J.A.Henckels Twinworks refurbishment

[scdub]

Hi Folks,

Got another knife to play with.

This belongs to the Grandmother of a friend of mine. Over Thanksgiving the subject of carving knives came up, this knife came out of a drawer, and my friend grabbed it in hopes that I could get it back in order for her Grandma.





There are several things that make this knife interesting to me.

First off is the crazy striped patina on the blade. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and I would just leave it alone if this were an outdoor blade. I’m planning to use Naval Jelly to remove the rust but hopefully keep some of the patterns.

The second thing that jumped out was the stamp on the blade saying “For Cutting Not Chopping”. This leads me to believe this knife is likely at a higher hardness than most modern Henckels knives.

Along with a nice distal taper, the tang is tapered! Not something I see much in kitchen knives, and I’ve never seen it used with this type of “nested full-tang” or whatever that tang style might be called…

Lastly, while the knife has clearly been used a lot, it’s got very little wear and the edge is close to sharp as you can see in the picture below.

I’m not going to do much with this besides cleaning, oiling and sharpening, but I’ll post pics when it’s done. Can’t wait to make a few test cuts with this puppy.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

There is nothing wrong with the knife as it is. Cleaning it- especially with Naval Jelly will leave the blade without the rust protection it has acquired over the years. Naval Jelly will etch the blade.
Sharpen it and return it, or you may have a very angry grandmother to deal with.

 

[sickpuppy1]

Yep, that's her knife... sharp, yes. change and do stuff? wouldn't do it.

 

[scdub]

There is nothing wrong with the knife as it is. Cleaning it- especially with Naval Jelly will leave the blade without the rust protection it has acquired over the years. Naval Jelly will etch the blade.
Sharpen it and return it, or you may have a very angry grandmother to deal with.

Yep, that's her knife... sharp, yes. change and do stuff? wouldn't do it.

Hmm - I’ll double check that she wants the rust off but that was my impression. Thanks though for those thoughts - I’d hate to make a Grandma upset!

I was planning to use a light touch with cleaning/rust removal to preserve the patina as much as possible as I mentioned.

Otherwise yes I agree that there’s nothing wrong with it - not planning anything else other than a sharpening and adding some tung oil to the handle…

 

[scdub]

Ok just confirmed - rust removal and sharpening - per Grandma. We’ll see how it goes.

 

[scdub]

especially with Naval Jelly

Hey Bill,

Is there something different you’d try first?

I’ve used distilled vinegar and Bar Keepers Friend to remove rust successfully but I was under the impression that Naval Jelly would do less etching to the steel than those first two cleaners…

 

[sickpuppy1]

Yeah, I think , were it mine, I'd clean up the spine and put a good edge on it.. There is a lot of "heritage" in that knife. Function not fashion

 

[killgar]

I'd say the spine of that tang definitely needs to be sanded down (flaking rust).

As far as patina, a new patina can always be produced.

I would want to remove those handles and get at the entire tang. Based on the severe rust on the spine of the tang, and the gaps between the tang and the handles, I hate to think what condition the tang is in under there. Wood absorbs and holds moisture, which is very bad for whatever steel it's attached to.

Along with a full tang cleaning, I'd want to sand the handles a little and give them an oil treatment. I'd also replace the rivets with binding posts and screws so that the handles could be occasionally removed for tang maintenance/deep cleaning.

But that's me, and grandma might not want that much done. My efforts would be more geared towards having the knife last as long as possible, and less geared toward preserving it's current "rustic charm". But again, that's me.

Good luck with the project scdub, I'm sure you'll make your friends grandmother happy whatever you do.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

I use a special wire wheel designed for "carding" bluing when rust-bluing guns.
0000 steel wool is handy stuff, too.

 

[tltt]

The knife is a scimitar / cimeter, it's used for trimming out larger pieces of meat. They were ground thinner than a few other types, so that's the reason for the warning about chopping.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Looks like an old breaking knife. Probably good for another few decades.

 

[Rob47]

Start with oil & 0000 steel wool. If it needs more, try Barkeepers Friend. DON’T GO NEAR THAT BLADE WITH NAVAL JELLY!!!
Did you hear me? Don’t do it!

 

[Hickory n steel]

#0000 steel wool and wd40 should be all you need on the blade.
I would use a wire wheel in a dremel ( they are very fine, not aggressive at all ) to adress the tang.
if it were mine I'd try to pry the scales off ( sometimes cutlers rivets are easy to pop off ) with a dull old knife or putty knife, address the tang, and put them back on with a little glue if necessary.

It will not be hard at all to rehab/ conserve this knife without leaving evidence that you did anything to it, aside from there being evidence of rust that is no longer there it can be done easily without a trace beyond that.

 

[Rob47]

Less is more. Once you f_ _k it up, you can’ t fix it. A little TLC and that knife will be fine.

 

[Rob47]

A good game plan starts with “First, do no harm.”

 

[scdub]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Not brave enough to pop any scales off. If it was mine then I’d probably give it a shot.

Will start with some fine steel wool and wire wheel and go from there…

 

[scdub]

Ok boys and girls it’s all done!

I’m pretty pleased in the end, but I’ll admit that I was hesitant about how to tackle this one - especially with some of the warnings above.

With those concerns in mind I started with some oily steel wool, then quickly moved up to a brass carding wheel.

And I carded and carded and scrubbed with steel wool and I wasn’t getting anywhere with some of the rust. It was hard and slightly pitted in places. Anyway, in the end I used not only vinegar and naval jelly to remove rust - I actually used (you might want to sit down) a BLADE to SCRAPE it off in areas where even the acids weren’t working.

This actually worked quite well and left no scratches on the surface (which even abrasives like barkeepers friend would do in my experience).


Here it is after a round or two of chemicals:

And this is after an application of tung oil, which I did after stabilizing a small crack at the back of the handle with some glue. The handle was extremely dry and it soaked up LOTS of oil, which, along with a little buffing (no filing/sanding) made it nice and waterproof.

Here is the profiling/sharpening grit progression left to right:

I used two cheats - masking tape to avoid big scratches and a homemade Lego angle reference (~16 degrees) so I’d get a relatively even convex edge:

More to come in next post…

 

[scdub]

These are from today:







Happily, although it’s not as prominent now without the rust, the stripy patina pattern is still very visible. Almost looks like some kind of wootz/pattern welded steel…

Happy New Year!

 

[catspa]

Good work man, that turned out great!

Parker

 

[pwest]

Great job scdub ! I saw this youtube restoration video

and thought of your project--this guy brings a sandblaster and electrolysis to the table.

-Phil