Ok...please help me here folks

Campbellclanman

Campbellclanman

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Mar 10, 2007
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Hi everyone...first I would like to say Merry Christmas...I hope these holidays treat you all very well :)

Now...I have pained over whether I should put this up-as I am slightly afraid of getting a negative reaction..please read and hopefully you will see what I mean.

I often wonder whether I look at knives in a completely different way to others...when I see real nice old bone on a knife...I just simply never tire from looking at it, I have a couple of knives here that my lovely lady saw and picked up for me, they are nothing special..please let me underline this....they are second hand..and are what a lot of people would call junkers...
But she saw them and got them..knowing nothing at all about knives...and this is the first time she has ever done this...and I think it was a awesome, thoughtfull thing for her to do for me.

Now these knives wouldnt even move...so I 0000 steel-wooled the red rust off the blades,even had to get a scraper to scrape of the mounds of hard rust.
I then WD40'd them, worked them, cleaned the liners with a thin bamboo rod & hot watered and soaped them, blew them out with comp. air & re WD40'd them-wiped them off and mineral oiled them....whew!:o
But man does that rosewood handled one snap like a brand newy on all stops!....so so crisp!!
I have a few questions, could you please help me here, as I would really like to know what to do.

1, Both knives are the same stamping...
HUMPHERY ( over ) RADIANT ( over ) SHEFFIELD
Obviously not a manufacturer..some sort Merchandise group whom had the knives made for them?..any ideas?
2, The bigger old bone knife, the first thing Sue said to me was that it doesnt close properly-well it actually does, its just that it was a beaut of a Hawkbill...but had the life ground out of it the blade is half gone, but the Tang isn't.
But the bone is what has caused me to put up this thread..I really, really love this old bone, and I think its quite stunning.
Is this just me?..or does it look just as good to you-go for the throat guys-as I need to know what others think.
3, Now...what would you do ( other than throw it away :D )...is this bone good enough to try and get someone to re-blade this with another old Hawkbill blade?...or my other idea was to file the tang down ( now that it has been ground down so severly ) to enable to knife to close-then carefully reprofile the blade so that it closes nice and can perform as a cutting edge again.
Here are the photo's, please forgive me-as the knife has been trashed, I just think there is something I can do for it, and your opinions would help
Thanks for looking, and I hope you can understand where I am coming from.
Happy holidays,
Duncan

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Duncan, that is great that your lady got you these knives. That bone on the hawkbill looks a lot like stag to me. The person that had that knife put it on a grinder more than once, but I think I'd try to work the tang to get it to sit in the handle better and reprofile the blade a bit to clean it up as a user. You really can't mess it up beyond having a new blade put in it anyway, so you don't have anything to lose by working on it. The other one doesn't need anything else except edge reprofiling and sharpening.

I certainly am no expert on the branding, but they are pretty decent looking knives to me.

Ed
 
Hi there Ed,
Yeah...it looks as though the guy might have tried to stop a runaway train with that old blade...im figuring taking that tang down, and a re-profile?
Thank you for looking, and your comment, I know that knives like this are working tools, but this is just plain abuse..no excuse for treating a blade like this, as you say, it WAS a good knife, and Im lovin' that bone!
 
You got yourself some old stag there, and not bone. I definitely wouldn't replace the blade. Grind it down if you are in fact going to do something to it.
 
Berkley...thank you for that!...But why not the full Initials as they ( the maker ) usualy do.ie. J.Rodgers,?? and what is with the "RADIANT"?..I wonder why they chose that as a motto?

Campbell ( thats one good name eh! ;) )...I agree, I thought it was stag..but when I compared it too my old Queen..it was very similar, I am not one to fool around with knives...giving them a good clean as I described is as far as I go, but I just think the butchering of the blade detracts from the great Stag...so I need to make this knife just a little better, and I think I can do this right.

Am I looking into this too much to think the Stag on this knife ( apart from the damage issues-cracks ) is so good...or in your opinion its just another bit of Stag?

Stag to me is great, as it comes in a Knarly profile, or smooth with the lovely colouring that these scales haveThanks to you both for your help :thumbup:
 
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Duncan,

I agree that the hawkbill has stag scales, not bone. I'm with Campbell, I'd keep the blade. The stag is nice, but it belongs with the original blade. That knife just wouldn't look right with a replacement. I'd suggest reprofiling and sharpening that little gem and keeping the rest as is. Don't touch the kick. Even though the tip sticks up above the frame, I don't think it's all that bothersome. Use that hawkbill as a desk knife or a really nice toolbox knife and the tip will no longer be a problem.

