I am in need of some sage advice, and I wanted to share a little experience I had with you folks.
A customer recently asked me if I could clean up a knife for him. I replied in the affirmative and told him to show me the knife. He then hands me an early Bill Moran Bowie. Now this is only the third time I have ever held a Moran, the other two were at shows and were a quick look. It was quite a high for me. I proceeded to tell him that I didnt know if it was right for him to let me touch it, let alone take it home and/or work on it.
Evidently when he was in the Navy he ordered the knife from Bill for cutting rope on the ship. After a few months, the brass decided it was not safe for sailors to have blades over three inches, so he had to send it home to his father. Unfortunately his father put the knife away in storage, still in the sheath. The knife rusted considerably and has never been cleaned since. It now has patches of rust scale on it with minor pitting under that scale, but only visible under a dissecting scope. I explained that many collectors feel that cleaning up an item such as this can actually devalue the knife. He said that may be true, but that the knife is his and to him, it isnt worth much now and looks ugly. He said that anything I could do for it couldnt possibly make the knife worth any less. I told him I wasnt sure about that, but I would take what he said as a compliment.
So, I am asking for others thoughts. I need something to make me feel at ease before I proceed. What do you think about cleaning up this knife? What would you do? What do you feel is going too far? He is very adamant about my cleaning up the knife so I have to do something to get he heavy rust scale off, but dont want to damage the knife. I want to make him happy, but dont want to desecrate what I kind of think of as a sacred piece. I mean there are masters, and then there is Bill Moran; or am I making a bigger deal out of this than it is? I have just never worked on a piece of such historical (and spiritual?) value before.
If you would like to see it, I have posted some photos of the knife on my site, here:
http://www.stoneandsteel.net/test/moran/
Specs on the knife:
BL= 5 7/8
TL= 10 7/8
¼ thick Bowie blade, brass double guard and pommel with stained curly maple handle. The brass is tarnished and the blade has heavy rust with light pitting.
The blade is stamped on the left side:
W. F. MORAN
LIME KILN
MD.
The sheath is in perfect shape, except the part of the snap that attaches to the front of the sheath has come off. He wants that fixed, but that is less of a big deal to me as cleaning the blade. Actually all the parts of the snap are present, it just looks like it came apart so I may be able to use the original parts. The sheath looks old but doesnt even have a scratch or any sign of dryness to it; a testament to Morans leather treatment formula.
Needless to say, I thanked him for what I consider to be a great honor.
Thank you for your thoughts,
Brome
A customer recently asked me if I could clean up a knife for him. I replied in the affirmative and told him to show me the knife. He then hands me an early Bill Moran Bowie. Now this is only the third time I have ever held a Moran, the other two were at shows and were a quick look. It was quite a high for me. I proceeded to tell him that I didnt know if it was right for him to let me touch it, let alone take it home and/or work on it.
Evidently when he was in the Navy he ordered the knife from Bill for cutting rope on the ship. After a few months, the brass decided it was not safe for sailors to have blades over three inches, so he had to send it home to his father. Unfortunately his father put the knife away in storage, still in the sheath. The knife rusted considerably and has never been cleaned since. It now has patches of rust scale on it with minor pitting under that scale, but only visible under a dissecting scope. I explained that many collectors feel that cleaning up an item such as this can actually devalue the knife. He said that may be true, but that the knife is his and to him, it isnt worth much now and looks ugly. He said that anything I could do for it couldnt possibly make the knife worth any less. I told him I wasnt sure about that, but I would take what he said as a compliment.
So, I am asking for others thoughts. I need something to make me feel at ease before I proceed. What do you think about cleaning up this knife? What would you do? What do you feel is going too far? He is very adamant about my cleaning up the knife so I have to do something to get he heavy rust scale off, but dont want to damage the knife. I want to make him happy, but dont want to desecrate what I kind of think of as a sacred piece. I mean there are masters, and then there is Bill Moran; or am I making a bigger deal out of this than it is? I have just never worked on a piece of such historical (and spiritual?) value before.
If you would like to see it, I have posted some photos of the knife on my site, here:
http://www.stoneandsteel.net/test/moran/
Specs on the knife:
BL= 5 7/8
TL= 10 7/8
¼ thick Bowie blade, brass double guard and pommel with stained curly maple handle. The brass is tarnished and the blade has heavy rust with light pitting.
The blade is stamped on the left side:
W. F. MORAN
LIME KILN
MD.
The sheath is in perfect shape, except the part of the snap that attaches to the front of the sheath has come off. He wants that fixed, but that is less of a big deal to me as cleaning the blade. Actually all the parts of the snap are present, it just looks like it came apart so I may be able to use the original parts. The sheath looks old but doesnt even have a scratch or any sign of dryness to it; a testament to Morans leather treatment formula.
Needless to say, I thanked him for what I consider to be a great honor.
Thank you for your thoughts,
Brome