A little tongue in cheek message, half joking half truth! 
 A kind soul locally sells airport security forfeited SAKs for charity. Proceeds help give counselling and airfare home to runaway youths. The guy must have over 300 SAKs! The most common are 3-layer, mostly Climbers.
They were so cheap I couldn't resist buying dozens! This was the start of my collection, and I figured I'd be sharing the love by giving some away. It wouldn't have been bad if I bought them for what they are, but YouTube and various forums planted the insidious idea that these scuffed and dirty SAKs could be made new again!
Thus began my unending monotony of burden. Most of the scales were popped off, everything thoroughly washed and scrubbed, dull and damaged blades needed reprofiling, cellidor to be polished and sanded to remove knicks and corporate branding.
After countless hours spent the last month, I've only restored a handful. The worst process is sanding, as it requires working through ~7 grits plus polishing paste to remove deep scratches or engraving. Sharpening is also a nightmare when you see how some people can chip or flatten their edges so badly.
The lessons here are:
-Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean it's the right price
-wear or engravings provide character
-some scales don't survive removal, even when using the hot water bath trick
-a toothbrush is a terrible scrubbing implement for dozens of SAKs
-get proper coarse stones for blade reprofiling, Spyderco Sharpmaker Diamond rods don't count!
-Sanding to perfection is fruitless, cellidor scratches too easily
-add 2-10x to the estimated time any restoration guide claims
I hope you all learned a little or enjoyed reading about my self torture. In the end I'm happy now owning nearly every model of SAK I've wanted. Ask away if you have questions about the process or various models!
 A kind soul locally sells airport security forfeited SAKs for charity. Proceeds help give counselling and airfare home to runaway youths. The guy must have over 300 SAKs! The most common are 3-layer, mostly Climbers.They were so cheap I couldn't resist buying dozens! This was the start of my collection, and I figured I'd be sharing the love by giving some away. It wouldn't have been bad if I bought them for what they are, but YouTube and various forums planted the insidious idea that these scuffed and dirty SAKs could be made new again!
Thus began my unending monotony of burden. Most of the scales were popped off, everything thoroughly washed and scrubbed, dull and damaged blades needed reprofiling, cellidor to be polished and sanded to remove knicks and corporate branding.
After countless hours spent the last month, I've only restored a handful. The worst process is sanding, as it requires working through ~7 grits plus polishing paste to remove deep scratches or engraving. Sharpening is also a nightmare when you see how some people can chip or flatten their edges so badly.
The lessons here are:
-Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean it's the right price
-wear or engravings provide character
-some scales don't survive removal, even when using the hot water bath trick
-a toothbrush is a terrible scrubbing implement for dozens of SAKs
-get proper coarse stones for blade reprofiling, Spyderco Sharpmaker Diamond rods don't count!
-Sanding to perfection is fruitless, cellidor scratches too easily
-add 2-10x to the estimated time any restoration guide claims
I hope you all learned a little or enjoyed reading about my self torture. In the end I'm happy now owning nearly every model of SAK I've wanted. Ask away if you have questions about the process or various models!
