All About Pocket Knives

So, when I fished this knife off the bay last year, I thought it might be a 31 pattern based on the seller's description of it being 3 3/4" long. But when it arrived, it was obviously not a 31, but a more slender, barehead jack with a long, solid steel front bolster. I posted it on this forum at the end of last year hoping to identify the pattern (Case Tested ID Help Requested - Maybe 32031????). Fortunately Steve (kinfealcoholic) identified it as a rare 32005, without the "razor" blade or pinched front bolsters. Wayne (btrwtr) graciously provided some information and a picture of this knife in Sargent's 4th edition. I was thinking about replacing the crumbling yellow celluloid scales with green bone, but I decided to follow sage advise from Wayne and Ken (Mumblypeg), and went with yellow delrin, in keeping with the knife's original appearance. Despite the advanced decomposition of the celluloid, I didn't find much of the usual outgassing damage, just a LOT of rust. Fortunately, this knife was made with very sturdy, thick steel liners and I didn't need to make new liners after all the rust was removed. And, now that I have everything cleaned up and back together, I am pretty sure that the secondary blade is a pen that probably suffered a broken tip sometime in its long life, and has been rather poorly reprofiled. I'm going to leave it alone for now, but I probably won't be able to resist the urge to improve the appearance of that pen blade. The first two pics are from my post last December, shown next to one of my 31's for comparison. Steve, Ken, and Wayne, thanks so much for your help!

Nice save Herb!!!
John

Looks great, Herb! That's the route I would have taken too, you did a great job at restoring this piece of Case knife history.

Very nice!
Treefarmer

Thats a very good repair. Where do you get your rivet material?

Herb! Thanks for preserving a rare knife and being true to its origin. Had it been a common pattern like an 18 medium stockman it would not have mattered. But being as uncommon as that one I'm glad you chose to put its birthday clothes back on it. Nice job!

Ken

Can be proud both of the knife and the work you did. Great save and thanks for sharing.

Great save! Looks really good. I know it makes you proud that you have the skills to do a great job.

RedBone6318 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 2:32 pm Thats a very good repair. Where do you get your rivet material?

No rivets. I used 5/64" NS rod to make the rocker and butt pins, and just peened the heads the old fashioned way, 1/16" NS rod for the scale pins and I actually used an ordinary steel nail to fashion the pivot pin so it would blend in with the steel bolsters.

Herb, that’s just great. I concur that you did the right thing going with yellow delrin. You’ve done a fantastic job.

I see what you mean by the pen reprofile, but I think I’d leave it alone for now.

herbva wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:34 pm

RedBone6318 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 2:32 pm Thats a very good repair. Where do you get your rivet material?

No rivets. I used 5/64" NS rod to make the rocker and butt pins, and just peened the heads the old fashioned way, 1/16" NS rod for the scale pins and I actually used an ordinary steel nail to fashion the pivot pin so it would blend in with the steel bolsters.

Thanks for the info.