Found a USA-made Schrade Buck knockoff with a broken tip - any tips on restoration?

[Hashishiin]

I didn't even think about the paint. Delrin is pretty impervious to things. I would just use a fingernail and see how far you get. Think of it as a worry stone. Eventually you will get the paint off. If not that, a plastic scraper/corner of a credit card. Those shouldn't scratch the delrin.

...boy, I feel dumb. I was about to reply, "I don't know, I think it's some industrial stuff on there..." and just cause I have the knife in front of me, I picked it up and started scratching at the paint, and you're right, it's pretty much just coming off. First knife restoration, keep in mind, haha The BKF went well, just need to do a little more for a final shine polish.

I did not grow up doing or being taught to do any sort of hands-on skill or task, so please everyone keep that in mind if I say something out of pocket at any point, or ask something that seems obvious.

To get the tip properly shaped, you will need an abrasive wheel of some sort.
Perhaps you could use a rounded board with sandpaper, but I doubt it would come out well.
Get the cheap Harbor Freight 1 X 30 belt grinder. Use the top wheel to form the curve on the blade clip.

Abrasive wheel... you really don't think I'd be able to get it to come out well just slogging it off with the 36 grit, and maybe finishing it off with the 120 grit on a similar peice of long wood/belt when it's closer to done? I'm taking all opinions here, so, yeah. Probably need a wheel anyways and HF is cheap, might go get that today.

I would think the slow nature of the planks would help me do what I'm doing better, as I've never reshaped a tip, but... what do you mean "come out well"? What's the metric of that? I intend to put it on a KME for finishing touches. I won't be just grinding it on the 36 and calling it good in case that was the idea haha

Now the knife looks like this:

https://imgur.com/a/m06lI0N

So far already have a bit of steel off on this, was about to go outside and keep grinding with edge-trailing passes.

https://imgur.com/a/BWdXcxy

 

[gentleman_edc]

Everyone has to learn somewhere. Everyone has learned this stuff through projects like this. And most people don't share their disasters. And we've all had them.

Just remember that you can't put the metal back on. So I would focus on grinding back the tip to behind the chips and try not to take off too much of the belly. That can be done later.

 

[Hashishiin]

Everyone has to learn somewhere. Everyone has learned this stuff through projects like this. And most people don't share their disasters. And we've all had them.

Just remember that you can't put the metal back on. So I would focus on grinding back the tip to behind the chips and try not to take off too much of the belly. That can be done later.

Just what I was thinking - focus on the large section that NEEDS to come off now, and do the finer stuff when I'm a little closer to where I want to be, edge being an entirely seperate affair.

Ha, what was the quote from Tove Jannson's "Memoirs of Moominvalley"... "Everyone, of whatever walk in life, who has achieved anything good in this world, or thinks he has, should, if he be truth-loving and nice, write about his life, albeit not starting before the age of fourty". I'm definitely gonna share any distasters I have, haha.

Yeah, the edge is surprisingly intact, just rolled in a few places.

 

[Hashishiin]

Wow, only took 20 minutes of fun to get it to a butterknife-like shape!

https://imgur.com/a/7zWh3Iz

I noticed my neighbor looking at me, wondering what I was doing as I started setting up. Tried to go around the side of my house to reduce noise. As soon as I started grinding away at that plank, I just heard her screen door shut, she was not trying to hear that, so I only went for a little while. I was grinding... too much, simply, at first, as you can tell by the scratch marks that are there where they don't need to be on the blade. But I could really see getting somewhere with one or two more sessions of this, and making another with the 120 grit when I'm closer to where I wanna be. I need to focus the grinding to a specific area. Anything about what I might be doing right or wrong, from folks who know?

I did my first push without my goggles, felt stuff fly straight at my eyes but thankfully my girlish eyelashes blocked most of it, I felt nothing in my eyes after. Washed and applied eye solution regardless.

