Need help...

[WillyCamaro]

Sup crew.

I'm in need of help/suggestions/tips, on how to clean/polish this knife. It's a vintage Voss stag skinner, that arrived to day from Mr. Case . He gave me a really good deal on her, so it's worth spending the money, and getting her cleaned up.

Any leads will be greatly appreciated .

[herbva]

Willy, that's a beautiful knife and a great catch! There are many, many opinions on what you have asked. It just depends on what you want to achieve and what will make you happy with the knife. I will be happy to share my approach privately with you if you are interested.

[Meridian_Mike]

It looks like somebody "sharpened" it. There is a lot of scratches on the cutting edge. That area looks to be where the dark tarnish is showing up. Get it in hand and take a good look at the areas you want to address, You probably need to be very careful what you do at the deeply engraved area. One edge of that engraving is very close to the cutting edge.
It begin with, I probably wouldn't use an aggressive sand paper. Maybe start at about 500 grit and some oil and see how that does for you.
The bone handles may have aged to the yellow color. In my opinion, that is a BEAUTIFUL color for bone.
Good luck!

[Gunsil]

What do you expect to get out of it? Those grinder marks are awfully deep, and with a flat ground blade be near impossible to remove without destroying the engraved portion. The grinding marks are so deep 500 grit will not help one bit, you'd have to be down around 180 or 220 and then work back up to 1,000 in steps of 100 -150 grit to remove the scratches. There is a reason knives with such deep grinder marks are sold at low prices, the work getting rid of the marks can take a LOT of hours if done by hand. Doing it by hand is likely the best solution since a belt sander will be harder to avoid damaging the engraving. These 1960s-1980s German made hunters don't have a large collectors following so if you plan to use it just let it be, hours of sanding out the grinder marks will not increase value or user ability by much. By the way the sheath is from a Schrade hunter, not original to your knife. The stag handles were dyed, they did not age to that color by themselves. Pretty much all stag handle hunting knives use dyed and sealed stag otherwise they would be rather white in color when new and few are. PS that is sambar stag which is quite dense compared to American stag which has never been used on factory American knives such as Case or KA-BAR and the German or English knives.

[tongueriver]

The stag handles were dyed, they did not age to that color by themselves. Pretty much all stag handle hunting knives use dyed and sealed stag otherwise they would be rather white in color when new and few are.

That is interesting information. I have a knife with elk stag that I would like to duplicate that color; any suggestions?

[Gunsil]

Hard to say since elk and American deer is so much more porous than sambar stag.

[orvet]

That is interesting information. I have a knife with elk stag that I would like to duplicate that color; any suggestions?

There are of course many variables to get the true color,
The camera, lighting, my monitor, et.
That being said, the closest color I I can come to for the way it shows up on my screen, is Culpepper Sunset color.
If you sign up for their email list play every now and then send out announcements they're going to be dying a certain color. If you want antler or bone, or whatever else dyed I would call them to see when the next Sunset color run is scheduled.
Probably not a bad idea to check their other colors to see if there is one you like better, or is closer to the color of Willy's knife.

[tongueriver]

Thanks, Dale; I was referring to a knife I want to dye. But I am saving this info for future knives!

[orvet]

Thanks, Dale; I was referring to a knife I want to dye. But I am saving this info for future knives!

You are most welcome sir!
I had the privilege of visiting your beautiful state at the end of June. We visited my son and his family in Cheyenne.
It reminds me a lot of Southern Oregon where I grew up, just with considerably fewer trees, but still beautiful.
My wife who grew up in the Oregon coastal temperate rain forest was less convinced of the beauty.
We saw lots of antelope, something we don't have been Western Oregon.
You have a gorgeous state!

[kootenay joe]

I have learned to stay away from any knife with grinder marks on the blade. I think using a grinder to try to sharpen a blade actually 'wrecks' the blade.
It is quite possible that the heat generated by the grinder on the blade is sufficient to adversely affect the temper. It might make the steel too soft or too hard to take a good edge.
If this is not correct i hope someone will post a correction. I am light years away from being a steel 'expert'.
kj

[orvet]

About 1982 I started managing a cutlery store I was taught how to sharpen on a system that had been purchased from Gerber Legendary Blades, a few miles from the store. It consisted of a Baldor buffer motor with 2 sides, one was a 150 grit stone wheel and the other was a hard felt wheel used for removing the bur.
You have to sharpen into the oncoming edge of the wheel and you learn to move the blade quickly, or you will burn the blade.
It is also a dangerous system because the stone wheel can catch the oncoming edge of the knife and kick it back at you. I used sharpening system for several years for getting a 1 x 42 belt sander so we could sharpen large flat ground blades like slicing knives for restaurants and large thin slicing knives used for trimming Christmas trees. It's not practical nor safe to sharpen large flexible knives on that system.

It can be done with a slower grinder, 1700 RPM, and a finer 150 grit wheel. When I 1st started working on knives I re-created that system and eventually decided it was much safer to sharpen knives on a 1 x 42 and once you developed the right touch the 1 x 42 as faster, easier, I think it is a better job.
It is possible with the proper set up to sharpen knives on a stone bench grinder wheel. I highly recommended against it because most people have a greater that's too fast and stones that are way too course. Besides that is just not safe IMHO.

[Bill DeShivs]

Your knife blade was nickel plated after it was acid etched (not engraved.) That is why you see the discoloration where it was sharpened.

The blade could be cleaned up with much careful hand work, but then would have to be nickel plated again.

[kootenay joe]

Is the purpose of nickel plating to help prevent a carbon steel blade rusting ? Or just for looks, to make it shiny ?
kj

[cudgee]

Willy, one thing you may want to think about regarding the handle, i have had great success with keeping bone and stag handle in good condition by applying a light coat of orange oil and letting it dry over a couple of days, you can do this a few times depending on the state of the handle. I do this once a year on all my bone and stag handled knives, i only have to give a very light coat, rubbing it in lightly and leaving them for a couple of days. You could use any suitable oil, i only use orange oil because i have it on hand for conditioning wood and furniture. I am sure more experienced knife restorers will have there own views and way of doing things, this method works for me, and it is the old story, "Less Is More". Take care mate.

[Bill DeShivs]

Is the purpose of nickel plating to help prevent a carbon steel blade rusting ? Or just for looks, to make it shiny ?
kj

Rust prevention.
Plating doesn't make things shiny. It's only as shiny as the metal underneath.

[WillyCamaro]

Thank ya mate's for all the tips/advice/idea's, lot's to take in, so better get cracking at it. .

Here's the progress i've made so far, this afternoon.

Stag cleaned up wonderfully, better then I hoped for . Even did a little weathering on it, surprised how well it turned out.
For my first try cleaning up a fixed blade, came out far far better then planned.

[Reverand]

That does look much better!

[Meridian_Mike]

Yes sir! That looks much better for sure!

[WillyCamaro]

Thank you mates, truly appreciate it .

[WillyCamaro]

Hey Mates, I finished cleaning her up this morn, whole project turned out phenomenally better then i hoped for, expected. Yippie!
Even my Mom, who's absolutely not in knives, thought I did a wonderful job, thanks Mom!

Enjoy.

[Reverand]

I think that you managed to find that balance between doing too much, and leaving it a hot mess.
That was a fine line, but I think you walked it well.
Kudos!

[WillyCamaro]

Thank you Mr. Reverand, truly appreciate it .