Reacquainting myself with items in my collection...

I got this one done about a week or so ago.

It has a sentimental backstory to it...

While I was working as a Personal Fitness Instructor at a former employer's facility, I was gifted this knife by a young fellow coworker.
She was a young woman in her early 20's, and she had just lost her Grandfather about three weeks prior to her giving me this knife.
She was close to him and felt a great loss when he passed away.
Anyhow, her Father found the knife amongst his Dad's belongings. It was a knife his Dad had acquired and held onto after his stint in the US Navy. Well, my friend's Father decided to give the knife, among some other items, to his daughter, (my young friend), to keep as momentos of her Grandpa.
She decided to keep everything except the knife. Her knowing how much I enjoyed having knives in my collection hobby, she wanted me to have it.
The day she gave me the knife she told me that she felt her Grandpa would appreciate that she was giving the knife to someone who would appreciate and care for it.
So, yes, it's a sentimental item within my collection ❤
Being that it's Father's Day, I felt that my telling how I acquired this knife would be a fitting story to share today.

Here's what it is...

US NAVY PILOT SURVIVAL

MANUFACTURER: SCHRADE WALDEN N.Y. USA

US NAVY ISSUE:
1953 - 1957

20220619_144904_(1).jpg

Just like most of my other knives, it's sheath is stored away in a closet full of knife accoutrements, including all sorts of factory boxes and such.
 
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That’s a great story. Thanks for sharing.

Regarding the sheaths... do you do anything to maintain or preserve them?
 
JM2 said:
That’s a great story. Thanks for sharing.

Regarding the sheaths... do you do anything to maintain or preserve them?
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Other than keeping them in a climate controlled environment, not usually.
I say not usually, because if a vintage knife has a sheath with brass button snaps and such that are tarnished, I clean that up before putting them away.
Then, I may sometimes use a little bit of mineral oil on the overall sheath. Now that I have the Ren Wax, I may use that on older sheaths that may come with the vintage knives... But only if they need a little TLC, otherwise, I'll just put them away.

For the most part, I don't mess with my new knives sheaths... But did Ren Wax my Cold Steel Cinquedea's leather sheath, since I keep it displayed with the knife and it having quite a bit of decorated steel on it 😊
 
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PocketKnifeJimmy said:
I got this one done about a week or so ago.

It has a sentimental backstory to it...

While I was working as a Personal Fitness Instructor at a former employer's facility, I was gifted this knife by a young fellow coworker.
She was a young woman in her early 20's, and she had just lost her Grandfather about three weeks prior to her giving me this knife.
She was close to him and felt a great loss when he passed away.
Anyhow, her Father found the knife amongst his Dad's belongings. It was a knife his Dad had acquired and held onto after his stint in the US Navy. Well, my friend's Father decided to give the knife, among some other items, to his daughter, (my young friend), to keep as momentos of her Grandpa.
She decided to keep everything except the knife. Her knowing how much I enjoyed having knives in my collection hobby, she wanted me to have it.
The day she gave me the knife she told me that she felt her Grandpa would appreciate that she was giving the knife to someone who would appreciate and care for it.
So, yes, it's a sentimental item within my collection ❤
Being that it's Father's Day, I felt that my telling how I acquired this knife would be a fitting story to share today.

Here's what it is...

US NAVY PILOT SURVIVAL

MANUFACTURER: SCHRADE WALDEN N.Y. USA

US NAVY ISSUE:
1953 - 1957

View attachment 1848650

Just like most of my other knives, it's sheath is stored away in a closet full of knife accoutrements, including all sorts of factory boxes and such.
Click to expand...

Beautiful blade and history!!! 👌
 
JM2 said:
That is a marked improvement on the handle. I had one of those some time back. I played with it a good while. Throwed it some, and I generally just played rough with it. It held up well and I eventually sold it off. Been thinking about another though. But I may end up with the pilot survival instead. Never had one of those.

I didn’t know case farmed it out to Ontario. Thanks for that tidbit.

The Kabar (I originally said Camillus but I meant kabar) never appealed to me because the handle is not in line with the blade. The blade is set lower when viewed from the side.
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Here’s kabars sight showing what I mean.
 
PocketKnifeJimmy said:
Yeah, I have a couple Kabars, one does seem a bit like that. It never noticed it until you now 😅
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I’ve seen a few that weren’t like that. Or at least weren’t as bad. But mostly all I’ve seen online or in person we’re. I don’t find it attractive, and thus have never had a kabar.
 
JM2 said:
I’ve seen a few that weren’t like that. Or at least weren’t as bad. But mostly all I’ve seen online or in person we’re. I don’t find it attractive, and thus have never had a kabar.
Click to expand...

Here are a couple of my leather handled Kabars.
20220625_101007_(1).jpg20220625_100109_(1).jpg

A few Ontario specimens.
20220611_110617_(1).jpg20220625_100014_(1).jpg

My Case, which was made by Ontario.
20220625_100000_(1).jpg

A couple Camillus.
20220625_100052_(1).jpg20220625_100138_(1).jpg

The Kabars do seem to show what you mentioned.
 
