Operation Slipjoint Rescue

T

Tostig

Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
2,586
So an old buddy of mine does a lot of thrift and swap huntin' for older militaria , and always keeps an eye out for knives , for me.

Most of the time they are horrid , badly broken blades , missing scales , rusted so badly that they are beyond help but it's still neat to ponder over an old knife and wonder what sort of life it led with it's previous owner/s.

Last friday though I got a nice surprise , he gave me seven of them , two of which were very salvagable , an old Imperial and an old Cutco.

The Imperial was so badly rusted the smaller blade would not open without the aid of pliers and some rust stained the faux pearl , but after a good cleaning and polishing the old girl has years of life left in her still , the snap and walk n talk are as good can be. and zero blade play.
The Cutco was pretty bad too , the blades are a little wobbly but it cleaned up nicely, the derlin looks near new , although all the blades on both knives show pitting and staining , I believe it adds to the character rather than detracting from it.

Thought I'd share them with you folks.

e6ubsl.jpg




9jlhna.jpg


Thanks , Tostig


edit - sorry for the poor pic quality , took them from my phone.
 
Very nice. I like to salvage old woodworking tools. I find it very satisfying to put a derelict back in working order. Good job.
 
Looks like you got those babies ready for another few generations of work to me.
Very nice job.
 
Nicely done. Always like to see a good old knife rescued and refurbished.:thumbup: What do you use to polish the blades?
 
Hi,

It's amazing how well those Imperials clean up. When I was young, they were generally considered the cheap throw-away stuff. But they are often found having withstood some of the most abusive lives very little worse for the wear. Just clean, lube, and sharpen. They're ready for another lifetime of use!

That Cutco looks nice too. Reminds me of the Schrades I had as a kid.

Thanks for cleaning them up and sharing them!

dalee
 
I had that exact Imperial back in the late 60's.
Great job refurbishing those old soldiers!
 
Thanks for the replies folks.

Yobbos1 - It was a process of rust removal and polishing to an extent , most of these knife blades are so pitted that to do too much to them would require too much removal of metal , thus rendering the blade too thin , usually just use steel wool then 600 grit with oil , to 1500 grit with oil sandpaper , just to get somwe of the luster back , if the blade is too pitted and of high carbon steel I may blue the blade , otherwise final polish with Flitz and off she goes.


Dalee100 - Yea I'm not the biggest fan of Imperials line towards the latter years , they are made rather cheaply , this one is a good example but managed to clean up nicely and not too much rust damage to the hollow scales and bolsters.

Ebbtide - Thanks , I was guesstimating the era of the Imperial , was going for mid 70's.

338375 - Heck yea ! Not many finer ways to spend an afternoon.

Bastid - 4yanks - knife crazied , thanks :)


I'm working on another one now , this is another older Imperial , the brass was so tarnished it was a deep red color , the blades look like they've been ground on a cinderblock in hell - which makes it even more fun to see if I can bring her back to life.

Will post when done , going for elephant ivory to replace the original broken scales.

Tostig
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top