another ‘no bottom bolster’

[portlandmike]

A couple of weeks ago I lost out on a unusual knife when eBay pulled a bunch of auctions. It was listed as a no bottom bolster. When I ran across this knife on Arizona custom knives I grabbed it quick without looking too closely and now I think I bought somebody else’s problem project. The swivel bolster is grinding into the horn and I think it’s going to crack if it hasn’t already. There is also a lot of glue? In those areas. Now I love the knife’s design and I only paid $95 so I’m thinking why not remove some broken horn, change that front bolster and make it a picklock? (Not me of course.. if it sounds feasible it would go off to Bill)

Let me know what you think...

Mike

[JimBrown257]

What did they tell you about that knife before they sold it?

[portlandmike]

I wish I could pull up the original auction but their site doesn’t seem to allow that. I can log in and view my purchases but it just shows the title and auction number not the description.

[JimBrown257]

Was it an auction?

And what is the stamp on the blade?

[JulesVane]

Hey Mike. Is that a Frank B bottomless bolster limited edition? I've seen some of the Frank B LE without the bottom bolsters that are attractive, but I've always felt they could have put a bit more "love" into the build quality of a limited edition. The scale damage appears to be more than just the swivel bolster as the culprit, like it was just rubbed the wrong way from the pics. I'm thinking you probably don't have the piece in hand yet for further inspection. The site you got it from must sell on consignment as their prices are all over the place. Good luck with it (of course).

[portlandmike]

Chris .. I've got it here.. are you referring to how rough the horn is?

Jeremy.. the stamp is Italy over Inox

[JimBrown257]

That is a customized modern knife. It's someone's first try (notice the oval hole for the button, sanded in edges at the top of the scales, bottom being sanded up to the pin and...lol, using the sear hole for the top pin on the back). I recognize such work as I did stuff like that at first too.

I am not sure what to make of the blade, though. At first I thought it could be a custom made one (which would be weird on that knife) but then I noticed the stamp. I think now it might be an altered production blade. I don't know what the blade would have looked like to start because of the line above the tang on the sharp side.

[portlandmike]

You think my idea would work? The more I play with it the front scale is almost ready to come off

[portlandmike]

Close up of the stamp

[portlandmike]

Well crap.. scale popped right off. Pins weren’t holding anything. Just glued...

[JulesVane]

[JimBrown257]

Glued!!

Well, the good news is that the bottom wasn't sanded down to the pin; it was just a fake pin that was too low.

Your idea would work but I don't know if you would want to put any more effort into a knife with that blade.

Also, can you pull the locktab back like on a picklock? Sometimes you can but sometimes you can't do it very easily. If it isn't easy now, it wouldn't make a good picklock.

[portlandmike]

It's pretty easy.. I was using like that at first trying to avoid the horn damage

[JimBrown257]

Could that have been a kris blade that was sanded down? In the pic above the one with the unglued scale, it looks like there is a little bit left of the grind on the back side.

[Bill DeShivs]

You should make Arizona Custom knives eat that!