I'm with you on that. I also agree about being as gentle as possible with the original scales. It's pretty interesting to me that such a "simple" old pocketknife has taken relatively little work to get it back into a condition where it will continue to perform well for years - maybe generations - to come. Somebody should start a subforum about those cool traditional knives... oh, wait...
Personally I don't give a hoot about "collector value", so I don't mind cleaning up an old knife and putting it back into service. It's a
great story, that your Dad had it for so long and you're breathing new life into it for him... I'm sure he'll be
very pleased! I would honestly consider that knife a family heirloom. You can't put a dollar value on that.
A few years ago I was contacted by a local woman who had found her Dad's old Cattaraugus 225Q in a trunk or something and wanted it rebuilt. She said her Dad carried it every time they went camping or fishing or hunting, and used the dickens out of it. As it turned out, the sheath was toast, so we made her a new one. But the blade and handle, although obviously well-used were in remarkably good condition, so all I really did to it was give it a quick scrub with 0000 steel wool, hone the edge and rub a little oil on the leather. I told her, clearly her Dad was a man who knew how to take care of his tools. She was very happy, and gave it to her son, who likes to go camping and mountain-climbing, for a college graduation present. Honestly it was one of my most satisfying projects to date.
One of these days I will rebuild the badly-abused/neglected Cat 225Q I got for Christmas a year or two ago... just haven't gotten around to it yet.
That's quite a turn of phrase
Cool link, too.
Right on.
