Refurbishing a Boguszewski Old School Liner Lock

[wsfarrell]

I have a soft spot in my heart for old school Boguszewski liner locks. I've owned a couple and foolishly let them go. After a year or so of searching, I found one on eBay. This knife was seriously beat up. It has a number 1 on it, so I'm assuming it's his first model, and it could easily be 30 years old. It started out with almost everything anodized, and by the time it came to me, all that had been worn or sanded off. Further, some previous owner had sharpened (badly) the false edge on top of the blade. Here's a pic of how it came. You can't tell, but it looked like someone used 80 grit sandpaper to take the anodizing off the bolsters:



A picture of the liners (from the eBay listing) looked as though there were rust spots---so I was taking a chance with this one:



Turned out the spots were just dirt. The knife was filthy, and looked like it had been used hard and never cleaned in its lifetime. I proceeded to take it apart---23 pieces, a new record for knives I've worked on:



I cleaned it up, polished and resharpened the blade, and spent several hours refinishing the 80-grit gouges on the bolsters. It turned out very nice, and I won't be letting this one go.

 

[JD Spydo]

I have and still carry from time to time and older Phil Boguszewski Benchmade model 640 Mini Spike>> I'm wondering if it has the same type of liner lock as yours has? I"ve used this BM model 640 in my EDC rotation for almost 17 years now and I have never had it fail on me. I was saddened to hear that Mr. Boguszewski had passed away a couple of years ago or so. I loved his designs and wish I had more of them.

I truly wish Benchmade would do a remake of both the 640 and 650 models that he designed.

 

[wsfarrell]

I believe the liner lock is the same on both of these.

He was a great designer and a great grinder.