Gentleman needs some help getting a treasure repaired!

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
I got an email from a gentleman about a knife that had been broken in an accident. Here's part of it.

Thanksgiving Day was a disaster! My son inadvertently knocked the carving knife off the counter and the knife hit the tile floor. The knife's blade broke in half. My son's grandfather was livid because this is an antique knife. It was given to him as a wedding present in the 1940s. The handle is made of ivory and decorated with scrimshaw. I am desperate to get this knife fixed. My son will remain in the dog house until the knife is repaired.Can you tell me if you know of someone who is able make a new blade and insert it into the scrimshaw handle? We would like the blade to be as close to the original shape as possible. Kindly email me with any suggestions. For your reference, I have attached several pictures of the knife.

Many Thanks

Here's one of the pictures.
20043648.jpg

Short of making a new blade I don't know a way to fix the knife. Frankly, I'd be scared to try to remove the old blade from the ivory handle. Anyone think they can help this gentleman out, email me and I'll give you his email address so you can contact him. Thanks for checkin out the thread!
 
I have seen knives similar to these for sale sold as a set with a carving fork. The hardest part is getting off the old handle. It is probally just held in with epoxy. If you heated the blade with a torch near the handle, but staying far enough away not to burn it the heat would travel down the tang into the handle. The epoxy would warm up and the handle would come loose. I have done this to old sharpening steels to get the nice stag handles off of them.

Tell the owner to just buy a new knife and make up a great story to go with the broken one. Say the tip was broken while fighting a bear in the yukon!
 
Wow, that is (was?) a nice knife.
That is a tough one. I have replaced handles on similar knives, and reground blades, but never done a blade replacement. I am pretty sure I don't have skill, yet, to make the blade. Don't think I could do the integral on it. I wonder if you could find a similar blade, on an older, used one, and use it? It would be tricky to remove the handle; I would be afraid of damaging it. Striper28's idea might work, but ivory is tricky stuff. I like your last solution; make it a Griz!
Right now all my orders are on hold until I get the shop done, so I shouldn't take it on anyway.
Good luck,
Brome

(Kind of surprised it broke. I have handled and used a number of those kind of older carving sets, and they all seem to bend, not break. Now those were all high carbon blades. Wicked sharp, mostly because they are so thin. The only time I cut myself really bad, and didn't even know it, was with a carving knife like that. I was about 16, and was drying the blade off in a towel, felt a sting, openned my hand and had cut two fingers to the bone. Healed up fast, though. Nothing like a good sharp cut)
 
These knife sets were made in Seattle for about 30 years.The handles are mostly elephant ivory.If I remember right the company was owned by Hans Lang.I bought a bunch of scrap ivory from his estate.The scrim was done by machine.They are almost always avaiable on eBay the problem is people think they have a rare valuable knife made by a Eskimo from Alaska.
Chuck
 
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