Old knife restoration

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
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I'm going to start restoring this knife soon. I'm picking it up tomarow from a budy that has his heart set on bringing it back to life. I don't personally know much about this style other then it's a military pilots knife from I'm guessing around 68. So any tips on bringing this back to its old glory would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys

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Electrolysis tank for rust and crud removal. New stacked leather handle. New original pattern leather sheath.

Can you grind out the dings and such or will it need enough work to require re-heat treating? If so, find someone that knows what alloy steel was used in the AF survival knives. I think the original finish was black parkerizing or similar.

Out of curiosity, is it a Camillus or an Ontario?
 
The top teeth were not extremely sharp, they were not a saw, but rather were meant to tear through aluminum skin.
 
I'm not sure of the manufacture or the alloy but it's not supper I'm guessing. I'm hoping I dont have to grind much on it. But I'm not sure if I should go full clean up and make it look new or keep the blade finish how it is and just clean the edge bevels.
 
Back in the 60's and 70's there were a lot of cheap knives like that. They were sod pretty much everywhere. Most were so soft you could file the edger easily ... probably Rc50 at most. The end nut was aluminum on many. Guards were just stamped sheet metal. Tangs were dead soft. Yours looks like those did after some camp use. Not saying yours isn't a military issue, but it looks like the cheap ones.

Is the handle a grey composite or actual stacked leather?
 
Looks identical to the Camillus I just converted into a field expedient WW1 Trench Knife replica. Wasn't quite that beat up though.

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Personally I'd go for a fine wire wheel to clean it up. All through school I spent pretty well all of my free time volunteering in the shops at a local museum, I spent more time in the machine shop restoring tools and equipment than in the blacksmith shop.
In general I'd avoid grinding, and definitely avoid anything to do with heat treating. It's a matter of restoring an item, vs making a replacement.
I'd go over it with a fine wire wheel to see what you have to work with as a start. If there are some pits and such I'd leave them. Re parkerize, and replace the leather handle. If you're going for an actual restoration, removing metal should be avoided at all cost.

As for the wire wheel vs electrolysis or evaporust, I've never cared for those options. They leave a look to the metal that needs to be polished off if you want it to really look right. It takes no more time and effort to wire wheel it from the beginning, than soak it for hours before having to wire wheel it anyways
 
Straighten up the edge, straighten tang, bead blast, Parkerize, order new handle washers from Cutco.
When you install the new leather, grind/file/sand it in one direction only. It will look much smoother that eay
 
Might be hard to find a person to parkerize it....however, there are plenty who can Cerakote it with a finish to match the parkerizing. Good stuff.
 
i would ask the owner if they want it shined up to look close to new or just recondition the edges. if the knife has sentimental value because of who it belonged to, i would not want to erase the wear and history embedded in the surface from the previous owner.
 
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