- Christian
 
very cool knives and a great gift from your lady. i'm more novice than a lot of the regulars here but i'm going to go against the grain and say that you should make it work for you: get that beauty a new blade. select a steel of your choice. the handle is great looking; give it new life with a new blade and make it all yours :thumbup:
 
Wow, the stories those knives could tell!

I don't know anything about repairing, reblading, etc. Sometimes it's all I can do to sharpen them the way I like. I agree with the person who said "make it your knife". But I would start with trying to file the kick as you say to make it lay in the handle a little more. If you couldn't do that to your satisfaction then I would look to getting another blade for it. But since I don't know how delicate the scales are I would try to adjust the blade you have before replacing it.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Duncan:

That one with the wooden handle is particularly interesting, especially the shape of the handle. How long is it?
 
i had some humphreys in the 70s. you did a good job on cleaning them up--definitely stag & i would just leave these ole warriors as is. they've ran a good race & it's time to retire them to be lookers only.
dennis
 
Those are beauties.Some old sailor saw and made a lot of history with those.
 
A couple of nice old knives there Duncan. Maybe shave off the kick on the stag one to sit lower. You have to be carefull because the spring may sink down too. The stag one you gould just put out for display. They are both worthy of keeping despite the heavy grinding that the pruner did to his knife.
 
Two fine old knives there Duncan, both look good enough to carry and use.

W R Humphreys & Co manufactured a wide range of knives inc table and pocket knives, by the early 20th century they were based at the "Haddon Works" in Sheffield. The firm's trade marks were the lamp logo and the word "RADIANT".

I've a fine old Hunphreys penknife somewhere, I can post a pic if it would be of interest ?.

Mick
 
Hi everyone,
Now...after I posted this...I thought very hard about it, and usually I would never, NEVER touch a knife, ( apart from cleaning ), Ed, Campbell, Christian Dennis and Steve...now all these guys have my greatest respect - and I take what all have to say quite seriously about the knife, but I want to use this, and for me to use it I just cant the way it is-the knife has been taken to the point of no return, but I can help it look better, and it can be used and appreciated, as much as that Stag would display in the most awesome way, I have fallen for this knife so hard I think it deserves to get back out in the garden and to be shown off :D
So....( please dont tell me off, as I know this is sacrilege ) I have carefully ground down the kick, and Steve...I did this portion by portion to test if the spring would sink in-it didnt :thumbup:
Now that the blade sits nicely back in the liner-it looks to be a whole different knife, I dont think the photos I put up here showed the extent of damage to the sides of the blades-let alone the edge...so I am carefully stoning back the sides to take this out, and it is working well, now I know what you are thinking but...when I have finished, the blades wont be blingy shiny, I think this is going to work...as I said I have studied this knife for quite some time before I started this...heres how it sits now...I havent shown blade-as I havent finished yet
Mick...Of course I am interested-as we all are..please post your photos, whenever you do ..its jaw dropping.
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Hawk...the wooden one has cleaned up so well, the half stops show no exposed spring, and the snap has got to be as good as new-very powerfull - yet it had none before!...ok the dimensions are..
Total length = 5 &3/4 inches long with a 2 & 1/2 inch long blade, I suspect slight loss of length of blade-but fairly minimal.
Merry Christams Hal!

Thanks Don!
 
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Well Duncan that pruner ^^ definitely looks better with the lower blade tip, a great improvement :thumbup:

Here's a pic of the Humphreys I mentioned earlier, just a simple two blade penknife, it has wonderful t/shell scales over gold leaf and a gilded fileworked backspring C1920s-30s ?

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Mick
 
Good grief!! :eek:
I just knew Mick would give us some eye candy ( oh to be a fly on the wall when Mick gets out his collection :) )
As always Mick, thank you.
 
Wow, I love that old stag!

If it were me, I'd leave the wooden handled knife completely as-is, aside from cleaning.
The stag handled knife, IMO, is already ruined by the horrific past treatment of the blade and heavy wear. I'd want a new blade made, and the stag re-pinned.

Trimming the kick turned out OK too, as long as you're now satisfied with the blade appearance.
 
Campbellclanman said:
I have a couple of knives here that my lovely lady saw and picked up for me, they are nothing special..please let me underline this....they are second hand..and are what a lot of people would call junkers...
But she saw them and got them..knowing nothing at all about knives...and this is the first time she has ever done this...and I think it was a awesome, thoughtfull thing for her to do for me.

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Click to expand...

she really is a lovely lady. what an awesome gift. :D :)that old pruner has some beautiful handle scales...:thumbup:
 
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