Breathing a little life into a forgotten blade.

Stringplucker

Stringplucker

Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
152
Moderators...I hope I'm posting in the right place. If not, feel free to move this post. Thanks!

About 7 years ago or so, my wife and I came to a garage sale that had a box of old knives. In the box were a number of Imperial fixed blades (thin with plastic scales), a few Old Timer folders (nothing spectacular), and a number of kitchen knives. I bought the box for $10, then sold the kitchen knives (el cheap unmarked) and made back my investment. My son spied an Imperial that he wanted, with sheath, so I let him have it. It somehow made it into my shop, and ignored...until recently.

I was down in my shop the other day, doing a little bit of cleaning after a project. I looked over on the shelf under my box, and saw it sitting there, wrapped in a rag. Apparently, the scale had split, and my son didn't know what to do with it. Being now 18, he's been so busy, that he just set it down there and hadn't had the time to talk with me about it. I decided to start tearing it apart.

After drilling out the rivets...

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This is after removing the scales, and a quick sanding of the steel under it. It had rusted over the years, and had a number of small pits that were large enough to know that it wouldn't sand out.

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A close up of the blade stamp. Much of it has been taken over by corrosion and what appears to be careless sanding from way back. Even without the work Imperial visible, I am pretty sure that it's what used to be there.

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After a number of passes across the 60 and 150 grit sand papers

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I tried taking a close=up photo of the tip from the spine. It didn't show the corrosion that's there, but suffice it to say that I don't plan on sanding it all down.

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Now, I'm a hobbyist gunsmith, so I have some bluing solution sitting around. I was curious to see how the blade would look in gun blue. I'm actually happy with how it looks compared to what it did look like. It's not a show winner, but it's better than many I've seen at garage and estate sales. I'll go through the bluing process a few more times to see if I can make it look better. There's a bit of overlap, which you can see on the blade by the handle. It's a wipe on solution, instead of a dip, so that happens at times. I'm not too concerned about it, though.

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Now, I've never made handles before, but I'm pretty sure I can handle it. I guarantee that it won't look near as nice as others, but it will be serviceable. I thought about buying a piece of black walnut, or other hardwood, but just can't bring myself to put that much money into an otherwise free knife. I started digging through some older shotgun stocks, and found one from a mid 80's H&R 410, under a ton of dust and grime. I plan on cutting the stock up to find the wood I need. There's plenty of decent wood in it, so that's not going to be a problem, either. At best, the finish will be Tru-Oil and some final sanding when I'm done.

My daughter's boyfriend thinks I'm going too far for an old knife...that he'd just chuck it in the barrel and buy another one. Me...well, I'm medically retired, and bored out of my mind. Tinkering in the shop is about the only thing I can do other than being a Certified La-Z-Boy Operator (title given to me by my daughter). I have nothing but time and idle hands, and this is right up my alley. At worst, I chuck it in the can and move on. At best, I come up with something my son can use and hand down to his kids in the future.
 
There's a connection when you refurbish an old knife. I resurrected an old Queen Electrician's knife a year or so ago. While I have many nice traditionals, that one gets more pocket time because I'm fond of it due to the work I put in. Keep us posted as you put handles on yours and good luck!
 
Rescues are great fun and a great way to learn some new skills & you get a new knife.
Looks great so far, keep us posted...
:)
 
I think this fixed blade could also be a colonial.
Anyways these old imperial and colonials are awesome and my favorite edc fixed blade is an old imperial h6 which I had to replace the scales on.
I didn't sand on mine or anything as it has a nice patina, but just like this fixed blade you have it's edge is nice and full with minimal wear. I'll be sure to follow this thread and see how it turns out.
BTW if you need to make a new sheath for it you can get a bag of leather remnants for 7$ at Michael's craft stores and other similar places. I made a sheath for my imperial h6 in under an hour.
 
That looks great so far. Spending time bringing an old knife back to the world of the living is time well-spent imo.
 
