mosaic pins are available on their website, or at the OKCA show April 13 and 14. Sally and Gene both served in the Marine Corps and their tables at the OKCA show are about one aisle away from mine. They are great people and Sally's mosaic pins are very good quality and less expensive than most knife making websites. She has some unique mosaic pins that are not available elsewhere.
Mosaic pins can be incredibly expensive especially if you're just doing a handful of knives. But they really do dress a knife up and make it look more finished, IMHO.
The Coast Cutlery knife is a Western product made for Coast Cutlery Portland Oregon. Coast Cutlery was one of the companies I bought from when I managed the cutlery store in the 1980s. At one time they were a large distributor as well as a jobber for a number of companies. They did a lot of private-label knives, or what we as collectors known as SFO's. I have had a few of their fixed blades made by Western and I think they are every bit as good as the Western knives, may be even better. They are still in business.
For this knife I replaced the rotted leather handle and I also made some of the colored rings from spacer material and replaced about half of the rings on the handle. It was not difficult to do, just a little tricky figuring everything, out after that it was straightforward.
The W66 was in pretty good shape except for the ugly wood handle!
The new handle of the W66 is a color of Culpepper bone I have not used before, Culpepper calls it Crimson Fire Oak CSB. It turned out to be very red, but not quite fire engine red, which pleased me. I also use some liner material to build up the handles because the bone was not thick enough to rise to the level of the guard and the pommel. There was no sheath with the W66, so I made one that is patterned after one that Western made. The snap on the strap is covered with leather inside so that it does not scratch the bone handle.
I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Knife Mechanics note:
The star mosaic pins were made by Sally Martin, a member of the Oregon Knife Collectors Association (OKCA). She and her husband Gene run Provision Forge: https://customknife.com/index.php
Her mosaic pins are available on their website, or at the OKCA show April 13 and 14. Sally and Gene both served in the Marine Corps and their tables at the OKCA show are about one aisle away from mine. They are great people and Sally's mosaic pins are very good quality and less expensive than most knife making websites. She has some unique mosaic pins that are not available elsewhere.
Mosaic pins can be incredibly expensive especially if you're just doing a handful of knives. But they really do dress a knife up and make it look more finished, IMHO.
