Well let me just start by saying my grandfather Herman died over a decade ago. I only inherited two things from him to remember him by, a set of cheap binoculars that he used to look at birds and his old Buck 119. He used both extensively and as for the knife, if you can think of it, he tried to cut it with it. It's hacked through bones, cut wire, skinned whitetail, cleaned fish, chopped wood, cracked walnuts, i mean literally, you name it, this knife has done it. I'm lead to believe that this was a mid 80's model 119, but don't quote me on it because I'm really not a Buck guy. That being said, since it was my grandfather's, it is, and always will be my favorite blade.
Anyway, with all the mentioned uses it went through, it naturally had some damage. The worst of which were some DEEP gouges in the blade and a slight dent/chip in the edge. I was sharpening some knives tonight and decided to try and clean her up a bit. However, I wanted to keep the ding in the blade there to some extent, mostly because I know how it got there, he was chopping some wood with it and hit a screw, repeatedly, until he cleaved through it....
anyway, here's the before picture:
DEEP gouges, the "ding" is more visible on the other side, but otherwise the other side looked pretty good so I didn't snag a before picture of it.
After about 1.5hrs of constant work, ALL by hand, I don't own a belt sander:
these are cell phone pictures, and it's hard to capture how shiny it really is, but it is MUCH smoother than it looks in the pictures. Either way, I wasn't going for a mirror finish. It was a pure user when it was bought, I'd like for it to remain that way.
However, I may pick up some metal polish tomorrow and see how purdy it really can be. If I do decide to go that route, I'll have it mounted underneath his picture in my house.
Anyway, with all the mentioned uses it went through, it naturally had some damage. The worst of which were some DEEP gouges in the blade and a slight dent/chip in the edge. I was sharpening some knives tonight and decided to try and clean her up a bit. However, I wanted to keep the ding in the blade there to some extent, mostly because I know how it got there, he was chopping some wood with it and hit a screw, repeatedly, until he cleaved through it....
anyway, here's the before picture:
DEEP gouges, the "ding" is more visible on the other side, but otherwise the other side looked pretty good so I didn't snag a before picture of it.
After about 1.5hrs of constant work, ALL by hand, I don't own a belt sander:
these are cell phone pictures, and it's hard to capture how shiny it really is, but it is MUCH smoother than it looks in the pictures. Either way, I wasn't going for a mirror finish. It was a pure user when it was bought, I'd like for it to remain that way.
However, I may pick up some metal polish tomorrow and see how purdy it really can be. If I do decide to go that route, I'll have it mounted underneath his picture in my house.
