Looking to have my grandpa's knife refurbished

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Docscoot

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Nov 28, 2021
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Hey there, I have a very distressed old fixed blade dagger that I would love to have turned into something new and shiny. This knife has a lot of sentimental value to me, this was something my grandfather had made and carried during WW2. Unfortunately when I inherited this years after he had passed, it had been stored in a damp basement in a leather sheath for quite a while. I did my best (which isn't saying much) to sand off the rust and get down to some nicer steel that could be polished. But I decided I'd rather see if an actual professional could do something with this rather than further risk ruining it with my amateur work, some of the pits are pretty deep so I think there's still a lot of material to remove to rescue this one if it's even possible. The handle is falling apart and would also need to be re-made. I would love it if someone could suggest any knife makers on the forum who might have availability for this sort of job? Happy to post pics if anyone is interested.

Thanks so much for any info you can share!

Update, photos added!710FB9F4-B6BD-43ED-922C-2DC0E5B25B5E.jpeg4201A024-21ED-434C-81DC-2C6D0F635E89.jpeg
 
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This post may be reflective of my age as much as anything else, so take it with a grain of salt.

I would give the knife a really good scrubbing and use a wire brush to get the rust off the pits and crags, That knife was made to your grandfather's specifications (or at least the guy that made it had on hand that made your grandfather happy. To me, all the pits, crags, scratches, and signs of wear mean that it had some good use in grandpa's hands, even if it had a few years of recent neglect. I have a couple of my grandfather's knives, and I would not think of doing anything to them. One was his favorite hunting folder, a giant CASE stockman. Sharpened hundreds of times, and even has the tip broken off one of the blades. (No doubt grandpa used it to punch holes in one of the old steel oil cans.)

I know it sounds weird, but when I have that knife out and in my hand, I can kind of channel him. He was a hunter and fisherman, and his knives were surprising looked at as tools only, but he prized the ones that worked well a great deal. I have no idea how many deer, elk and other game that big folder helped clean. Nor do I have any idea how much bait he cut with as he lived on the coast and fished at least a couple of times a week. What I would like to know is how many oil can tops he pierced with it as his small boat burned as much oil as gas and you could see him a mile away from his smoke cloud when in the water.

How could I do anything to that knife besides clean it up, put an edge on it and a couple of drops of oil? He would get a kick out of me carrying it from time to time, although he probably wouldn't understand why since I have so many knives with better steel, in better shape, etc. But that knife the way it is represents a little bit of him, and in my eyes that knife is still his even though he has been gone 55 years. I am just borrowing it for now.

Robert
 
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Hey Robert (also my dad's name, that's not you is it dad?!),

I go back and forth between agreeing with your sentiment, but also wanting to give this knife a new life as something new. If this was just showing normal patina and wear from use I would 100% leave it alone. Problem is it's been pretty severely damaged from neglect before I got it. Handle is falling off, steel is pretty deeply pitted (more than I can sand off by hand or even with the little Dremel tool I have). At this point I think I may prefer having it turned into a new knife I can pass on to my son, but knowing the base material was my grandpa's. I do have a couple other toys from my grandpa's war years so there are still some things that are left untouched :) At this point would just love to hear from some makers if they think they could do anything with this one.

Thanks so much for commenting! And thanks for the wonderful story on your grandad!
 
Black Oak Bladeworks said:
Post up some pictures and we can see what kind of shape its in. I have restored a few knives, but I am very picky what knives I will do.:)
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Added a couple, nothing fancy but it's been through hell and back a couple of times now! I feel like I owe it some pampering, worried I've done nothing but make it worse so far.
 
CWL said:
Throw your Dremel tool in the trash.
There is a graveyard somewhere full of botched knives and guns that somebody thought "maybe a little more here..."
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Not remotely helpful or what I respectfully have asked for input on, hope your day’s going well through!
 
Those rust pits are probably not going to come out unfortunately. They are in there pretty deep it looks like. Is it just the one spacer cracked in the handle or does it have other issues? I would say polish the blade with 2500 sand paper if the patina bothers you, and put some super glue in the handle crack.:)
 
I don't do custom knives, but I would recommend as another option consider getting a maker to clone it for you with a brand new blade and handle! That will probobly be cheaper than attempting to re work that one unfortunately. Good Luck!
 
