KA-BAR USMC Clean Up!

I

iwouldhurtafly

Joined
Dec 3, 2010
Messages
1,875
Well, a month or so ago I was given the opportunity to clean up my wife's uncle's KA-BAR USMC. He served his country as a Marine for a good while, and this blade holds a level of importance to him, on top of it being a user. The knife itself was not in bad shape aside from the handle (although darkened from being handled/used) was a little dry and nasty, the blade was pretty dirty and dinged up, the edge was purty dull with some dings/dents, the tip was blunted, rust in places and at one time the clip had been sharpened. The sheath was probably the worst of it, it was pretty much bone dry, tore up, beat up, and the layers were separating. I probably spent just as long on the sheath as the knife... I have posted some of this in other places but decided I need to put this all together here on the KA-BAR Forum... I'll let the pictures do some talking for a minute.

BEFORE:


Also he had me work on his 1280 Combat Kukri... Knife wasnt too bad beyond needing the edge redone, the sheath cleaned up and waterproofed among other things. The whole project was a ton of fun...


Dramatic pose with my 1211, the 1211 has been modified quite a bit... but thats for another thread!


Good looking blade even when its been put through the ringer.




And after: Reworking the edge completely and convexing, top swedge was also resharpened to hair popping, handle lightly sanded, impregnated with my beeswax concoction, blade was scotch brighted with oil to smooth and polish up the coating, and other stuff I forget now. The sheath was impregnated with my beeswax stuff, buffed, the edges where sanded back, and pulled about a pound of sand/whatever out of it lol. You'd be surprised how much a little bit of beeswax can fix up even the most tired piece of leather. Anyways, knife turned out good, dang KA-BAR yall make a nice piece of steel...







Hope yall have enjoyed looking! It was quite a fun project that I was obliged to do. If yall have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

Thank yall for looking!
 
Spec. Tacular. Your uncle in law would be eye wateringly proud of you and the job you did. To show such respect to something that he holds so dear would be very moving for him. Good onya IWHAF. Sensational work..
 
Thank yall very much! Had a ton of fun doing it. One of my little hobbies with knives is finding old but good blades and getting them cleaned back up and in good order. Have replaced all of my kitchen knives this way. Lots of fun...

Thank yall again!
 
Man great to see a knife like that still being used. Awesome job on the restoration; to be honest when I first saw the pic of the sheath I wasn't sure how you'd be able to repair it. Both the knife and sheath came out great though! [emoji106][emoji106]
 
Aikiguy said:
Man great to see a knife like that still being used. Awesome job on the restoration; to be honest when I first saw the pic of the sheath I wasn't sure how you'd be able to repair it. Both the knife and sheath came out great though! [emoji106][emoji106]
Click to expand...
Yah, the sheath was pretty rough, it was dry as a bone, and the edges where flaking and everything. However, its amazing what a little bit of wax will do! The stuff I used is something I made at home that has beeswax, some essential oils, and other conditioners/oils in it. It's fun/easy to make and everyone has their own recipe lol. Then just had to shape it and work the leather back to life.
 
Nice work. Always good to see old gear brought back to life. Hope the owner is happy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top