Cleaning up a rusty old slipjoint

jprime84

jprime84

Joined
Jul 7, 2014
Messages
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I have an old Imperial Barlow that I believe was my great grandfather's. It turned up in the garage at my parents house and it is not looking its best. There is enough rust down in the pivot that its tough to even open the blades. It has false saw-cut bone handles and two blades.

I am thinking about trying to get it apart, polish everything, and then reassemble with some new wooden scales of my own. Is the process basically to push and.or drill out the pins? Anything else I should know?
 
The pins have heads. Unless you know what you are doing, you will probably ruin the knife trying to take it apart.
Instead, use 0000 steel wool to scrub the rust away. You can also use a copper penny to scrape away heavy deposits.
Then, soak the knife in WD 40 and work the blades, wiping off the dislodged rust. Keep soaking, working and wiping.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
The pins have heads. Unless you know what you are doing, you will probably ruin the knife trying to take it apart.
Instead, use 0000 steel wool to scrub the rust away. You can also use a copper penny to scrape away heavy deposits.
Then, soak the knife in WD 40 and work the blades, wiping off the dislodged rust. Keep soaking, working and wiping.
Click to expand...

I know the pins are peened in place. I figure I would have to drill them out. I am also aware that I would need new pins, and that I may damage the scales. I still might do it though, as the knife is close to scrap metal as is.
 
That's fine- it's your knife.
I might add that there is an even greater chance of ruining the knife in the attempt to reassemble.
If you want to salvage the knife, my suggestion is the way to go. If you want to work on the knife, have at it. I'll even help you if you post questions here.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
The pins have heads. Unless you know what you are doing, you will probably ruin the knife trying to take it apart.
Instead, use 0000 steel wool to scrub the rust away. You can also use a copper penny to scrape away heavy deposits.
Then, soak the knife in WD 40 and work the blades, wiping off the dislodged rust. Keep soaking, working and wiping.
Click to expand...

What Bill said +100!

Take it apart if you are not a skilled cutler, you'll end up with a pile of junk. JUst clean it up and work the joints with snow oil. You may be surprised at how it will be okay.
 
A pocket knife isn't exactly the most complicated piece of machinery. All it really takes to disassemble one and properly reassemble it is a bit of basic intelligence, some cleverness, and some skill with your hands and tools. A little advice never hurts either.

No one is born knowing how to reassemble a knife. And I doubt there are any classes or college courses in the assembly of pocket knives. You learn by doing and figuring it out as you go (and again, a little advice helps). Just don't try to learn on a knife that is of great value to you. In the process of trial and error mistakes can be made. So it's best to learn on a knife of little or no value.

From my experience the most complicated part of reassembling a slipjoint is compressing the spring into the handle to be pinned after the blade is installed. The compression can be done by wrapping the jaws of a vise with leather or a thick cloth (to protect the knife) and squeezing the knife with the spring in between the liners until the holes for the pin line up. Insert the pin, remove from the vise, cut the pin ends and peen. That's the way I do it.

You never know what you're capable of until you try.
 
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Let's do it!
But, you gotta post pictures of the whole process.
 
I am undecided for sure. I would rather not ruin it, but I would need it to be much cleaner before I would consider carrying it some. I did leave it soaking in wd40 in a plastic bag this morning. I will get pics up this evening.
 
Well I got into it tonight - here we go.

Before pics - this is after it spent all night in WD40. Before that I couldnt really get the knife open.




Pried off the tabs holding the clamshell scales and bolsters onto the body of the knife. Here is the main body of the knife.



Used a dremel to take one end off of each of the rivets, and then used a punch on a wood block to push the rivets out. What a mess!


Here is the main blade. Time to get out the steel wool and the polishing wheel on the dremel....


After! Still shows its wear, but I am fine with that. I considered trying to grind/sand a smooth finish but I am really not worried about that at this point.


Here it is with the second blade finished.


And here we go with each piece done.



Now I need to find some pins, and some kind of bolster material. I have some stabilized burl blocks that I am going to use for the scales. I think I can use some of the old dremel bits for the larger pins. They fit perfectly. I have some 1095 cheap throwing knives that I think I could use a bit of one for bolsters. I need to find something for the smaller pins. I am hopeful!
 
Use common nails for the pins. Turn them down by chucking them in a drill and filing them to size.
Why not just re-use the old handles?
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Use common nails for the pins. Turn them down by chucking them in a drill and filing them to size.
Why not just re-use the old handles?
Click to expand...

I dont like the plastic handles. I figure if I can manage to get the thing taken apart and back together, then shaping a bit of wood should be no issue.
 
So I went to try and dremel off some pieces of steel for bolsters, and my old dremel motor died or suffered some electrical failure. I plan to get a new one today to continue the job.

I noticed that the scales of the knife need to be attached to the liners, but not with pins all the way through the knife as these would get in the way of the blades when closed. Is the way to go to peen the scales to the liner first, and then assembling the knife with the larger pins to hold it together? Should I plan on adding some epoxy to help it all hold?
 
Bill DeShivs said:
The pins have heads. Unless you know what you are doing, you will probably ruin the knife trying to take it apart.
Instead, use 0000 steel wool to scrub the rust away. You can also use a copper penny to scrape away heavy deposits.
Then, soak the knife in WD 40 and work the blades, wiping off the dislodged rust. Keep soaking, working and wiping.
Click to expand...

Bill, have you ever tried Evapo-Rust? It dissolves iron oxide but leaves a flat black finish (that is easily sanded off).
 
I use Evapo-Rust frequently in my shop.

Jprime- yes, peen the scales to the liners first. The blade pivot pin, backspring pin, and rear pin go all the way through. I would use a hacksaw to cut out the bolsters.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
I use Evapo-Rust frequently in my shop.

Jprime- yes, peen the scales to the liners first. The blade pivot pin, backspring pin, and rear pin go all the way through. I would use a hacksaw to cut out the bolsters.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I am going to be on a work trip all next week, but hopefully I will be able to get back to work on the knife the following weekend.
 
Make sure you chamfer the scale pin holes on the inside of the liners, so you can file the pins flush.
 
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