- Joined
- Sep 28, 2005
- Messages
- 4,527
So I had a couple of minutes to spare, was nearby, so I stopped into a local antique mall recently, primarily looking for interesting slipjoints, as they are usually cheaper, and I had less than a $20 to part with. I came home with these two- punch stockman and 3 blade shadow pattern in acrylic or other plastic (I'm not familiar with the different synthetics beyond micarta/G10). Both have issues, but for 9 and 6 dollars respectively I couldn't go wrong.
The punch stockman:
I was very intrigued when I saw this in the display. 3 7/8", punch, long pull on the clip, pinched bolsters. Sad that this knife has seen so much use that the backspring has been beaten back so that the blade keeps on opening to an odd angle, but obviously well used. For $9, not too bad, although I was more intrigued when I opened it to take a look: National Stock Knife stamped on the blade itself. On the tang only 3249, under which was the words "Blue Steel". Could this be made of Japanese Blue steel? Or is it the name of the company? A quick search here has turned up nothing, so I'm putting my hopes (not much) on it being the Japanese steel. Both the punch and Spey (great combination for me) are sterile, with great walk and talk. The clip blade will still do some walking and talking, but the backspring being pushed back softenes the end of the close and open. There is a small chip taken out of the bone under the center pin, and the federal shield is missing a pin (know it was double pinned and glad it was so that the shield is still there). Not the perfect find but I like it so far. Too bad that I'll have to replace the backspring on the master blade, would have gone right into my pocket otherwise.This one was obviously well taken care of, but used nonetheless with the peening of the backspring,and minor dents in the edge.
The shadow has no washers to protect the handle material, so "naturally" they split.
It is an Imperial, Mexico on the back of the master blade. I have not seen/noticed a washerless shadow pattern, this one shows me why! All other blades sterile, all three swedged and fit together nicely. The interesting thing that led me to get it was the second blade has a long pull, while the rest are nail nicks. All of the other knives I have seen since paying attention to traditionals have a master long pull, but this one its only on a secondary blade. This fact combined with the obvious use made me put the $6 on the table, despite me not caring for pen blades. Can't really go wrong for $6- I don't smoke, don't drink coffee, so easy to justify a couple of bucks. Sharpened up beautifully, despite the fact that the master blade slips past the spring on the liner side as the pin no longer holds everything together well.
I have some work to do to get these back to working shape- re-handling the Imperial, and figuring out a way to replace the backspring on the "Blue Steel", but for $15 bucks I could put these in my pocket and get work done- they both sharpened nicely, both appear to have a form of patina, too bad they were sharpened roughly and the Blue Steel looks like somebody took a machine sharpener to it.
If anybody has any info on the knives (especially the punch stockman) feel free to let me know, and if anybody has suggestions on fixing them, feel free to (PM or here is okay with me). I've heard of trying to re-pein the backspring, but think this one is too far gone or too soft to make it worth trying this approach- afraid I'll have to bite the bullet and get a new backspring made- well find somebody to make it for me that is.
Thanks for looking and for any information/advice that could be given! Not the most beautiful or impressive finds, but knives I can use to slice with, carefully now, hopefully better when I get work done on them. If aanybody know who does work on slipjoints feel free to let me know by PM, I have not really paid attention to that aspect of traditionals, and replacing the spring is a bit beyond me at the moment.
Kris
The punch stockman:
I was very intrigued when I saw this in the display. 3 7/8", punch, long pull on the clip, pinched bolsters. Sad that this knife has seen so much use that the backspring has been beaten back so that the blade keeps on opening to an odd angle, but obviously well used. For $9, not too bad, although I was more intrigued when I opened it to take a look: National Stock Knife stamped on the blade itself. On the tang only 3249, under which was the words "Blue Steel". Could this be made of Japanese Blue steel? Or is it the name of the company? A quick search here has turned up nothing, so I'm putting my hopes (not much) on it being the Japanese steel. Both the punch and Spey (great combination for me) are sterile, with great walk and talk. The clip blade will still do some walking and talking, but the backspring being pushed back softenes the end of the close and open. There is a small chip taken out of the bone under the center pin, and the federal shield is missing a pin (know it was double pinned and glad it was so that the shield is still there). Not the perfect find but I like it so far. Too bad that I'll have to replace the backspring on the master blade, would have gone right into my pocket otherwise.This one was obviously well taken care of, but used nonetheless with the peening of the backspring,and minor dents in the edge.
The shadow has no washers to protect the handle material, so "naturally" they split.
It is an Imperial, Mexico on the back of the master blade. I have not seen/noticed a washerless shadow pattern, this one shows me why! All other blades sterile, all three swedged and fit together nicely. The interesting thing that led me to get it was the second blade has a long pull, while the rest are nail nicks. All of the other knives I have seen since paying attention to traditionals have a master long pull, but this one its only on a secondary blade. This fact combined with the obvious use made me put the $6 on the table, despite me not caring for pen blades. Can't really go wrong for $6- I don't smoke, don't drink coffee, so easy to justify a couple of bucks. Sharpened up beautifully, despite the fact that the master blade slips past the spring on the liner side as the pin no longer holds everything together well.
I have some work to do to get these back to working shape- re-handling the Imperial, and figuring out a way to replace the backspring on the "Blue Steel", but for $15 bucks I could put these in my pocket and get work done- they both sharpened nicely, both appear to have a form of patina, too bad they were sharpened roughly and the Blue Steel looks like somebody took a machine sharpener to it.
If anybody has any info on the knives (especially the punch stockman) feel free to let me know, and if anybody has suggestions on fixing them, feel free to (PM or here is okay with me). I've heard of trying to re-pein the backspring, but think this one is too far gone or too soft to make it worth trying this approach- afraid I'll have to bite the bullet and get a new backspring made- well find somebody to make it for me that is.
Thanks for looking and for any information/advice that could be given! Not the most beautiful or impressive finds, but knives I can use to slice with, carefully now, hopefully better when I get work done on them. If aanybody know who does work on slipjoints feel free to let me know by PM, I have not really paid attention to that aspect of traditionals, and replacing the spring is a bit beyond me at the moment.
Kris
