- Joined
- Apr 20, 2001
- Messages
- 18,423
As much as I liked my Condor Bushcraft Basic 5, there were some cosmetic things that I had to change. Being a $30.00 knife, I don't expect it to have the fit and finish of a custom, and honestly it would have served me fine for many years "as is", so I don't want to sound overly critical.
I just had to get rid of the black painted on finish on the blade, yeah I know its supposed to help prevent rust, but on a traditional "old school" knife with carbon steel and hardwood handles, it just looked wrong to me, and the handle had some type of varnish finish, that wasn't evenly applied, there were placed that had to much and some that had none.
So I took the coating off first, I started with 100% acetone, and at first it didn't seem to work well, but I found that if I applied it and let it set for a few minutes, the coating turned from a hard finish, to almost like a rubber skin that scraped right off. I followed that with some 600 grit sandpaper and the Brasso.
I sanded down the handle and removed the finish and smoothed out a few places, then applied a couple of rounds of boiled linseed oil.
Before:
After:
Total time involved was just over an hour, so a fairly quick and easy project, but I think it looks way better!
I just had to get rid of the black painted on finish on the blade, yeah I know its supposed to help prevent rust, but on a traditional "old school" knife with carbon steel and hardwood handles, it just looked wrong to me, and the handle had some type of varnish finish, that wasn't evenly applied, there were placed that had to much and some that had none.
So I took the coating off first, I started with 100% acetone, and at first it didn't seem to work well, but I found that if I applied it and let it set for a few minutes, the coating turned from a hard finish, to almost like a rubber skin that scraped right off. I followed that with some 600 grit sandpaper and the Brasso.
I sanded down the handle and removed the finish and smoothed out a few places, then applied a couple of rounds of boiled linseed oil.
Before:
After:
Total time involved was just over an hour, so a fairly quick and easy project, but I think it looks way better!
:thumbup: Makes me wonder why they don't clear-lacquer some of the more traditional pieces.
