This afternoon, I stopped off at the local pawnshop, looking for a classic slippie to try my hand at restoring
I found a small Schrade Old Timer stockman in 108OT carbon steel, it was in pretty poor shape, the blades had a mottled patina as well as red rust patches, the tip of the small blade was bent slightly, and all the blades were about as sharp as the common butter knife
the main blade was stamped "Schrade USA 108OT"
that said, the backsprings were strong, it had decent snap, and the walk-and-talk was good for an old, neglected knife, so I figured it'd be worth a try, so I make the purchase and head home
once home, I collect up some cleaning and polishing supplies;
a white Scotchbrite pad
some 000 steel wool
some 1000 grit sandpaper
Black and Decker rotary tool and small wire wheel at 3000 RPM
Flitz metal polish
microfiber cloth
this is the condition the knife was in when I got it;
Poor thing, looks like the previous owner really didn't care for it properly...
first thing to do was to straighten the tip of the small blade, I put it in my big steel vise and clamped the jaws as tight as possible, which took out a good amount of bending, a couple minor flexes were all that was needed to fully realign the blade...
Then, I started refinishing the small blade, then the middle, then the large, the steps I performed were;
Step 1; Scotchbrite pad to remove the largest rust patches and to polish the bolsters - the Scotchbrite pad actually did a pretty darned good job, it removed about 85% of the rust spots and discolorations
Step 2; steel wool; the steel wool was for some of the more tenacious rust spots and the nail-nick crevices, what the Scotchbrite didn't get, the steel wool did
Step 3; 1000 grit sandpaper to reduce the random patina spotting and polish the blade
Step 4; rotary tool and wire wheel - i kept the RPM low, 3000 RPM, and used an extremely light touch, barely touching the blade, just skimming the surface
Step 5; Flitz polish - to put a little shine back on the blade
after refinishing the blades, I let it sit in WD-40 for a half hour to work the years of crud and neglect out of it, then washed the WD-40 out, dried it and re-lubed with BreakFree CLP, it's now got a nice sharp snap and great walk-and-talk, the edges need work, but there's a lot of neglect and abuse I have to work the steel past
I don't think I did too bad for my first effort
the end results are here;
Once it's sharpened up, it'll be added to my EDC arsenal and be treated quite well
I found a small Schrade Old Timer stockman in 108OT carbon steel, it was in pretty poor shape, the blades had a mottled patina as well as red rust patches, the tip of the small blade was bent slightly, and all the blades were about as sharp as the common butter knife
the main blade was stamped "Schrade USA 108OT"
that said, the backsprings were strong, it had decent snap, and the walk-and-talk was good for an old, neglected knife, so I figured it'd be worth a try, so I make the purchase and head home
once home, I collect up some cleaning and polishing supplies;
a white Scotchbrite pad
some 000 steel wool
some 1000 grit sandpaper
Black and Decker rotary tool and small wire wheel at 3000 RPM
Flitz metal polish
microfiber cloth
this is the condition the knife was in when I got it;
Poor thing, looks like the previous owner really didn't care for it properly...
first thing to do was to straighten the tip of the small blade, I put it in my big steel vise and clamped the jaws as tight as possible, which took out a good amount of bending, a couple minor flexes were all that was needed to fully realign the blade...
Then, I started refinishing the small blade, then the middle, then the large, the steps I performed were;
Step 1; Scotchbrite pad to remove the largest rust patches and to polish the bolsters - the Scotchbrite pad actually did a pretty darned good job, it removed about 85% of the rust spots and discolorations
Step 2; steel wool; the steel wool was for some of the more tenacious rust spots and the nail-nick crevices, what the Scotchbrite didn't get, the steel wool did
Step 3; 1000 grit sandpaper to reduce the random patina spotting and polish the blade
Step 4; rotary tool and wire wheel - i kept the RPM low, 3000 RPM, and used an extremely light touch, barely touching the blade, just skimming the surface
Step 5; Flitz polish - to put a little shine back on the blade
after refinishing the blades, I let it sit in WD-40 for a half hour to work the years of crud and neglect out of it, then washed the WD-40 out, dried it and re-lubed with BreakFree CLP, it's now got a nice sharp snap and great walk-and-talk, the edges need work, but there's a lot of neglect and abuse I have to work the steel past
I don't think I did too bad for my first effort
the end results are here;
Once it's sharpened up, it'll be added to my EDC arsenal and be treated quite well
Enjoy it. 
