Refinishing 3 old Forgecraft knives of my mom's; new handles?

[GrizzlyBear]

My mom passed away 3 weeks ago Wednesday and while working on cleaning out her house I ran across a drawer full of old kitchen utensils. In this drawer I ran across these 3 beauties. They are all 3 Forgecraft Hi-Carbon. They reminded me alot of a couple of old Case butcher knives my mom and dad had when I was little. So, I saved them with hopes of refinishing them into a set of knives I can use to process deer with (or whatever, they were mom's so I want to keep them).

I can't find any info on them as to what steel they have except for a few posts across the internet where people thought they were made from 1095.

The handles scales appear to be oak, though I could be very wrong lol . The scales are all still locked tight with only 1 having any movement at all and it may be only 1/32 of an inch or less.

I was thinking about redoing the scales but sitting here looking at them, they are all in great shape and should only need a bit of light sanding then finishing with Tru Oil or tung oil to bring back the original wood color.

What would you guys do? Keep the original 40-50 year old wood and refinish it to keep the knives as original as possible...or, remake the scales with something like ironwood or even cocobolo.

Also, I'm worried about rust that may be setup between the scales and tang...that was another reason I thought about changing the wood out with new. As far as cleaning up the metal, I will lightly sand off the tarnish and rust till its nice and clean then either leave it or patina it.

Comments and suggestions are welcome, thanks!

 

[SDS]

There are probably going to be a lot of opinions on this but here are mine. Since your Mom just passed away I wouldn't change anything on these knives, at least for now. I tell people to wait at least 6 months to a year after someone close dies before you make any decisions. Granted, I'm usually talking about something more signifigant but this is a keepsake.

If it were me, I would get some fine steel wool and clean up the surface rust with a little bit of oil. After that I'd wipe them down and keep them dry. Use the heck out of them. Knives like that have been around for a LONG time. You won't wear them out.

I would not clean off the stains/patina that is on them now. Your Mom put that there. In 6 months/1 year if you still feel like you want to fancy them up a bit then by all means do so. But I would suggest practicing on some thrift store knives first.

If you do re-handle them just be sure you seal all the way around the handle when you epoxy them on and you will be fine. This is the same concern you should have when building any knife. Moisture under the handle is bad stuff.

Sorry for your loss.

SDS

 

[bikermikearchery]

Sorry for your loss.
What SDS said :thumbup:

 

[GrizzlyBear]

Thanks. I'll probably wind up sanding the handles a little and finishing with tru oil. Then, after a lot of use when the scales get loose, I'll strip them off and rehandle them. I just cant see getting rid of the original wood right now.