I feel like a prisoner makin' a shank on my cell floor! Oh, about the scratches - I gave a few to the bolsters with Scorchbrite and a file and a few to the blade grinding on the wrong place in the beginning. Will I be able to buff these out, with like, high grit stropping compound or lapping films or high-grit stone?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Wow, only took 20 minutes of fun to get it to a butterknife-like shape!

https://imgur.com/a/7zWh3Iz

I noticed my neighbor looking at me, wondering what I was doing as I started setting up. Tried to go around the side of my house to reduce noise. As soon as I started grinding away at that plank, I just heard her screen door shut, she was not trying to hear that, so I only went for a little while. I was grinding... too much, simply, at first, as you can tell by the scratch marks that are there where they don't need to be on the blade. But I could really see getting somewhere with one or two more sessions of this, and making another with the 120 grit when I'm closer to where I wanna be. I need to focus the grinding to a specific area. Anything about what I might be doing right or wrong, from folks who know?

I did my first push without my goggles, felt stuff fly straight at my eyes but thankfully my girlish eyelashes blocked most of it, I felt nothing in my eyes after. Washed and applied eye solution regardless.

This is fun! Oh, about the scratches - I gave a few to the bolsters with Scorchbrite and a file and a few to the blade grinding on the wrong place in the beginning. Will I be able to buff these out, with like, high grit stropping compound or lapping films or high-grit stone?

You're getting the feel of it - that's good.

Regarding the scratches... the brass bolsters are easy to clean up with some wet/dry sandpaper. If the scratches aren't very deep there, even the ScotchBrite might clean them up or at least hide them somewhat. For deeper scratches, starting around 220/320-grit or so is usually enough. Then work up through a sequence of grits (320 > 400 > 600 > etc.). If you want polished bolsters, going up through 1000/2000 will get it very close, after which some polishing paste like Simichrome, Flitz, etc. can finish it off. Brass is very soft and sands VERY easily, so you'll find this relatively straightforward. A rubber block-type eraser, such as for pencils, makes a very good, flexible sanding block for contours of the bolsters, with the paper wrapped around it.

Scratches on the blade might be blended into the existing finish with something in the range of 220-400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. That usually approximates a lot of factory satin finishes on stainless blades. If you want full polish on the blade (or parts of it), that'll be a lot more work, done in a sequence as with the brass. The stainless steel will need more work & elbow grease to take it that far, because it's much harder than the brass and will sand slower. If you're determined to eliminate the scratches on the blade, you might post some close-up photos of them here, so you'll get more specific feedback about what it'll take to clean it up. Without a clear look at it, some suggestions might either be overkill or not enough.

 

[Hashishiin]

You're getting the feel of it - that's good.

Regarding the scratches... the brass bolsters are easy to clean up with some wet/dry sandpaper. If the scratches aren't very deep there, even the ScotchBrite might clean them up or at least hide them somewhat. For deeper scratches, starting around 220/320-grit or so is usually enough. Then work up through a sequence of grits (320 > 400 > 600 > etc.). If you want polished bolsters, going up through 1000/2000 will get it very close, after which some polishing paste like Simichrome, Flitz, etc. can finish it off. Brass is very soft and sands VERY easily, so you'll find this relatively straightforward. A rubber block-type eraser, such as for pencils, makes a very good, flexible sanding block for contours of the bolsters, with the paper wrapped around it.

Scratches on the blade might be blended into the existing finish with something in the range of 220-400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. That usually approximates a lot of factory satin finishes on stainless blades. If you want full polish on the blade (or parts of it), that'll be a lot more work, done in a sequence as with the brass. The stainless steel will need more work & elbow grease to take it that far, because it's much harder than the brass and will sand slower. If you're determined to eliminate the scratches on the blade, you might post some close-up photos of them here, so you'll get more specific feedback about what it'll take to clean it up. Without a clear look at it, some suggestions might either be overkill or not enough.

