All About Pocket Knives

I made it down to my shop the other day. It's been a while since I made time or had time to do so, and I intended to do some light cleaning, oiling and sharpening. I selected this specimen. I had found it at a "store" of sorts, but was more of a permanent roadside rummage sale with everything stored outside. This poor old 23 was just about rusted shut. It was a known quantity from Orr Felt and Blanket but only said something like " rr el n bl t " through fading ink. A man named Jeb had scratched his name on the mark side as well. I set about to see if it could be used as is or if it would want for new scales. I used an abrasive bit on a dremel to cut in some jigging. I'm not thrilled with the pattern, but I did have some lines I had to follow to cover existing scratches and eliminate Jeb's claim to my knife. For the steel and bolsters those were hand sanded. You chase scratches for a while but then eventually say ok that's enough, it'd be good to still have metal in place when I'm done. Dye was accomplished with a 15 minute simmer in a 180⁰ rit dye bath. The dye was deeper than I would have thought.

Next attempt at something similar I will dye then jig. I attempted to sand after this was dyed to make it look hafted and gradient, but mostly it was just ruining the finish making it more flat and less shiny, so I left it be.

It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's serviceable. I thought I'd share with the group for while not a resounding success, the dye proved effective. Interesting to see what can be done with old synthetics. Im assuming this is delrin, but it's much harder than other delrin I've messed with.

ThatWeirdKnifeGuy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 3:55 pm It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's serviceable.

I think that's a good effort. You got a 23 back in service and it's very presentable.
23's are pretty good knives. We need all of them we can get.
Poor ol' Jeb dosen't know what he's missing.

Ol' Jeb should have taken better care of that knife! But I am glad that you have restored it.
I would not have thought of dying plastic handles like that. Bravo for experimenting with it! The jigging pattern looks like a barbed wire jigging to me. Good job!

ThatWeirdKnifeGuy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 3:55 pm I used an abrasive bit on a dremel to cut in some jigging. I'm not thrilled with the pattern
The dye was deeper than I would have thought.
It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's serviceable.

Not too shabby....in fact, I give it a I kind of like the random "drunk worm groove" jigging pattern.....like the color, too.....nice save

FRJ wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 4:32 pm

ThatWeirdKnifeGuy wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 3:55 pm It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's serviceable.

I think that's a good effort. You got a 23 back in service and it's very presentable.
23's are pretty good knives. We need all of them we can get.
Poor ol' Jeb dosen't know what he's missing.

Thank you sir, I appreciate that and I agree. Such a sturdy user knife, would be a shame to let it go back to the Earth.

Reverand wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 5:46 pm Ol' Jeb should have taken better care of that knife! But I am glad that you have restored it.
I would not have thought of dying plastic handles like that. Bravo for experimenting with it! The jigging pattern looks like a barbed wire jigging to me. Good job!

Thanks Rev. In another post at another time you recommended some abrasive dremel bits for jigging, which is what I used this time

QTCut5 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 6:23 pm "drunk worm groove"

Yessssssss. Will patent that

Nice save...now to find Jeb!