Old Gerber Hunter Folding Knife

[TheyCallMeEric]

Hi everyone, on a random quest to find some of my old Swiss Army knives, I happened upon this thing in the basement. I have been on a binge discovering all of the old USA made tools in my house, as well as acquiring new ones, so this was a happy find.

I'd like to bring it back from "seriously funky" to "obviously used" and do a little restoration on it. I believe it's from the mid 80's from looking online. It feels great in the hand, very heavy and rock solid.

It opens and closes great, I can feel a little bit of grit.. but not bad at all. You can see that the blade is pretty scratched up from attempts at sharpening.. my dad was not the most graceful when it came to detail work. I have been meaning to buy waterstones for a while now.. any suggestions? I need them for knives, axes, and wood carving tools, so I imagine I'll need a few different grits. I figure on the sheath I can use sno-seal to clean up and bring some life back into the leather as well as protect from water. But how should I take care of the green on the brass & bring a little life back into the wood handles? Is it possible / recommended to take these apart for cleaning?

Thanks for any help.

 

[sitflyer]

Nice Gerber! I've got one just like it, they were a tank! No need to do anything radical, just get some brass polish like brasso, never dull, or a metal polish like flitz or mothers mag polish, and use that to clean up the brass. Scratches on the blade show that the knife was used and showed some love A little bit of warm soapy water to clean her up, and maybe a light rub with mineral oil to the wood and that one should be good to go. The verdigris, if on the leather can be cleaned up with some warm soapy water using a rag to dab at it, and a leather conditioner applied after drying it out. Those were some great knives in there day, the steel takes a wicked edge.

 

[mtangent]

Those old Gerber's are great.
Do what sitflyer says. In addition, after a good wash in warm soapy water, I would work the joint with an excessive amount of mineral oil. Be prepared with a rag to wipe off the dirty stuff that comes out, then add more. This will flush out the grittiness.

 

[trey999]

Cool knife. I wish I could find stuff like that.

 

[meako]

I 'd do everything that has been said so far:thumbup:with one exception-instead of mineral oil on the handle which would be OK I'd give it a fine sand(gently by hand) with wet n dry paper which will really clean it up and get that green crud off and anything out of the grain.Then a wipe with metho to clean off any dust and oil.Then Scandinavian oil or fine buffing oil couple of coats.
what model is it? I like the look of its jib.

 

[screened porch]

If there's mold on the leather you can put it in the freezer overnight to kill that. I occasionally use black shoe polish on mine, but the sno-seal is a good idea especially after a period of languishing.

I wish I'd bought more Gerbers back when, with those thin, flat blades, but they looked too avant garde for me at the time.

 

[TheyCallMeEric]

Thanks everyone! I have started on cleaning it up. Already the Brasso has made a HUGE difference. There is a ring on both sides kind of worn into the knife from the button on the sheath, but no big deal. The handles look an awful lot like rosewood, so I will do what I do on guitars necks and use some #0000 steel wool to clean out the funk, then use some mineral oil as suggested. I'll pick those up this weekend. The sheath isn't moldy thankfully, just pretty dirty & dry. The brass feels so much better after polishing off the green. I'll take some pics once I'm finished cleaning everything. Thanks again!