I've been laxing off on my mission of routinely maintaining my knives lately...
So, I did this one this morning to at least knock one off of the list.

Sadly, I noticed that this knife has developed a little looseness in the guard due to the handle's leather washers contracting a bit.
I have read about this problem listed before for this model knife while checking out online sales of them.
The knife's tang is secured by a pin that goes through it and the pommel, which makes for a solid construction, but it's not an easy fix if the handle gets loose. On a stacked leather handle that has a threaded tang and nut construction, it usually is an easy fix if the nut can be tightened at the pommel's butt end.
Loosening handles like this one has happened to a couple other of my knives in the past, (with them also having leather stacked handles), and so this seals the deal for me in avoiding them altogether from now on.
I feel these types of problems would hardly ever occur if all manufacturers used an epoxy glue, along with tension, to make things stay put. But, many stacked leather handled knives were, and may still be, made using the tension method only, which leaves it open to the handle becoming loose if it contracts from drying a bit.

Anyhow, it is what it is, and this knife now has a coating of Renaissance Wax and is back in the display case.

Remington brand knife made by the Camillus Cutlery firm of Camillus NY (now defunct)...

20220703_064759_(1).jpg
 
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That’s a beauty. I like lexol leather conditioner to bring life back to dry leather. I had a buck 119 sheath that was stiff and hard and had cracks. I applied a soaking coat of the lexol and in just a few minutes it was flexible and no signs of tearing at the cracks. I was duly impressed.
 
PocketKnifeJimmy said:
I've been laxing off on my mission of routinely maintaining my knives lately...
So, I did this one this morning to at least knock one off of the list.

Sadly, I noticed that this knife has developed a little looseness in the guard due to the handle's leather washers contracting a bit.
I have read about this problem listed before for this model knife while checking out online sales of them.
The knife's tang is secured by a pin that goes through it and the pommel, which makes for a solid construction, but it's not an easy fix if the handle gets loose. On a stacked leather handle that has a threaded tang and nut construction, it usually is an easy fix if the nut can be tightened at the pommel's butt end.
Loosening handles like this one has happened to a couple other of my knives in the past, (with them also having leather stacked handles), and so this seals the deal for me in avoiding them altogether from now on.
I feel these types of problems would hardly ever occur if all manufacturers used an epoxy glue, along with tension, to make things stay put. But, many stacked leather handled knives were, and may still be, made using the tension method only, which leaves it open to the handle becoming loose if it contracts from drying a bit.

Anyhow, it is what it is, and this knife now has a coating of Renaissance Wax and is back in the display case.

Remington brand knife made by the Camillus Cutlery firm of Camillus NY (now defunct)...

View attachment 1860689
Click to expand...
Use some twine or black string to fill the gap by looping it around the tang and then apply a tiny bit of epoxy to the last loop to keep it in place. I learned that trick from an antique's dealer and used it for my lady's dagger. The guard was totally lose ratting and now it's like new.

tK3WPMU.jpeg
 
JM2 said:
That’s a beauty. I like lexol leather conditioner to bring life back to dry leather. I had a buck 119 sheath that was stiff and hard and had cracks. I applied a soaking coat of the lexol and in just a few minutes it was flexible and no signs of tearing at the cracks. I was duly impressed.
Click to expand...
The thing is, this handle is far from being very dry. It looked fine, even before the ren wax treatment. I believe two issues came into play here...

First, they did not use glue in the stacking.

Secondly, they likely didn't use enough tension before securing the pin through the pommel and tang.

I believe it is why so many of this model end up with loose handle components... All it takes is just a wee bit of shrinking, and, wah-lah, a loosened handle.

I once watched how Buck knives currently makes their model 119 Special... They use glue between every handle component, and then a machine is used to apply a good amount of tension before the employee installs a pin through pommel and tang.
I feel all firms should take some lessons from Buck Knives on this. But, there is some extra work and time involved to use glue between every piece, and I suspect some companies will choose to skip the glue in order to save time, them not caring enough about the knife's long term stability.
Buck offers a forever warranty, and so they make a knife with the confidence that their warranty won't be needed much 👍🇺🇸👍

Here is that video. Although the handle is mostly phenolic instead of leather, the same principle should be applied to other handle materials where components are stacked onto the tang before pinning...

 
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I agree. There was a gent on another forum I’m in that has a hubertus hunter with stacked leather handle. It had developed play like what you describe. He finally cured it with a syringe and super glue, slipped through the layers. It worked well he said.

Course for you being a collector I understand I’d leave it as be is the best option. It just brought it to mind.
 
Jimmy, sir, I do want to thank you again for showing your collection. Seeing all the variety, and rare things. Things I’d never get to see otherwise is a real treat. So thank you for sharing it with us all!
 
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