- Joined
- Mar 6, 2022
- Messages
- 317
Always ready for a new and painful project I noticed a little Barlow style knife in a box lot that I had picked up. The blades are so completely flat, I have to believe it was never sharpened. However, it has shell scales, which I generally hate. Worse than that, it has what appear to be polystyrene faux wood scales riveted onto the shell scales. Oh, and did I mention, it looks like someone thought they could pry them off with a screw driver, so they are chipped all under on one side.
Initially I considered just tearing the whole thing down, grinding the shell hooks off of the liners and fabricating a bolster of some metal, and mating up some scales of whatever material. It seems like a lot of work for what was probably $1.59 before it ended up in someone's junk drawer and finally int my box lot. But, I don't actually have a Barlow pattern in my collection, so it might be fun to play with. I might also first attempt to sharpen it to see if the blades will take any kind of an edge.
It is a nice size 3-3/8 closed, with a 2-3/8 clip point and 1-3/4 pen blade. The clip is marked Stainless and the pen is otherwise unmarked.
Anyway, since the shell clasps still seem pretty strong, I was considering, simply removing the crappy plastic and its rivets and making some reasonable wood scales perhaps wenge or purpleheart of something interesting. Then pinning them onto the shell and clasping them back in place, leaving the hollow bolster part of the shell as-is. In addition, because I don't trust the bent stamped-steel clasps, perhaps adding some epoxy underneath as well.
Is what I am thinking reasonable, or is there a better way to do it? I am concerned that if I do add epoxy, it will no longer be maintainable should additional work need to be done. Though, perhaps that becomes the next technician's problem
I do, look down my nose at people who use gorilla glue to repair antique furniture, so that's where the thought process is coming from.
I am not wanting to pass this off as something that it isn't, but I do want to leave it better than I found it. Especially if the blades will take/hold a reasonable edge.
Initially I considered just tearing the whole thing down, grinding the shell hooks off of the liners and fabricating a bolster of some metal, and mating up some scales of whatever material. It seems like a lot of work for what was probably $1.59 before it ended up in someone's junk drawer and finally int my box lot. But, I don't actually have a Barlow pattern in my collection, so it might be fun to play with. I might also first attempt to sharpen it to see if the blades will take any kind of an edge.
It is a nice size 3-3/8 closed, with a 2-3/8 clip point and 1-3/4 pen blade. The clip is marked Stainless and the pen is otherwise unmarked.
Anyway, since the shell clasps still seem pretty strong, I was considering, simply removing the crappy plastic and its rivets and making some reasonable wood scales perhaps wenge or purpleheart of something interesting. Then pinning them onto the shell and clasping them back in place, leaving the hollow bolster part of the shell as-is. In addition, because I don't trust the bent stamped-steel clasps, perhaps adding some epoxy underneath as well.
Is what I am thinking reasonable, or is there a better way to do it? I am concerned that if I do add epoxy, it will no longer be maintainable should additional work need to be done. Though, perhaps that becomes the next technician's problem
I do, look down my nose at people who use gorilla glue to repair antique furniture, so that's where the thought process is coming from. I am not wanting to pass this off as something that it isn't, but I do want to leave it better than I found it. Especially if the blades will take/hold a reasonable edge.