Fiddling around with a thrift store steak - knife.

M

marmaloon

Joined
Nov 20, 2006
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28
It looks like one of the garden variety steak knives you see being sold as a set of 4/5 or so in places like Walmart.

It appears to be a Berghoff, steel is marked: X30 cr14

I ground off the serrations (hate them) and I am going to probably regrind the tip so that it's a lot blunter.

I got it for $1.49 as one of the bakelite handles had a huge chunk missing down around the butt. I made a little mold and infilled it with some marine grade epoxy. It seems to have stuck quite well to the bakelite, for some reason the epoxy did not stick to the saran wrap I used as a release for my little form.

Probably will in-fill the butt end of the other handle to balance it out.

Single guy bored on Saturday night here. :)
 
I bought a set of knives (Old Hickory) with the butcher block holder (8 knives in all) for the ridiculous price of $9 at a goodwill store. The knives are carbon steel and all straight edge knives. I took them home to practice with on my paper wheels when I first bought them. They are now all sharp enough to cut standing hair on my arm. (What is left on them now anyway ;))

I later bought some more knives at another thrift store and one of them had a sturdy blade with serrations on about 2/3 of the blade. I used my Work Sharp to grind the serrations off and re shape the blade. It is now a good heavy duty straight blade hunting knife looking for a sheath and possibly some better scales down the road. I don't know what the steel is made of other than some type of stainless, and comes from China, but it is razor sharp and holds an edge very well. I have chopped some branches from some brush in the back woods and it will still cut hair. Not bad for $1 and some fun time working on it.

Omar
:rolleyes:
 
OHALLUM said:
I bought a set of knives (Old Hickory) with the butcher block holder (8 knives in all) for the ridiculous price of $9 at a goodwill store. The knives are carbon steel and all straight edge knives. I took them home to practice with on my paper wheels when I first bought them. They are now all sharp enough to cut standing hair on my arm. (What is left on them now anyway ;))

I later bought some more knives at another thrift store and one of them had a sturdy blade with serrations on about 2/3 of the blade. I used my Work Sharp to grind the serrations off and re shape the blade. It is now a good heavy duty straight blade hunting knife looking for a sheath and possibly some better scales down the road. I don't know what the steel is made of other than some type of stainless, and comes from China, but it is razor sharp and holds an edge very well. I have chopped some branches from some brush in the back woods and it will still cut hair. Not bad for $1 and some fun time working on it.

Omar
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Thanks Omar. Old Hickory knives are really great, especially the ones made in former decades (1980s). I bought a 'sticker' and it was not exactly like the old 1980s and before versions with the forge marks still evident. Oh well, the carbon steel is excellent though.
 
I think that Old Hickory was sold along with Ontario, two or three years ago. It might have switched hands again, or might have switched hands several times, for all I know.

It was at that time that I learned that the new owners were doing away with the forge markings. I took that as a sign that the originals were going to be more highly prized, and bought a whole bunch of the ones with forged finish. I got many sets, because it's almost impossible to get more knife for the money.
 
They've released ones without the roll marking but I haven't seen the originals run dry just yet. Time will tell if they've been disco'd or if they're just running a parallel line.
 
Here are some pics of the 'more or less' finished knife :p

I thought the aluminum binding posts give the knife a bit of "Hudson's Bay Co." Mojo, and the rough repairs to the grip scale gives it a 'evidence lockup / prison shank' mojo lol

I also got some cheapo discount store epoxy putty and placed some inside at the butt end and the ricasso end (bakelite grips were hollow).

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Looks like you had a lot of fun without a lot of expenditure. Now you have a fun knife to play with and if you happen to destroy it, you can duplicate it easily and make any changes you learned on the first one.

I said the above to say that we don't have to have the latest and greatest "super" steel to make a useable knife. There was more enjoyment (at least for me) in just tinkering around with something worth about $1 and turning it into something useful that I can be proud to say that I made this. Sure I didn't make the blade from scratch, but I took and old throw away knife and turned it into a project that I can actually get some use out of. Not to mention what I learned should I want to make another one. Congratulations, and a job well done!

Omar
:rolleyes:
 
Merry xmas friends (Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Festivus, Saturnalia, or the coming home of the goats, merry whatever! :))
 
I bought a couple knives at a thrift store to learn to use my whetstone. They were less than two bucks each. One of them - I don't believe it has any markings - turned out to be really nice and I use it in the kitchen all the time now. It's one of my favorites.

Mike
 
Mike R said:
I bought a couple knives at a thrift store to learn to use my whetstone. They were less than two bucks each. One of them - I don't believe it has any markings - turned out to be really nice and I use it in the kitchen all the time now. It's one of my favorites.

Mike
Click to expand...

I often rummage around the thrift store bins looking for a decent knives. It is AMAZING at how many people throw out good quality knives because they are dull!
 
Not knife related, but I got a good deal on a sizeable shelf or something made from the metric russian birch plywood in the same thrift store. just to get a sheet of the stuff around here is about $40 bucks (not a full sheet either) it is nominal 3/4" even though it is measured in mm's.
 
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