All About Pocket Knives

I'm a new member and I posted an antique silver fruit knife the other day asking for info. No luck on the ID, but I thought I'd post some of my pocket knives found while metal detecting just for fun. Not a pretty sight, but a few of the surface finds aren't that bad. I really need to toss most of them out. One of the really bad habits of detectorists is saving stuff that should be thrown out!

It's hard to tell from the picture but it looks like a couple of those might have been decent knives at one time. The one on the top left corner looks like it was probably an Imperial Boy Scout knife. Not super valuable but definitely a decent knife. The lock back, second knife from the left on the bottom row, looks like it has some possibilities, it may be a Schrade LB5 or a Buck. If the blade is in decent shape it might be salvageable if you clean it up and sharpen it!
I bet it was fun finding them!

SkynyrdTim1962 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 16, 2026 6:29 am I'm a new member and I posted an antique silver fruit knife the other day asking for info. No luck on the ID, but I thought I'd post some of my pocket knives found while metal detecting just for fun. Not a pretty sight, but a few of the surface finds aren't that bad. I really need to toss most of them out. One of the really bad habits of detectorists is saving stuff that should be thrown out!

That sounds like a fun hobby! Thanks for showing them!!

That is a horror. You should have found them sooner so they wouldn't be so rusty. lol

Pick up a $13 ¼ gallon of Evapo-Rust and give them a good soak. What have you got to lose?

And to AAPK!

My advice is to re-bury them. They deserve a respectful funeral, and burial.

Ken

There ya go!
Embalm 'em with the Evapo-rust. If they show some signs of life, bonus. If not, time for employing Ken's advice.

Oh wow! There it is! I've been looking for that one there in the middle for years now! Must have fallen out of my pocket, glad it's been found.

The one in the middle looks to be real brontosaurus bone, likely from the late Jurassic period.

I may be mistaken, could be triceratop.

Do you ever find anything good? Silver coins, gold rings.

Harold

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Jan 16, 2026 1:07 pm Pick up a $13 ¼ gallon of Evapo-Rust and give them a good soak. What have you got to lose?

And to AAPK!

$13.

peanut740 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 16, 2026 6:31 pm

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Jan 16, 2026 1:07 pm Pick up a $13 ¼ gallon of Evapo-Rust and give them a good soak. What have you got to lose?

And to AAPK!

$13.

I used to go metal detectoring with my grandpa when I was a boy….actually, he did the detecting part, I was the designated digger We found a lot of keys and coins but mostly we dug up a lot of bottle caps, never any pocket knives

If you like British humor, you’ll enjoy this series. I got the three-season dvd box set which my wife and I watched. Highly recommended

Two of them look to be in pretty good condition. Far right top row appears to be a rubber handled lockback, missing the black plastic opening disc. Far left second row is definitely a Harbor Freight "special". Both, of course, made in China, but both workable throwaway EDC. Not great, but not terrible. I wouldn't expect either to hold up under "hard use".

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Jan 16, 2026 1:07 pm Pick up a $13 ¼ gallon of Evapo-Rust and give them a good soak. What have you got to lose?

And to AAPK!

I actually did that to a few--some I got in the POS Exchange turned out great. The other (a Boker Stockman my Granddad and I both forgot was celluoid) got the thick layer of rust off, but the backsprings were so pitted, they just snapped.

I don't know how "carbon migration" as they call it might affect small, thin blades--but I will say this--every axe I dipped had the bit (which is typically a lot harder than the rest of the head) get really dark compared to the rest of it.

A fairly large portion of these look to me like once the rust is cleaned off, they will be perfectly usable, if not presentable.

I need to get mine fixed up--it's a cheap one, so I may upgrade.

I've mostly found nails, chains (one has a hand-forged hook--so it's obviously long before when my folks moved here in the '60s), and the occasional mule/horseshoe--but I still haven't found the log tongs (which were antiques then 20 years ago) or the 3-4 pairs of pliers I've lost.

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed seeing them.

cody6268 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 16, 2026 11:19 pm

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Jan 16, 2026 1:07 pm Pick up a $13 ¼ gallon of Evapo-Rust and give them a good soak. What have you got to lose?

And to AAPK!

I actually did that to a few--some I got in the POS Exchange turned out great. The other (a Boker Stockman my Granddad and I both forgot was celluoid) got the thick layer of rust off, but the backsprings were so pitted, they just snapped.

I don't know how "carbon migration" as they call it might affect small, thin blades--but I will say this--every axe I dipped had the bit (which is typically a lot harder than the rest of the head) get really dark compared to the rest of it.

A fairly large portion of these look to me like once the rust is cleaned off, they will be perfectly usable, if not presentable.

Glad to read you're had some success with it, Cody. I've only seen people use it on YouTube.

Ha, rusty old things people keep! As somebody who's been metal detecting for 55 years I have too many pieces of rusty junk too although I learned to toss rusted pocket knives years ago. They are very common finds, so many people lose them. Remington did a study on the longevity of pocket knives and they determined the half life of a pocket knife was two years. That is that after being sold in two years half of them would be lost or broken and in another two years half of those would be lost or broken and so on. I know I have lost many, mostly as a child or teen, but some as an adult. Trying to resurrect those old knives is futile, carbon steel does not survive very long in the ground.

Years ago did a fair bit of metal detecting. Found some nice coins. Seems always found 2 -5 pocket knives when trying sites that had been locations of a country school.

Gunsil wrote: ↑Sun Jan 18, 2026 3:43 pm Ha, rusty old things people keep! As somebody who's been metal detecting for 55 years I have too many pieces of rusty junk too although I learned to toss rusted pocket knives years ago. They are very common finds, so many people lose them. Remington did a study on the longevity of pocket knives and they determined the half life of a pocket knife was two years. That is that after being sold in two years half of them would be lost or broken and in another two years half of those would be lost or broken and so on.

Gene, I recall reading that same study, or at least the results. That’s why old pre-1970 (before collecting knives became a popular hobby) survivors interest me so much more than “modern” knives.

Ken

I found 1 metal detecting a few years ago I think it was a camillus scout knife. A few days later remembered it was one I lost in the 70s

Do you ever find anything good? Silver coins, gold rings.

Definitely. I've found dozens of silver coins over the years, including a few Spanish 1/2 reales from the 1700's. My best coin find was an 1878 Carson City dime that I sold for $475 on eBay. Quite a few silver rings and some gold as well. My best gold find was a 1960's Omega Constellation wristwatch with a 14k case. Watch was trashed, but I sold the case for almost 1k last year.

Here's a few of my finds:

Ha, rusty old things people keep! As somebody who's been metal detecting for 55 years I have too many pieces of rusty junk too although I learned to toss rusted pocket knives years ago.

I will weed out some of these pocket knives now that I see how bad they've gotten sitting in a box for years. Now if I could just get up the courage to toss my collection of over 2,000 used shotgun shells...