New York Knife quandry?

What would you do with the knife?

  • Leave it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Fix it and use it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Sell it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
B

blademan 13

Joined
Jan 25, 2000
Messages
4,492
I recently came upon a very nice New York Knife heavy swayback jack. Nice and tight with great action on the blades, beautiful rosewood or cocobolo covers, nice shield and a very desireable pattern. Except for a couple glaring issues, the spearpoint blade has been obviously introduced to a grinder and the sheepsfoot used as a screwdriver :eek::eek: My problem is that I can't quite decide the fate of this knife and would be interested in how you fine folks would approach this situation?

Keep it and leave it alone?
Fix it and use it?
Move it along?

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While I suppose you could clean it up for a better cosmetic look, it looks just fine to me. The blades have been ground/sharpened to a somewhat abused look but I'd bet they function just fine. I'd use it as is and move on. I sure as heck wouldn't sell it - you'd just hurt it's feelings.
 
If "keep it and leave it alone" means "leave it alone and use it", I'd do that. The edge and nose of the sheepsfoot will meet eventually. Though I would be tempted to grind back that de facto point a bit to hasten the process.
If it's worth money and you're not happy with it, by all means sell it. If you just don't like it, do a GAW and people with their own ideas will enter.
For purposes of your survey, consider my response to be leave it alone and keep it and use it.
 
It's not big deal to modify the broken sheep foot. You can even leave it as it is, just clean it and oil it. This is great knife of desirable old cutlery. Personally I would have sharpen the broken tip and round it just a bit to look similar to a spear point.

Mike
 
A nice old knife like that has collectability and usability. I don't know how much collectability is lost but most of it's usability is still there if it was not overheated on the grinder.

To me, it has a lot of value as a user and if I couldn't get more than that value back selling it or fixing it up I would use it. Wouldn't do anything but sharpen a lot trying to bring things back to the shape I wanted in the process.
 
If I had it I would regrind the spear's edge, taking out the recurve, and then regrind the second blade into a sheepfoot. I use a 1x30 belt sander with 80 through 220 grit belts, followed by regular sharpening. Just go slow and keep the blades cool (dipping in water between passes) and it should come out good to go.
 
I would leave it as is. The damage that has been done is as much a part of the knife's history as it's original manufacture. It adds character, why do more harm to the knife by trying to erase that?

n2s
 
I would shorten the sheepfoot blade until it got it's proper tip back. If the spear is sharp I'd just use it as it is, if it isn't sharp I would sharpen it.
 
A few drops of oil in the joints (along with a general oil wipe-down), sharpen it up, and in the pocket it would go! Enjoy it--looks like a fine knife.
 
Hmmm, that is a tough one. Were it me, I would probably have enough excellent knives that are already in rotation, that I would sock that beauty away, even in it's present condition.
 
Jamie,
I would clean the lint and debris ( if any ) out between the liners.
Put a drop of oil in the joint and a little on the blades and enjoy it as is.
Nice folder.
 
I'd sharpen the spearpoint leaving the re-curve, gently re-profile the secondary blade into another spearpoint like Primble so neatly illustrated in the following post , and toss it in my pocket and carry it proudly.
 
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Tough call on that one - not sure what I would do - probably give it a lot of thought before doing anything.

Nice old NYKC. :thumbup::)

A possibility:

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