Is it worth the effort?

O

orezona

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Feb 13, 2015
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Couple years ago my Dad sent me a box of his old knives.

Among them was his Camillus Pilot's Survival Knife from '67.
This was a knife that I was fascinated by as a kid and whenever we'd go camping I'd be thrilled when my Dad let me wear it. Made me feel like Rambo or something.

When he sent me the box and I saw the knife in there, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia but when I pulled it out of it's sheath, extremely dismayed at the condition of the blade.

Apparently at some point a "friend" of my Dad offered to "sharpen" his knives... on his grinding wheel. Needless to say, the blade was rendered nearly FUBAR.

The tip must have gotten broken off at some point because it's fully rounded off now and the "grinding" job made the swedge grind wrap all the way around to the primary grind. It just looks comical now.

Anyways, the point of this thread is that I've started working to "recondition" the whole knife and am starting to wonder... Am I wasting my time?

I'm probably doing everything wrong but figure I can't really mess it up too much worse than before.

The part I'm interested in is if it's even possible to get one of these admittedly low quality knifes to a somewhat serviceable condition?
It's too late to turn back now since I started polishing, trimmed the guard and overall spent a few hours on it.

I guess I'm at a nexus in that if I decide to continue I can keep working it by myself or look into having someone with more experience and better tools complete the work.

For what it's worth, here's a picture of the knife as I got it (center right):

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He also gave me that M7 and the sharpening stone and oil. I'm not even sure if that stone is useable any more...

Thoughts, comments and criticism are welcome.
 
It seems like this knife means a lot to you. I think it is 100% worthwhile to work on the knife and at least get it to a point that you are able to use it again.
How great will it be for you if you are able to go camping with it on your side once again.
Go for it!
 
From the looks of the picture, the knife is a long way from being ruined/useless. It will take some careful effort on your part to fully restore it. However if you take your time and try to not do something beyond your skill set, then you will be successful. Nice looking collection by the way! I see no problem with the stone being useable unless there is hidden damage not seen from the photo.

Omar
 
Bring it up to spec for what they charge for in Colorado $5. a knife will get it razor sharp and or correct any dings etc!!! Great piece of family connection just do it! Dad would be proud!
 
Definitely a lot of steel in that knife to reprofile and make working like brand new. What methods are you using? A system like Wicked Edge or Edge Pro will make short work of that. Freehand will probably take a fair amount of time and a steady hand, but it can be done with the right stones. What won't work will be something like a Spyderco Sharpmaker, which is more designed to hone and maintain an already profiled edge. I've never used grinding wheels and belt sanders, so I can't really comment on those machines, but I'm sure that would be the fastest method in the right hands.
 
I don't know about knife sharpening guys at gun shows. I'm not sure whether they will care about what your knife means to you or if they will do the same thing as the person who previously sharpened it for your dad.

What I do know is there are knife sharpeners on this board who are passionate about sharpening and who also care enough to share their knowledge with people. From this, I can reasonably assume they will be able to empathize with you about the sentimental value of this knife to you.

I don't know any of the knife sharpeners here personally. But if I was in the same boat as you, I would follow the advice I'm giving youl.
 
I'd wager the blade of that pilots knife is made of a soft steel (at least the one I had was), so it should be easy to re-profile the tip with a common fine-toothed file from any hardware store. Just stroke the file upward along the edge towards the tip until you get a point, then re-grind the edge with the same file. Use light to moderate pressure on the file, pressing hard with a file won't get the job done any faster or easier, it just dulls the file faster.
 
Thanks for the feedback, everybody! I really appreciate it.

Based on what I'm hearing, it would be well worth the effort to keep going on this. I'm not experienced enough to attempt to regrind/profile the blade so I'm going to be soliciting some help from the experts here and send it out.

I'm probably going to go with a full convex due to the thickness of the blade...? From what I've been reading, that might be the better route for maintaining it after it's been re-worked.

I'm excited to show my Dad the progress I've already made and let him know my plans. He'll be here on Friday and his birthday is next week but I'm not going to try to rush anything.

I'll post up the damage progress later in this thread so you guys can see what it looks like now. It's a lot shinier!
 
Please do not take it to someone at a gun show to sharpen it. The knife in the photo doesn't look all that bad. I've seen knives from guys in gun shows that looked very much worse than that.
 
If you have it done, professionally, ask to see samples of their work. Reprofile edges should be straight with a consistent bevel. Points should be sharp, pointy, and crisp. Also, they should not be removing any more material then necessary. So toothpick looking blades should be a telltale sign to walk away.
 
That pilot's knife would be my go-:to user knife for life. Definitely get it back in shape, with your own two hands preferably. :thumbup:
 
"It's a lot shinier."
This is why amateurs should not "restore" knives. The original finish on the blade was not shiny. It was either blued or sandblasted and Parkerized.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
"It's a lot shinier."
This is why amateurs should not "restore" knives. The original finish on the blade was not shiny. It was either blued or sandblasted and Parkerized.
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to restore it, I'm "reconditioning" it. I know all about what their original state/finish is but I am consciously departing from that look.

I like some of the mods other people have done to their USAF knifes and am taking cues from their excellent work.

We all have to start somewhere, right? I'll keep everybody updated on how things go. So far so good...
 
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Okay, so it's been a while since I've updated this... Had stuff to do and whatnot.

Re-tipped and polished:

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Still need to put an edge on it, which I'll probably do this weekend.
 
Took me a little longer than I anticipated to finish up the blade but here it is...

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To sum up everything I did:

  • Filed down and re-tipped
  • Cut off the top of the guard
  • Altered the "saw" by filing down the edges and removing the last three "teeth" before the swedge
  • Unsharpened the swedge (it had been put to the grinder as well)
  • Cleaned up the grinder marks on the blade
  • Sanded/Polished it from 200 all the way to 2000 grit, including Flitz silicone polish compound and Hoppe's polishing cloth
  • Applied some lanolin to the handle
  • Attempted to convex sharpen the edge with sandpaper and a old mousepad... with mixed results. Finally got a decent edge with just my cheap-o Lansky ceramic rod set up at 20˚/side
  • Forced mustard/vinegar patina
  • Slight polishing of the primary bevel after-the-fact for aesthetics
  • Light coat of mineral oil on all the steel


Only a couple slight cuts to myself in the process!

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. The only thing I may continue to work on is the guard is loose but I think oiling up the stacked leather handle with some mink oil might fix that when the gaskets expand.

Keeping the sheath as-is because it's remarkably in good shape for how old it is... 48 years!
 
You "consciously" ruined a real Vietnam-era collector's item. It just makes the unmodified ones that much rarer.
The method I would have used is to buy a NEW pilot's knife (they're still being made,) to modify. But, that's just me-and thousands of other collectors.
 
You're a funny guy, you know that?

Thanks for commenting on my thread. Your input is duly noted.

Any other suggestions on what to do with MY knives? No, you can't have them so don't bother asking.

Cheers!

leo-cheers.gif
 
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