Good to know! What I think I'll do is, since I've already cleaned everything up regarding rust, gunk, paint, etc... I'll probably do most of the grinding of the blade before addressing any scratches, because it's senseless to solve that problem when I may just scratch it up again. So, when I've got it basically down to where I need it to be, I will apply these solutions for a final finish of the blade, and will of course post close up shots of the blade!

Sandpaper and related items are proving extremely useful.

 

[killgar]

I don't know what steel that blade is made of, but I doubt it's very hard. It's certainly not one of the modern "super" steels. I wouldn't be surprised if you could reprofile the blade with a new standard file.

I never liked the upswept tip on my Buck 110, so many years ago I reground it straight. I did it with a standard file, and finished with sandpaper. It took less than a hour and worked great. No power tool ever touched it.

Just using sandpaper seems like a really slow way to go about it.

 

[Hashishiin]

I don't know what steel that blade is made of, but I doubt it's very hard. It's certainly not one of the modern "super" steels. I wouldn't be surprised if you could reprofile the blade with a new standard file.

I never liked the upswept tip on my Buck 110, so many years ago I reground it straight. I did it with a standard file, and finished with sandpaper. It took less than a hour and worked great. No power tool ever touched it.

Just using sandpaper seems like a really slow way to go about it.

Nice, I like your knife!! It reminds me of the 110 Slim Select drop-point shape. I should mention I love everything about the SS, (jeez, that sounds bad LOL) and honestly, I carry it more than my regular 110 even though there's no replacing the 110. Really sweet. I like the bit at the bottom, too.

I was having similar thoughts as I was slogging away at it again today, like "Hmm, I could make this a tanto if I wanted!". Not that, of course, lol. But something different. I was thinking of leaving a wider, sharpened section on mine similar to the spine of the 110's clip, but sharper, and was considering going a bit straighter than the standard dip. The tip looks stronger. Also looks like I could retain a bit more blade length keeping the spine like that as opposed to trying to dip it down for a dramatic clip.

And you mean to say a file is faster than what I'm using? I do need a file. Thanks for the thought, it did pass my mind but I know that a file is smaller, I didn't know how it'd slog the material off compared to what I'm using. The 36 grit paper isn't that bad, it took me two sessions, of a combined time less than two hours, not working HARD every second, to take it from where it was originally, to this:

https://imgur.com/a/HaTmIQB

 

[Hashishiin]

Fixed up some of the edge damage and just for fun, gave it a little edge on the King 300 stone, this is also, by chance, the first edge I have ever put on a knife by hand. Some already existed, but... I've never got knife from "chips" to "cuts stuff", using a stone, using my hand only.

https://imgur.com/a/Aeh55Dc

It's officially a knife again! Far from done, but it's a sheepsfoot gonna keep grinding tomorrow. I think I will end up somewhere in between a Buck 112 and a Buck 112 Slim Select profile, without such a dramatic clip, but not a straight spine.

 

[Hashishiin]

https://imgur.com/a/uP4k9Vb

https://imgur.com/a/AWD80HQ

https://imgur.com/a/uPLtkw5

So, here I am at this point in the blade, and it's starting to take on the shape of the more drop-pointed 110 SS which I am okay with, being my first time doing this, I am fine not getting that perfect little upswept tip of a 110. Also, dyed a 110 SS last night, first dye, I am digging it. Here's the before-after just for the heck of it, and to show what kind of profile I will maybe have to tend towards.

https://imgur.com/a/nuN41mH

Keep in mind, I think it's harder to do a proper "clip" than I imagined so I may have to do, what is it, like a straight clip? Think of the clip-point on an Imperial slipjoint, vs a Buck) I have been using a bastard/straight file since the last picture to have a little bit more detail and see what I'm doing. I could proceed in a couple ways, and am wondering -

1. continue grinding at the sides with the file at an angle, switching sides, kind of creating a "swedge", making the back of the spine sharp, too. I do not mind this at all, I like the sharp spine of the 110, and it would just be the last 1/4 inches that would be sharp in this way. Would this be bad? Should I do that as a seperate task, so as not to screw with the geometry on the sides too much?

