GC Co 485 Rehab

[Goestrider]

A friend of mine received a GC Co 485 as payment for something or other. The handle is not in the greatest shape, the bone part is a bit loose. Because it is loose, and apparently somebody tried to unscrew the 'pommel', and so one of the leather discs is torn.

He asked me to put a new handle on it and generally clean it up. After taking a look at it, the 'screw' on the end cap seems to require a weird tool to remove, one I don't own, but could probably fabricate without much trouble. Figured though I would ask for some expert opinions on the best way top go about doing this.


Also, the steel is clearly of the damascus variety, I was planning to clean the metal parts with aecetic acid to get rid of dirt and corrosion, and then etch again with muriatic to make the damascus pop.

Comment away. Any tips on it's lineage would be appreciated too.
Thanks!

(Apologies about the pic sizes! The forum software apparently thought it would be a good idea to expand them to full screen)

 

[Bill DeShivs]

The handle is stag, not bone-and the steel is not damascus. The steel is simply corroded.
You can make the tool my simply slotting the correct sized screwdriver. you will need to file the end of the tang to remove any peening done to hold the nut in place.
This is a classic Solingen made Remington-pattern knife, imported by Guttman Cutlery in the 1960s. They were once common, but are now becoming rare.
My suggestion is to replace the bad piece of leather, and leave the rest alone.

 

[Goestrider]

The handle is stag, not bone-and the steel is not damascus. The steel is simply corroded.

Huh.. sure has a Damascus pattern to it. So the muriatic acid route won't do any good. Any problems with the acetic acid for cleanup, and then just polishing the hell out of it?

Yeah, stag, not bone, I misspoke.

The "client" does not want the stag handle. I'm planning on doing a custom Paduak hardwood handle, and if it's practical to mount the handle on the lathe, adding in a few segmented turning embellishments.

Very much appreciated sir.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Damascus steel was never used on these knives.
Acetic acid is not necessary if you are going to polish the blade.

 

[Alberta Ed]

A needlenose pliers or a Leatherman works OK for removing the pommel nut. Nice old knife. I'd keep the stag grip if it were mine.

 

[Goestrider]

Oddly enough, I didn't even think of needlenose. Picked up a cheap cheap screwdriver and dremmeled a notch into it. Worked pretty ok. After getting it apart, most of the leather pieces just crumbled in my fingers. I'm going to stick with the paduak handle as planned, and I plan on keeping the Stag to make some pens from. Cleaning up the blade has shown the corrosion is pretty severe. The there's a couple ledges around .010" (2-3 pieces of paper thick) running most of the length of the blade where the corrosion did it's thing. The tang was a horrible mess of rust and degraded leather chunks. I might have to rethread the end of it too.

I'm going to get the rest of the corrosion I couldn't get to in a lot of the pits with acetic acid, and then unless somebody has a better idea (I do appreciate your input and experience, so thank you), take the blade to a belt sander to resurface it. Not a major redo, just smoothing out the edges that shouldn't be there.

The brass cross member (what's the right term for it?) is pretty gouged out, especially on the handle side. It seems that perhaps the leather was replaced before at one time, and somebody tried to sand it flush with the rest of the handle, and contour it into the brass, but they ended up gouging out the brass too. I should be able to smooth that out, if not, fabbing a replacement from some scrap brass I have shouldn't be that difficult.

Now, if switching out the handle isn't stomach churning enough for some of you, I am thinking about bluing the pommel, and perhaps the blade itself. Perhaps replacing the brass with a piece of blued steel too. Thoughts on that?