That is a great project knife to keep those idle hands busy!
Who knows, maybe next year we'll see your name in the Custom Services sub!!
Keep us updated!
Joe
 
It's a fun hobby. Just a quick heads up, you may get some pretty cool ideas and some good advice if you post this in maintenance and tinkering folder.
 
palonej said:
That is a great project knife to keep those idle hands busy!
Who knows, maybe next year we'll see your name in the Custom Services sub!!
Keep us updated!
Joe
Click to expand...

I'm a medically retired aerospace toolmaker/engineer. I learned my trade from some old German fellas that my dad hired in his toolshop. Dad brought me in to sweep floors and clean machines with I was 12, and by the age of 17, I was subcontract machining under dad, and had 2 employees while still in High School. A heart attack and other ailments took me out of the game after a 28 year run. It was fun while it lasted. Like gunsmithing, I have knowledge that could easily be applied to this hobby, and my brain is always on overdrive, looking at different skills I can teach my son to help him put food on his table later in life. Anything is possible, I suppose.

My wife asked if I could do a cord wrap on it. I'll try it out and see how it goes. My son said something about doing a rawhide lace wrap, and finishing with a red leather braid. I'm still leaning to the shotgun stock.

I'll keep the thread updated when I start the next step.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I think this fixed blade could also be a colonial.
Anyways these old imperial and colonials are awesome and my favorite edc fixed blade is an old imperial h6 which I had to replace the scales on.
I didn't sand on mine or anything as it has a nice patina, but just like this fixed blade you have it's edge is nice and full with minimal wear. I'll be sure to follow this thread and see how it turns out.
BTW if you need to make a new sheath for it you can get a bag of leather remnants for 7$ at Michael's craft stores and other similar places. I made a sheath for my imperial h6 in under an hour.
Click to expand...

You could be right about it being a Colonial. The lack of manufacturing name, and only Providence USA lead me to think Imperial. At any rate, it looks as if a company name, if one was present, was washed out during manufacturing. I've studied the photo and can't find even a faint stamp mark above what's present. I did find a Colonial with the same handle, but it had a saw back spine. I had assumed that when Frederic Paolantonio left Imperial to start Colonial with his brothers, he may have left with a few basic designs and altered them a little. Looking at the two companies, they shared many of the same design concepts through the years. At any rate, it seems to be a nice blade to work with...a little thin for my personal liking, but workable.
 
Stringplucker said:
You could be right about it being a Colonial. The lack of manufacturing name, and only Providence USA lead me to think Imperial. At any rate, it looks as if a company name, if one was present, was washed out during manufacturing. I've studied the photo and can't find even a faint stamp mark above what's present. I did find a Colonial with the same handle, but it had a saw back spine. I had assumed that when Frederic Paolantonio left Imperial to start Colonial with his brothers, he may have left with a few basic designs and altered them a little. Looking at the two companies, they shared many of the same design concepts through the years. At any rate, it seems to be a nice blade to work with...a little thin for my personal liking, but workable.
Click to expand...
Just as imperial had a sawback version of their h6 fixed blade which they called the h7 I'm sure colonial had straight spine and sawback spine versions of this knife. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the tooth spine is supposed to be a fish scaler as they knew that these inexpensive fixed blades would be used by boys for any outdoors related task possible.
BTW I love how thin these blades are, they may not be heavy duty last a lifetime baton through a log blades, but are great for edc or food duty around camp.
If your son wants a leather handle wrap, but you want to do wood scales why not compromise and do leather scales like often found on throwing knives. Or you could coat them in epoxy resin and basically make leather micarta.
 
Maybe do a Scagel look kind of handle with leather washers mixed with wood and brass washer. Would that be to difficult?

I also received an old German hunting knife from my father-in-law with stag slabs, my thoughts also to give it some new life, I have to unwrap it too see if it has any blade left or rusted away.
 
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