- Joined
- Apr 13, 2011
- Messages
- 394
I have this friend at work, another truck driver who is always interested in my knives but has no absolutely no idea what he is talking about. About 2 months ago he came to work and produced his EDC from a ratty little pouch on his belt, it was a terribly made plastic bodied liner lock with about a 3 inch blade. He said he had cracked the handle right after he bought it by throwing it and mentioned how he had poured all sorts of glue in it and could fix it but he continued to carry it for the last 5 years because it was a "good knife" sigh... I mentioned how I had some gorilla glue that would do the trick and would bring it in for him, then I changed my mind and asked if he would let me try to fix it, and he did. I took it home and disassembled it to find it was terribly built, the liner was at around 175% engagement, it was right past the blade to the far scale, the blade had 1/2" of left/right and front/back play, the washers were clear plastic like a child's toy would be packaged in. Now the handle was actually broken in 3 pieces and held together with the rubber glued on inserts. I glued it back together and re-assembled, it was not pretty but it was strong. I then took it to the stones and stropped it to an impressive edge for what a imagine was low-carbon unhardened steel (which was a file edge before). It took a pretty impressive toothy edge because of the super soft steel, it wont last but it was prickly when I handed it back to him. I considered just throwing it away and giving him a Buck Vantage or a Kershaw in its place but he seemed pretty attached to it. A few weeks later he dropped another in my hand and asked me to sharpen it, a small folding bowie type knife, metal handle with plastic scales meant to look like stag. Again the blade was destroyed with enough blade play to rattle back and forth if you shook it, and the tip was shaped like a lightning bolt from being bent and straightened. I took it to my anvil and hammer to straighten it out and put a better edge on it than he had ever seen before, im sure. I was happy just to show off my basic skills in sharpening and maintenance and for the opportunity to feed his interests and hopefully steer him in the right direction. I never criticized him or his knives or pointed out how mine were superior. I did warn him about the lack of a "lock" on his liner, and told him not to throw them anymore. Last night he finds me on the road and tells me he has something for me, he produces a Silva Ranger liquid filled compass in excellent shape and an absolutely filthy Leatherman Charge in a black nylon sheath, he said he found it in a bag of camping gear at the dump, almost everything else had been destroyed when it was compacted but this and a flashlight (that he held onto to) survived. After seeing that it was a charge and in good shape other than the filth I told him that it was a really nice tool and made sure he wanted to give it to me, and he did, he also thought it was just a wire cutter. I told him I had a few mid-sized folders I would bring in and let him pick one out of next week in appreciation. Ive been cleaning it all morning and i have all the tools moving and working but I cant get this filth off, I think it may be mortar or grout, it feels like concrete, but the knife works. This is going to be one of my new work EDC's, its ugly and ready for a garbage mans belt. Long winded, I know.
