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- Oct 20, 2008
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A friend that lives on Maui sent this home with me to restore for her. She knew Jody Samson and got this dagger from him years ago. The sheath is by Tony Swatton of the Sword and the Stone in L.A. Here's some pics of the finished product. By the time I'd thought about posting this here, it was too late to have taken the "before" pics but it wasn't in great shape.
It had been suffering the effects of the saltwater in the Hawaiian air. The fittings are mild steel, and were covered completely in a medium thick layer of rust. The blade is carbon steel, and while not as rusted as the fittings, was very tarnished overall and pitted in several areas. The handle appears to be rosewood and had a few scratches, and the steel studs in the handle were rust covered.
I decided to clean the fittings up first. I started by removing the majority of the rust with 600 grit paper. When I'd uncovered the extent of the damage, I had to drop to 400 grit and even 220 in a few spots to sand the light pitting aggressively enough. Once I'd gotten everything to 400 again, I went back up to 600 for a uniform finish, then buffed with cutting compound followed by pink scratchless for a mirror finish. The face of the guard, with the blade masked off, was sanded to 1500 prior to buffing.
The wood was spot sanded with 1000 paper, then buffed with pink. The studs brightened right up. I applied some teak oil to get luster back.
The blade had small hollow grinds, apparently a 2.5" wheel or so. I cut a piece of 2" steel pipe and split it to make a sanding block. I taped the face of the block with two layers of electrical tape to help it blend just a little and increase the radius slightly. It worked well.
With the handle and fittings taped, I started on the blade with 1000 grit to check the severity of the pitting. Again, I had to drop back to 400 and even 220 near the solder joint on the flats. I eventually took the blade up to a 1000 grit clean hand rubbed finish. I'd try to mirror polish it, but don't have the right size contact wheel for my cork belt and didn't want the hours to get that expensive. I like hand rubbed better anyway.
On the fittings as well as the blade, there were just a few spots where, having worked at it with 220 for a while, it just wasn't a good idea to remove any more material. The trade mark was one of these places, I didn't want to wash it out at all. So, there are a few very fine pits left here and there. It's a clue to future handlers and maybe restorers of this knife that it's been reworked at least once.
The work described above took 10 hours total. I put about another hour into buffing the sheath fittings a bit and sharpening and tuning the knife.
It was really cool working on this piece by one of the 20 century's master sword smiths. I didn't get to meet him before he died, but working on this was the next best thing. Hey Jody, there were a couple of fine belt scratches in the plunges still. I got 'em for you. Beautiful knife, brother. It was an honor.
It had been suffering the effects of the saltwater in the Hawaiian air. The fittings are mild steel, and were covered completely in a medium thick layer of rust. The blade is carbon steel, and while not as rusted as the fittings, was very tarnished overall and pitted in several areas. The handle appears to be rosewood and had a few scratches, and the steel studs in the handle were rust covered.
I decided to clean the fittings up first. I started by removing the majority of the rust with 600 grit paper. When I'd uncovered the extent of the damage, I had to drop to 400 grit and even 220 in a few spots to sand the light pitting aggressively enough. Once I'd gotten everything to 400 again, I went back up to 600 for a uniform finish, then buffed with cutting compound followed by pink scratchless for a mirror finish. The face of the guard, with the blade masked off, was sanded to 1500 prior to buffing.
The wood was spot sanded with 1000 paper, then buffed with pink. The studs brightened right up. I applied some teak oil to get luster back.
The blade had small hollow grinds, apparently a 2.5" wheel or so. I cut a piece of 2" steel pipe and split it to make a sanding block. I taped the face of the block with two layers of electrical tape to help it blend just a little and increase the radius slightly. It worked well.
With the handle and fittings taped, I started on the blade with 1000 grit to check the severity of the pitting. Again, I had to drop back to 400 and even 220 near the solder joint on the flats. I eventually took the blade up to a 1000 grit clean hand rubbed finish. I'd try to mirror polish it, but don't have the right size contact wheel for my cork belt and didn't want the hours to get that expensive. I like hand rubbed better anyway.
On the fittings as well as the blade, there were just a few spots where, having worked at it with 220 for a while, it just wasn't a good idea to remove any more material. The trade mark was one of these places, I didn't want to wash it out at all. So, there are a few very fine pits left here and there. It's a clue to future handlers and maybe restorers of this knife that it's been reworked at least once.
The work described above took 10 hours total. I put about another hour into buffing the sheath fittings a bit and sharpening and tuning the knife.
It was really cool working on this piece by one of the 20 century's master sword smiths. I didn't get to meet him before he died, but working on this was the next best thing. Hey Jody, there were a couple of fine belt scratches in the plunges still. I got 'em for you. Beautiful knife, brother. It was an honor.