2. Did not do this very much yet, but grinding with the file just straight across the part of the spine I need to grind down, horizontally. This seems to result in a flat surface, as opposed to the angle. Then, if I want to add a swedge, do so seperately with care either with a file or on the KME?

I suppose I could also bring the tip up. But I wonder if this takes a substantial more amount of skill than taking the spine down.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I've generally tried to keep the 'clip' of the blade as straight / flat as I can, when using the grinding belt on the board. But the drop-point profile isn't bad either, especially when it's drawn out over a greater length of the spine near the tip.

For the swedging near the tip, I've usually just not worried about reapplying that, after grinding the spine. But in one or two cases, I've simply angled the blade a little bit to each side, on the grinding board, with tip-trailing passes over the abrasive. It could also be done with fairly coarse SiC wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a small sharpening stone, and used in the same manner as a file.

I generally DON'T like regrinding the cutting edge itself, to bring the tip up to the spine. The end result almost always looks less attractive than the original edge grind. And it grinds away the thinner steel near the edge, which is so important to good cutting geometry. It leaves an edge grind at the tip that's more severely upswept and also thicker in cross-section, both of which will degrade the tip's ability to pierce material being cut. And with a folding knife in particular, bringing the edge up to the spine at the tip might leave the new tip exposed above the liners of the handle when the blade is closed. To me, that's the biggest risk from grinding anything away from the cutting edge near the tip. A lot of very old and heavily sharpened knives end up that way, after years of sharpening at the tip. So, if the cutting edge is still nestled within & below the liners, you want to keep it there as long as you can without prematurely grinding it away.

 

[Hashishiin]

I've generally tried to keep the 'clip' of the blade as straight / flat as I can, when using the grinding belt on the board. But the drop-point profile isn't bad either, especially when it's drawn out over a greater length of the spine near the tip.

For the swedging near the tip, I've usually just not worried about reapplying that, after grinding the spine. But in one or two cases, I've simply angled the blade a little bit to each side, on the grinding board, with tip-trailing passes over the abrasive. It could also be done with fairly coarse SiC wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a small sharpening stone, and used in the same manner as a file.

I generally DON'T like regrinding the cutting edge itself, to bring the tip up to the spine. The end result almost always looks less attractive than the original edge grind. And it grinds away the thinner steel near the edge, which is so important to good cutting geometry. It leaves an edge grind at the tip that's more severely upswept and also thicker in cross-section, both of which will degrade the tip's ability to pierce material being cut. And with a folding knife in particular, bringing the edge up to the spine at the tip might leave the new tip exposed above the liners of the handle when the blade is closed. To me, that's the biggest risk from grinding anything away from the cutting edge near the tip. A lot of very old and heavily sharpened knives end up that way, after years of sharpening at the tip. So, if the cutting edge is still nestled within & below the liners, you want to keep it there as long as you can without prematurely grinding it away.

Ooh, very good points about why I should keep grinding down. I will do that. Yes, it seems like either way, this is going to be a good tip. Might not be a perfect clip-point, but even a straight-down line, or a drop point works for me.

But, you're saying there's nothing wrong to grind directly down on the spine to bring it down, right? (file vertical, knife edge facing down, spine facing straight up, just grinding the spine down). Sorry if that sounds obvious.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Ooh, very good points about why I should keep grinding down. I will do that. Yes, it seems like either way, this is going to be a good tip. Might not be a perfect clip-point, but even a straight-down line, or a drop point works for me.

But, you're saying there's nothing wrong to grind directly down on the spine to bring it down, right? (file vertical, knife edge facing down, spine facing straight up, just grinding the spine down). Sorry if that sounds obvious.

I'm not entirely clear if I'm understainding what you mean by 'grinding directly down' with the file vertical. If the goal is to create sort of a sheepfoot-style tip, then it makes sense. And if so, create the tip profile you want. Bringing the spine vertically down to the surviving end of the cutting edge is understandable and would be less work than gently lowering a greater length of the spine, in drop-point fashion. On a blade with this much tip loss to begin with, there's really nothing to lose in creating something different than the original clip point profile.

