All About Pocket Knives

This Camillus 4-line peanut had obviously suffered from outgassing. The main was worn, but not too badly. The pen blade looked good but had no snap. Upon disassembly I found that the tang was worn Out on the pen blade. I didn't have another, so I took a broken Camillus spey blade and re-profiled it into a pen blade. The new nail nick is not perfect, but good enough! Decided on some Catalina Nutmeg bone from Culpeppers. This is was my first time re-handling a knife in bone. (Why didn't you guys warn me that it would crack this easily?) So after cracking the bone IN THREE PLACES, I finally got it all back together. I need to sand it by hand some (I'd had it hafted nicely, but got the bone into the sander again later when trying to smooth the bolsters). Lessons learned:
1) Buy a pin spinner. The one I made doesn't work well, and peening is more difficult with bone.
2) Get a better sander. 4x36 belt sander is good for some things, but too big for other jobs.

Great work and great save Reverand! The handles look nice. Wish I had your talents to restore old knives. They would definitely be more in my price class. After they have been restored they are really beautiful little jewels.
Keep up the great work!

Remember, mistakes are only mistakes if we don't learn from them. If we learn something, it was a lesson.
We get to decide.

The word lesson is also an interesting word if you think about it. It can be defined as a period of learning or teaching.
I guess "mistakes" are "lessons" that can also be called "learning by doing". But what do I know?

Tom

Beautiful work Reverand. I really like the way you reshaped that blade. I have tried that a few times with blades I have my spare parts collection, but most of the time the pin hole, tang thickness or something else doesn't line up properly. I've experimented with a number of different sanders for removing the excess scale material and now exclusively use a sanding drum cylinder on my drill press. You can hold the piece you are working on in your hand and sand right up to edge of the liner. I use super coarse sanding cylinders and they make quick work of it. I even have my vacuum cleaner rigged up to the platform part of the drill press so I'm not breathing any of the dust. If you are interested, I'll be glad to take pics of my setup.

That looks great Reverend!

Nice job rev!
Cracking a bone handle from time to time is just part of the learning process. I still like working with bone, for me it gives the most bang for the buck. I’ve worked with micarta, acrylic and hardwood and I keep coming back to bone. Others may disagree.
Keep doing what you’re doing, it looks good!
Jeff

Great job Reverand!
I really like the color of the bone!

2 thumbs up!

Jeffinn wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2019 3:01 pm
Cracking a bone handle from time to time is just part of the learning process. I still like working with bone, for me it gives the most bang for the buck. I’ve worked with micarta, acrylic and hardwood and I keep coming back to bone. Others may disagree.

Jeff

I'm with you Jeff!
Bone does take some finesse when putting in pins but I just LOVE the look!

Excellent job Reverand. I bet the smaller the harder when working on knives. That one looks good.

I love the warmth of that bone. Nice work!