Modified Production Knives (traditional only)

So far, my attempt in progress.


I found these nice little bar clamps and some ivory bone handles of an older knife.
Everything went quite well, till I hammered down the pins and the scales broke...:(
As bone seems to be quite difficult, my next attempt will be some wood.
I've got a little square-cut, but have to saw it in the right thickness. Still don't know how to do this..?
 
That can be very frustrating!
My meteoric decent into slippie tinkering has had a couple hiccups recently. I was using a vintage Kutmaster tl-29 to disassemble and rescale as a single blade, and noticed the blade was slightly bent toward the pile side liner. I tried to gently correct it with a vise and slight pressure...snap!
Crap! Looking at the break, my father said the grain looked very rough, indicating poor heat treat and soft steel.
Having a perfectly good liners with scales glued and sanded, and a polished spring, I decided to find a replacement blade. The bay luckily has reasonably priced duplicate availability. A few days later, I was ready to start where I left off. But, the blade was bent exactly like the previous. Stupid me thought, "maybe I'll try to be MORE gentle." SNAP!
I'm done with Utica until I find some info on a way to date them and find a better "era" of knife. Camillus hasn't let me down yet and they are plentiful.
2ddd2647fa9287406b8ad86bb32a1a32.jpg
 
derrman79 said:
and noticed the blade was slightly bent toward the pile side liner. I tried to gently correct it with a vise and slight pressure...snap!

Looking at the break, my father said the grain looked very rough, indicating poor heat treat and soft steel.
Click to expand...

Your father is incorrect. It is not "soft steel". It is "hardened steel". It breaks easier than it bends. If it were soft, you could have bent it back.
 
Derrman, the only place they're a bit softer is roughly an eight inch or so above the tang shoulder. That's about the only place it'll bend if the tang is anealed. If the blade's not touching the liner I'd just leave it alone. These knives weren't made to be a perfect fit, they're utility knives at heart.

Eric
 
I'm sure it all has to do with heat treat and tempering process in a mass produced knife. My dad elaborated much more, but it sounded like Greek to me.
 
looking good there! ive been in the shop as well, but not working on knife mods just yet. soon tho!
 
That is the first knife completed at my own shop. Before I've used my dad's tools and machinery. After a new HF belt sander and lots of hand sanding, a proud accomplishment.
 
It's been a little while since I participated in this thread. I finally found a "cheap" cap lifter jack on eBay and it showed up in the mail yesterday. It's an old Camco with celluloid scales and legit baby bolsters. I've get her disassembled already and now I just need to figure out what kind of covers to put on it. One of my buddies gave me a box of exotic woods today that I wasn't expecting so my choices just got complicated. I'm thinking about cocobolo but I'll have to look through the box some more and pick something out
 
I figured out what was going on with my Photobucket. So here are the pics I was trying to upload last night.

Here is the cap lifted jack before disassembly:


And here is the box of wood I had to pick through to find something I liked:



So I took the knife apart and decided on cocobolo for the covers. Here is a little teaser shot of one side sanded to 400 grit with a little bit of Danish oil applied and a shameless shot of the wooden ring I made 😃

 
Wow, looks good. Can't wait to see the finished project!
 
Hey derrman, I like the TL-29 mod. Be careful it gets totally addicting. I cruise the bay all the time looking for old cheap knives to bring back to life.

Wilted Kilt, thank you. I like to make rings with my scrap wood left over from knife handles. My wife approved this one so I get to wear it as my wedding band.

Glennbad, as requested, here is the finished product. I'm trying to remember if it was you or not but I've seen one of these little cap lifter jacks with bolsters added and stag covers. If it was you, I'd love to see a picture of it. I've been looking through old threads trying to find a picture without success







Unfortunately the sun has gone down and I had to use the kitchen lights for pictures. But I'm very happy with finished product. Both blades has zero blade play and a healthy snap. Now I just need to get some bottled beer and try out the lifter
 
Haze, so you're the one driving up those bids! Just kidding. I really like that caplifter! Really clean look. Is that around 3" closed?
 
derrman79 said:
Haze, so you're the one driving up those bids! Just kidding. I really like that caplifter! Really clean look. Is that around 3" closed?
Click to expand...

Haha my bad! I missed out on an old g. Woodhead from the 1850's ish today that was a rediculous steal. The auction ended while I was in church and got out of by $.50. I was really looking forward to showing that one off in this thread.
To answer your other question, the cap lifter jack is 3 inches exactly when closed. Me and my son just used it to eat an apple. The apple didn't stand a chance
 
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