All About Pocket Knives

Came across a vintage Camillus single blade (not sure of
model, complete, no scales.
Filed down pins/rivets and epoxied dyed/spalted oak scales.
She roughed in, not finished yet but coming along nicely.
Nicked the handle while removing extra material with a micro table saw, so instead of changing scale out, I use some orange G10 liner, epoxied in and left myself an Easter egg, for identification purposes, I guess…
(Seems to be my calling card, as I’ve done that a few times, now)

The knife looks like it was unfinished from the factory, possibly purchased during the bankruptcy sale.
Those handles look good on it! I would sand the bolster smooth, and file down the kick until the blade sits all of the way into the blade well. I have had several other unfinished factory knives (other brands), and those steps seem to be commonly needed.
What is the closed length of the knife? That will help in identifying the model number.

Reverand wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2026 2:11 am The knife looks like it was unfinished from the factory, possibly purchased during the bankruptcy sale.
Those handles look good on it! I would sand the bolster smooth, and file down the kick until the blade sits all of the way into the blade well. I have had several other unfinished factory knives (other brands), and those steps seem to be commonly needed.
What is the closed length of the knife? That will help in identifying the model number.

The closed length of the knife is 4 1/8”.
Yes, I believe it was a bankruptcy knife, I bought a dozen Colonial, Barlow branded small lockbacks the same way off eBay a few weeks ago. Yes, going to file down the exposed pins and mirror the brass, file the kick to lay down the blade in the well, not sure if anyone noticed, but I still have to shave down the wood at the lock well, final sand and I’m thinking Birchwood-Casey Tru-oil will those scales come to life and beautiful. Depending on how the wood absorbs the coating, maybe 6-8 coats with 0000 steel wool rubs in between each coat, then a 10,000 grit wet sand after final coat, buffing wheel treatment and Birchwood-Casey stock wax after that.

I’ve built several muzzle loader kits (redid an early 70’s Thompson Center Hawken and a couple Traditions new builds) refinishing and repairing pocket knives is a new hobby for me, much cheaper, smaller and a lot more fun, to be honest, I’ve been working on and building a lot of the RR kits for practice. I like to swap out the scales, use different finishing techniques on the bolsters and blades and have just been having fun with it all.
Thank you for the tips and kind words.
Greatly appreciated.

Oh I love spalted oak...doesn't matter what it's used for. That will look great when completed....

Lars0729 wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2026 12:30 pm Oh I love spalted oak...doesn't matter what it's used for. That will look great when completed....

Thanks, first time using it, kinda curious myself how it turns out after tru-oiling it, haha…

The wood choice is nice, has some nice character.

glennbad wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2026 4:15 pm The wood choice is nice, has some nice character.

I can’t take credit for that, haha.
I defer to my wife. She picks a lot of the scale materials I use.

Surprisingly, she has asked me to make her a little RR lockback kit.
This is the scale she chose.
And she chose a light green liner and wanted a border.
I’ve only just roughed this one in, just starting on it really, but here’s a sneak peak…
(She chose great colors)
I haven’t cut scales all the way down and they’re not wet sand to 20,000 grit yet, but I’ll be sure to post when complete.