Daddy's Knife

Tom Hudson

Tom Hudson

Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Messages
361
Daddy’s Knife
I don’t accept many resto jobs any more. But I had a call early in the week from a very nice young lady wanting me to restore her Daddy’s Knife - US Navy issued it to her father. I have a hard time turning down Daddy Knives. All knife makers get this request from time to time.

It’s a hard looker – I agreed to restore the knife – Not to a mint condition (which she was willing to pay for) but to clean the knife – freshen it to a eye appealing knife that still has plenty charter. I suggested that she should go to a frame shop & have a shadow box built to display the knife & that I would engrave her a nice name plate for the shadow box with her Dad’s Name on it.

I figured out my what I should charge for the work – cut the price in half – After all this is a real Daddy’s Knife – A knife that’s worth little in dollars but thousands in memories!
Tom
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Tom Hudson said:
Daddy’s Knife
I don’t accept many resto jobs any more. But I had a call early in the week from a very nice young lady wanting me to restore her Daddy’s Knife - US Navy issued it to her father. I have a hard time turning down Daddy Knives. All knife makers get this request from time to time.

It’s a hard looker – I agreed to restore the knife – Not to a mint condition (which she was willing to pay for) but to clean the knife – freshen it to a eye appealing knife that still has plenty charter. I suggested that she should go to a frame shop & have a shadow box built to display the knife & that I would engrave her a nice name plate for the shadow box with her Dad’s Name on it.

I figured out my what I should charge for the work – cut the price in half – After all this is a real Daddy’s Knife – A knife that’s worth little in dollars but thousands in memories!
Tom
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I have a knife that looks a lot like this, that a friend gave to me. I cant wait to see what this could look like with a nice restore done.
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human1ess, I believe your knife may be a "pilot's knife". I recently purchased one at the local gun show in very nice condition.
 
Good on you for fixing up that mk2, looks like it has a lot of character in it for sure!


human1ess said:
That makes sense, he's in the air force.
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That would be a pilots survival knife, commonly made by ontario but I think camillus made them at some point also. Ontario actually still produces them, handy knives.
 
Tom Hudson said:
Daddy’s Knife
I don’t accept many resto jobs any more. But I had a call early in the week from a very nice young lady wanting me to restore her Daddy’s Knife - US Navy issued it to her father. I have a hard time turning down Daddy Knives. All knife makers get this request from time to time.

It’s a hard looker – I agreed to restore the knife – Not to a mint condition (which she was willing to pay for) but to clean the knife – freshen it to a eye appealing knife that still has plenty charter. I suggested that she should go to a frame shop & have a shadow box built to display the knife & that I would engrave her a nice name plate for the shadow box with her Dad’s Name on it.

I figured out my what I should charge for the work – cut the price in half – After all this is a real Daddy’s Knife – A knife that’s worth little in dollars but thousands in memories!
Tom
396378241.jpg
Click to expand...
Man i think that blade looks great just the way it is...I am sure the level of satisfaction received from restoring a Daddy's knife is second to none. Post some pics when your finished please!
 
I took a little time today to work on this knife - deep pits in the blade - they will stay - I got the leather handles nice & tight, sanded, dyed, buffed - all the rust is now history - I'm going to try something a little different on the metal - I'll keep ya posted - I think it will look good - tom

Just a note to those who are following my Corvette project - I posted more pix's on my site today - I also finished engraving another one of the very large side panels - I think i only have one more really large area to do (battery cover) & then it's all smaller stuff - I was thinking a hundred hours on this project when i started but it will be closer to 150 hours - But everyone who see's it really likes it - :)tom
 
Ok - Here's what I came up with - I removed all the rust - put a near mirror finish on the blade - Took care of all the handle issues -

I just finished engraving a black powder rifle for a client back east - after engraving it he wanted me to brown the engraved parts - That’s what I did to the metal on this knife - removed old rust - installed new controlled rust! After browning it I hit it with a heavy dose of 0000 steel wool - The brown went away & a nice aged blue showed up.

I wanted to restore the knife without it looking like it's been restored if that makes any sense? Knife looks very old - Got the rust issue under control, while retaining all the charter the knife has acquired over the past 40 or 50 years plus now you can shave with it:)- so here's a before & after - I think the knife will show very well in a display box or shadow box.

What you think - Your the Boss - I'll re-do the whole thing if you think I missed my goal! Tom
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The spots you see on the blade are deep rust pits - The knife is a USN Pal37 - WW2 Vintage - tom
 
I think you did an excellent job. It retains all of the original character and looks strong and ready for work again. What a great tribute to dad.
Mike
 
Brules1 said:
Great work Tom....I like how you "restored" it. It looks used, but not abused.
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Thank You - Sometimes a project grabs you - I was in the shop at 2 AM this morning on this project - The sheath is stamped USN & it's also a hard looker - I explained to her I wasn't really a leather guy & that she might have to farm the leather work out to someone else - Well I got to digging around the shop last night - (Excuse me I'm an Engraver) I was searching around my studio last evening & found a very old K-Bar sheath that is a sister to the Daddy's knife's sheath - I'm going to use rob a couple of pieces off my sheath to restore my customers sheath - Since I haven't used this sheath in 40 years I don't think I'll miss the stolen pieces - Now the issue of a presentation box - I'm sure I have one in stock that will work for this project - I requested a couple of photo's of her Dad - I've gone this far - might as well take it all the way - I'll try to post a pix or two along the way if your interested - tom
 
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