Old Hickory Refurbishing Question

[paultl80]

I picked up some old knives at an estate sale last month and finally got around to doing some work on them.

This is the worst one that I may not be able to refurbish back into a working knife with a clean edge.
It's an Old Hickory True Edge from Ontario Knife Company.

I'm planning on grinding off the edge of the blade back to the depth of the gouge.
My question is should I grind back the edge, from the heel to the tip, to the depth of the gouge?

Or should I grind back the edge, from the tip to the gouge, to the depth of the gouge, then transition depth of the grind back to the original depth of the heel?

Here are the pictures of the knife before and after my I worked on it some today.

Before:

After:

 

[Alberta Ed]

My mother-in-law had an Old Hickory like that, much abused. I cleaned it up and sharpened it but the steel must have been around RC 40. Tough as heck, but wouldn't hold an edge.

 

[ChapmanPreferred]

I would remove steel from both sides of the edge damage to keep the original form unless you have a specific purpose in mind that might benefit from a different shape.

Oh by the way, nice progress so far!!!

 

[Stubai]

These old knives bring back many a good memory. I have used a belt sander in such cases, where you place the damaged edge at a 90 degree angle to the buffing surface and then gently work the edge back to life. If you go this way, keep some cool water on hand and dip your blade frequently to circumvent excessive heat. You will have to remove some of the original edge depending on how deep the chip is. If you are not concered with cosmetics, just profile it with a grinder taking care not to burn the temper.

The steel in the Ontario line is fairly soft so it won't take a bunch of effort to clean the knife up. These blades were some tough customers and were used/abused in many a kitchen. For years, they were the 'go to' knife in rural settings, numerous butcher knives found their way to hunting camps. They are easy to sharpen and cut well but will rust like no tomorrow if not cleaned up and oiled. Good classic knife! Many people used to hit them on the spine with hammers while splitting frozen meats etc. You'll find them at garage sales with mushroomed spines and chipped blades. Handles are easy to replace with simple tools and a bit of down time. I know of a few wilderness buffs that use a 14 inch Ontario butcher knife as their primary survival tool. They do work in that role if you have the skill to wield one!

 

[paultl80]

My concern is with grinding off the same dept of the gouge back on the heel of the knife.
The gouge in 2 1/2 mm deep.
The heel is 4 1/2 mm in depth.



If I grind back 2 1/2 mm off from the point to the heel to keep the shape, I'll be left with only 2 mm left on the heel.
That's less that half of it's current depth.

I'll try to stay true to the original sweep of the edge, but in the end I guess it's going to look a bit different.

 

[kirei]

nice catch. my dad's went missing years ago and i still search for it when i'm home.

 

[Stubai]

The piece is going to look different due to the 'nick'. It was probably hit with a hammer or twisted in some way beyond normal limits, but it will still be a swell blade after you have fixed it up. Don't worry, the nick is just a testament to the history of the knife. Many of my butcher knives have had nicks that deep or better...and all have been re-profiled and ground down to where they will function again. No worries!

 

[foxx]

I'd leave it with some of the "history". It's an old knife, no need to make it look new, leave some of the gouge, aka character.