 

[Phydeaux]

I did something similar to Killgar with a Buck 110 that had a damaged tip. Looked like damage from an electrical mishap. Anyways, I reprofiled the blade into a drop point by grinding the spine down. Made sure to very frequently cool the blade while grinding. Also replaced the warped scales.

 

[Hashishiin]

I'm not entirely clear if I'm understainding what you mean by 'grinding directly down' with the file vertical. If the goal is to create sort of a sheepfoot-style tip, then it makes sense. And if so, create the tip profile you want. Bringing the spine vertically down to the surviving end of the cutting edge is understandable and would be less work than gently lowering a greater length of the spine, in drop-point fashion. On a blade with this much tip loss to begin with, there's really nothing to lose in creating something different than the original clip point profile.

I am sorry, perhaps this will clear it up. By the way, the sheepsfoot comment was a joke, because in the course of grinding, I had it looking near like a sheepsfoot.

I am at this point going to do some sort of a drop-point or spear-point on this, as I think it will be functional, and easier to replicate than the clip of a 110. Here is what I mean by grinding the spine "directly down" vs at an angle

https://imgur.com/a/k7G3Ggd

See, just filing directly downward on the spine on top of the material needing removal.

I can also file it like this, and then turn the knife around and do the same thing on the other side.

https://imgur.com/a/vxKIfPL

This is what I meant. I was wondering whether one was better than the other, or if I'm making a mistake by doing it one of those ways, or simply they're both fine and it's more than one way to do it.

I did something similar to Killgar with a Buck 110 that had a damaged tip. Looked like damage from an electrical mishap. Anyways, I reprofiled the blade into a drop point by grinding the spine down. Made sure to very frequently cool the blade while grinding. Also replaced the warped scales.

Nice thing to do! Kilgar is a really good guy who has helped me out and given me a lot of advice! And I have also decided to go with a drop or spear point. (Edited to say, I just realized that K killgar gar himself is the one a few comments up who suggested I go get myself a file to begin with, ha. Thanks for the tip, my man.)

I have no grinder or power tools yet - doing it all by hand. 36 grit sandpaper glued to a wood block got the majority of damage off - I've been incorporating a file as well, now, as you can see above. When it comes time to really do the last bits, I hope the KME sharpener can help me out, as I just bought a new one with all the fixings. This is my first refurbishment of any knife, heck, it's my first time making a new edge. However, I do intend to get a grinder at some point, so all of you who have given me grinder advice are very much appreciated!

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I am sorry, perhaps this will clear it up. By the way, the sheepsfoot comment was a joke, because in the course of grinding, I had it looking near like a sheepsfoot.

I am at this point going to do some sort of a drop-point or spear-point on this, as I think it will be functional, and easier to replicate than the clip of a 110. Here is what I mean by grinding the spine "directly down" vs at an angle

https://imgur.com/a/k7G3Ggd

See, just filing directly downward on the spine on top of the material needing removal.

I can also file it like this, and then turn the knife around and do the same thing on the other side.

https://imgur.com/a/vxKIfPL

This is what I meant. I was wondering whether one was better than the other, or if I'm making a mistake by doing it one of those ways, or simply they're both fine and it's more than one way to do it.
(...)

Ah, that's clearer. You're basically considering keeping the spine fully flat across its width by filing directly 'down' with the file perpendicular to the blade, or applying a swedge near the tip by filing at an oblique angle to the spine on each side. In that case, do as you want. I don't see any mistake in doing it either way - it's just a preference choice. I've generally just flattened the spine in doing these - it's easy to do on the grinding belt/board apparatus anyway, and keeps all the grind lines uniform, running the full length of the spine. Also makes repointing the tip easier down the road with a few tip-trailing passes on a coarse stone or the grinding board again, if/when the tip becomes rounded or blunted in use.