All About Pocket Knives

This beast has been in my "on deck" box for so long that I don't remember where I got it. I think I pried off the remains of the cracked up, outgassing cell immediately when it came in and it has rested peacefully since. I only recently noticed the tang stamp, which is quite weak (third pic), and I think this is a somewhat uncommon Case Sea Beast. Anyway, the first few pics are the knife apart, parts cleaned up, and the new scales attached and rough sanded. One of liners got munched on a bit by the outgassing cell, and I was going to make a new liner, but I was able to save it with some soldering which you can see in the first pic. The end of the scaler, which I believe is a hook remover, had one prong broken off. I sent the scaler to Gary Claxon and he did an incredible job of welding on a new hook remover prong for me. The new yellow covers are a synthetic material (maybe delrin?) that I got from Kaleb. I've done some other knives with this stuff and I really like it. The Case tang stamp chart in Steve's great book indicates that this tang stamp was used from 1916 to the 1920's. (I understand from another thread that this may or may not be a bit too early for stainless steel, but I don't want to get into that argument.) Finally, this beast was one of the few or maybe only knives that Case named and then engraved the name in the mark side scale (last pic from my copy of Sargent's). I would not dare to try engraving the "Sea Beast" name in the scale myself but would like to find someone who could do this for me. Any ideas?

Herb, I think any jewelry store that advertises engraving should be able to do the job. They use stencils with a pantograph engraving machine and usually have many fonts (lettering styles) available. Of course they also came with red paint in the lettering, so you'll need somebody with a tiny brush and steady hand to accomplish a full resto.

Nice work on a very nice old knife, Herb. I always take a Case fish knife when I go fishing (I used one today to clean some fish) but I have never seen one of those old knives. At 5.5 inches that one is a bit larger than the current Case fish knife.

Looks great, can't wait to see the finished product!

Nice Herb! This was the first style knife I ever owned as a young boy, and I remember so clearly due to the fish scaler! Hope you find a suitable engraver bud!

Nice job! I didn't even know this pattern existed!

I have a '65-69 fish knife I peeled the outgassing cell handles off before it became a problem, but the hook remover is snapped off the scaler. I have been "getting around" to repairing it for about 5 years now.

Nice work Herb!
My suggestion would also be to check with a Jeweler to see if he could do the engraving work.

Good luck!
Your knife looks great as is!

Man, did that turn out nice!
It looks like a brand new knife now that it’s done. Impressive work!
Jeff

Very nice. I have a thing for Fish Knives (Texas Toothpicks) and have a large Ulster Fisherman's Pride and a Western that Glen build for me from 2 knives. My very first knife purchase/first knife was a cheap white cracked ice fish knife from K-Mart.

So glad you were able to bring this Case back to life its a beauty!

Great job Herb Like new.

Nev

I was fortunate enough to see and coon finger this knife, Herb does excellent work, and so does Gary.