It was scaled in some kind of rubbery stuff and it showed plenty of scars.
The back side was just as bad.
It had a nice sharp stamp, but lots of scratches and it sort of marginally worked if you shook it a little. The plan was to pretty it up a lot. Everything was oxidized and the return spring for the blade release was badly deformed. To operate these knives, you flip the trap door aside with your thumb and then point it down and press the button. The blade should slip out freely and lock. To close the knife, you point it up, press the button and the blade drops in fully so that the trap door can close. The bale seems to indicate that these were some kind of military equipment.
The trap door turned out to be cast pot metal with a miniscule and broken spring. Duke told me he would do his best, but he didn't hold high hopes for a knife that was so cheaply made and beaten up. He couldn't do anything about the trap door, but he got the rest working pretty well and shined up the blade. He couldn't get rid of a few deep scratches and he was trying to preserve the stamp for me. By this time he had decided that repairing knives was a whole lot less fun than building them, so he good naturedly said that he would not be doing any more projects like this for me.
After consulting with the forum, particularly Jerryk25, Duke attempted to wind his own tension spring for the firing mechanism.
This turned out to be a really instructive phase of the project. Duke is confident now that he can create any coil spring he needs.
I think he did a great job with the spring.
So here's the redone knife, now scaled in some great streaky bovine with flush NS pins and no bale. We collaborated on the shape and pinning and it looked really nice. Look carefully at the point and you will see it's a bit blunted - this was the start of the down hill path for me.
I've been on hiatus from the forums for a while and I am just trying to catch up. The knife was sitting in my office and apparently I left it open. My grandson was visiting and I was moving stuff around to set up a video game for him, when the knife got knocked to the floor. Little did I realize at the time that it had landed point first and hit the concrete slab under the carpet.
A couple of more weeks went by and I finally got a chance to take photographs. Where did that blunted point come from? Then I remembered dropping it. Even worse, now it wouldn't close at all. Pretty soon I realized that the blade had warped. As I was bringing Duke up to date, he suggested that the blade was pretty soft and I should just bend it back. As a matter of fact, I had tried to do that very thing, but I couldn't seem to apply enough pressure where the bend was. So I wrapped the blade in some shop cloths and clamped the tang side down with a vice-grip and started to twist the tip with some channel locks ... then I heard the snap. Scheisse! I broke a big hunk of the tip off, and what was left still wouldn't close. At that juncture, I realized the knife was beyond hope, and it's a testament to my heavy handed ineptitude.
In this shot and the previous one you can see the line where it snapped. I kept the piece secured with a bit of clear tape, because I still needed to take pictures. I'm pretty good with the computer stuff, but I am a real klutz when doing anything beyond shinning these up with Flitz. When people ask what kind of knives I make, I am quick to point out that I am a collector and operate behind the computer ... not in the work shop.
So that's the story on this one, a waste of time and money, and I ruined an old knife. I also do brain surgery and heart transplants at very economical prices. Call now to schedule an appointment!
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