CWL said:
Throw your Dremel tool in the trash.
There is a graveyard somewhere full of botched knives and guns that somebody thought "maybe a little more here..."
Click to expand...

Dremel tools should not be used for sharpening and can be bad in some other ways. For instance, I definitely wouldn't use it to remove rust, much less grind out pits on a blade. However, I've effectively (albeit carefully) used a dremel for various knife mods such as the early portions of filing and sanding projects. Care and forethought are the keys to success with such a tool.
 
Black Oak Bladeworks said:
I don't do custom knives, but I would recommend as another option consider getting a maker to clone it for you with a brand new blade and handle! That will probobly be cheaper than attempting to re work that one unfortunately. Good Luck!
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I appreciate the feedback! What you're saying makes total sense and I was worried those pits were just too deep, they're certainly deeper than anything I can sand out by hand. Along the edges where you can see the pores more in cross-section they seem to be up to 1mm or so deep, wondering if I took off a full mm thickness across the entire blade if that would get to clean steel, or if somehow pores have found their way even deeper and eaten all the way through. I will most likely leave it as is, I've already sanded quite a bit and glued the handle back together as you suggest (actually did that years ago, and have just had in the back of my mind maybe someday I could do more with this one).

Thanks!!
 
Black Oak Bladeworks said:
I don't do custom knives, but I would recommend as another option consider getting a maker to clone it for you with a brand new blade and handle! That will probobly be cheaper than attempting to re work that one unfortunately. Good Luck!
Click to expand...

Replicating this with fresh materials or using it as the inspiration for something better is my recommendation. I'm sure one of our resident craftsmen (maybe David Mary David Mary ) could create an "ideal version". Then, not only would D Docscoot have a better knife, and maybe the kind of knife his granddad would wish for him, but also one that could be passed down to future generations in better condition. To that end, consider going with stainless. You can stay tough with something like AEB-L.
 
Docscoot said:
I appreciate the feedback! What you're saying makes total sense and I was worried those pits were just too deep, they're certainly deeper than anything I can sand out by hand. Along the edges where you can see the pores more in cross-section they seem to be up to 1mm or so deep, wondering if I took off a full mm thickness across the entire blade if that would get to clean steel, or if somehow pores have found their way even deeper and eaten all the way through. I will most likely leave it as is, I've already sanded quite a bit and glued the handle back together as you suggest (actually did that years ago, and have just had in the back of my mind maybe someday I could do more with this one).

Thanks!!
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My pleasure! I wish it was an easier fix for you.
 
Chronovore said:
Dremel tools should not be used for sharpening and can be bad in some other ways. For instance, I definitely wouldn't use it to remove rust, much less grind out pits on a blade. However, I've effectively (albeit carefully) used a dremel for various knife mods such as the early portions of filing and sanding projects. Care and forethought are the keys to success with such a tool.
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I've had some wonderful results with my little Dremel for some refinishing and polishing work on old straight razors and pocket knives, but definitely not the right tool for this job! I doubt the Dremel is ever ideal, but when you're limited on tools there's quite a lot it can do ;)
 
Chronovore said:
Replicating this with fresh materials or using it as the inspiration for something better is my recommendation. I'm sure one of our resident craftsmen (maybe David Mary David Mary ) could create an "ideal version". Then, not only would D Docscoot have a better knife, and maybe the kind of knife his granddad would wish for him, but also one that could be passed down to future generations in better condition. To that end, consider going with stainless. You can stay tough with something like AEB-L.
Click to expand...
I like this idea a lot, I can keep the old knife as-is and just make sure I don't damage it further, but maybe get something I could actually use built as an homage piece. Will give this some real thought, thanks gentlemen!!!
 
I know how you feel about that knife...
I have a bunch of my Grampa's knives, and they are my most prized possessions.
In my case: I decided to do nothing to erase his lifetime of owning them. He could tell hunting stories better than most folks, and the stories almost always involved a nick on one of the blades.
Each mark on them is priceless to me...
 
A dremel is one of the essential tools in my knife making shop. Jussayin' ;)

Thank you Chronovore Chronovore for the kind suggestion.

I have not gotten into brass guards yet or stacked handles. I could rework this knife and have it looking new, but the handle I would do for this one would be significantly different, it would be scales, with a central liner, or housing for the tang. A method I have used a number of times with good success.

Or I do have something in stock I could fairly quickly turn into a similar knife to this, but with full tang construction.
 
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