Old Kabar Peanut (Cleaning & Restoration)

Halfneck

Halfneck

Joined
Jun 30, 2005
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I have an old Kabar Peanut that I'd like to try & clean up. It was given to me by my wife's Grandfather an I'm hoping I can save it to hand down to one of my boys.

The blades (Main clip & a pen) have a dark patina, but no rust. There is a lot of lint/debris in it & the blades don't have much snap. The dark brown jigged bone is good, as are the bolsters & shield.

Looking for recommendations on how to clean it up, or what to use. I mostly use mineral oil or Break-Free on my knives.

Don't know how much use it will see, but I treasure my wife's Grandfather like he was my own. He served as a line-man with the 44th Infantry during WWII, and according to my Mother In-Law I'm the 1st person he has talked to about his WWII service.

Thanks - Pat.
 
How I typically clean up an antique/vintage knife (one with wear and gunk and patina) is to open it up and use some toothpicks or match stems and clean out the debris from inside, then lay it on its back on some paper towels and flood it with WD40 and let it soak thru - work the blades some, then repeat the spray flood and soak-thru several times, working the blades some each time - usually with some more toothpick poking. Then I rub it well with the WD40 soaked paper towels all over, inside and out, until it stops staining the towels - this includes the blades (what doesn't rub off the blades this way I say belongs there and leave them alone). After that I'll wrap the knife tightly in a paper towel or two and put it somewhere safe for a couple of days to let the towels absorb all the excess WD40. Then I take it out and usually give it a short mineral oil soak. Then again work the blades, again wrap for a while to get all the excess mineral oil, then give it a good rubbing all over with a soft terrycloth towel - especially the bone. Give the joints a drop or two of Militec-1 and wipe the blades with a little to protect them. I may also apply Ren Wax - at least to the bone - with soft terrycloth towels -- not always though.
 
Just got in from the workbench. Soaked it in Break-Free then took a paperclip and swabbed the gunk out, scrubbed at it with a nylon brush, worked the blades, scrubbed off some surface rust with a bronze brush, then soaked it in mineral oil & wrapped it in a old t-shirt.

Still looks like there is grime/discoloration on the inside, hoping it is not something bad. The color of the dark brown bone lightened up some. The snap on the blades improved (especially the main clip blade) & they have half-stops. Main blade tang is marked Kabar with 10?? under it - can't make out the last 2 numbers. Blades are as dull as a butterknife.

I'll be seeing a friend of mine this weekend who is a Horologist (Watch Repairman) & see if he has any special tools/gadgets that might help in cleaning it up.

stewey1 - Don't think I could take a pic showing the fine detail. That & I do not know how to post pics here.

zerogee - Thanks for the suggestions.
 
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