Is restoration possible?

Phil705

Phil705

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Aug 23, 2007
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A friend has asked me to assess whether or not a knife can be restored to a usable state. It is a travesty: the knife somehow was tossed into a fire box some years ago. It is a Marbles hunter. The leather washers are gone, but the guard and pommel are intact.

Assuming I can get the pommel off, do you think the blade can be made to cut again? I gave the blade a brass rod test. It dented the rod, but did not appreciably dent the blade.

Any guesses as to the steel and whether it can be re-hardened?

Any advice appreciated.
 

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The short answer is yes, it can be re heat treated and become a servicable blade.

Some thoughts....The aluminum pommel wasn't melted. Aluminum melts at about
1250f, and brass melts at about 1550f...so it seems that the blade didn't get
hotter than that...(not badly overheated). However some research would be
necessary to find what steel the blade is made of, and determine how to
proceed with HT.

Interesting project....Perhaps you'll take it on, and post up a howd-e-doit
thread...?
 
Russ beat me to it. The aluminum not being melted was the first thing I noticed.

My cousin had a bad house fire right before Christmas one year. Lost 60 or so of his guns, and some custom knives my Uncle made (custom maker Glen Hornby out of California, who is deceased).

The guns were a total loss, but the knives were fixable.
 
The knife was in a firebox, was it in a fire or did it just lay in the box for 50 years. If that is a plastic spacer at the pommel the blade probablly never overheated.
 
It doesn't appear to have been in the fire, maybe it was just stored in the stove and mice ate away the leather. I would just re-finish the blade and re-do the leather handle. If the aluminum pommel doesn't come off easily, just replace it. A few blows with a hammer will most likely shatter it off the tang.
 
If it's an older Marbles knife then there should be a brass tang nut, so the pommel should be fairly easy to remove. The steel is likely 52-100. If it's a newer model I'm not sure what steel they were using.

You may want to check with Mike Stewart with Bark River Knife & Tool. He will be able to tell you what would be needed to restore it.
 
The spacers appear to be brass as is the guard. Yes, the pommel is aluminum. The owner said it had been in a fire, but as someone pointed out, it did not melt the aluminum.
 
phil. that blade doesnt look bad. i have redone quite a few leather washer handle knives over the years and they turned out great. i redone a pal for timsclips. here is a link if you want to check it out http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=587129 it wasnt hard to get the pommel off, you just have to find the pin and drive it out. i'll be glad to help you out in any way i can. pm me your number and i'll give you a call later.
 
I spoke with Mike Stewart of Bark River knives. He said the steel was likely 1095 and it would not anneal and re-harden well. He suggested I toss it. But it isn't mine!
 
Sharpen it up and cut stuff with it. Testing is the only way to know, since it's unclear if it was actually in a fire or not. It's possible the HT is just fine, and the handle just rotted/got eaten away as others noted.

If not... it would only cost a few bucks worth of steel and whatever you charge for your labor to build a replica out of new, fresh, KNOWN steel and HT it properly, and everyone would sleep better at night. You're going to have to basically rebuild the whole knife anyway, why not do it right from the ground up?

I know, it may have sentimental value, the client may have a strict budget, and fullers are a pain to grind. If he's gonna put it on the mantle to look pretty, or field-dress one deer/year, I'd say polish it up, restore the handle and be done with it. If he's gonna stake his life on the thing, I'd be nervous. It all depends.

Marble's knives are certainly classics but they were made by various factories throughout the years and who the heck knows what kind of steel that particular blade is? Might be 52100, might be 1095, might be "CarbonV", whatever the heck that is.
 
Leather, especially leather used for kinfe handles, doesn't burn away easily. So, it either sat in a fire for a LONG time, or something else ate away the leather.
And I'm prone thinking the leather has been destroyed by means other than fire, since I seem to see what appears to be a plastic spacer near the pommel, and THAT shoud have been an instant goner, had the knife been in a fire.
If that's indeed plastic, there's no need to re-heat treat. Just clean and put a new handle on.
You don't even need to remove the pommel, you can do a sandwiched wood grip and coat it in leather or twisted brass or copper wire and get a nice handle.
 
I have restored a few WWII combat knives that were in sorry shape with the leather rotted off and rust on the blade.

The guard shouldn't present much of a problem to remove.

After a new leather washer handle and a general cleanup, I blued the blade with cold blue.
 
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