Repair vs restore

B

BradleySmall

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Mar 6, 2022
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I am a big fan of box lots. And, I sort of lucked up in one I got recently that had 2 pretty knives. One is a Utica 2 blade Lady Leg, with gold glitter scales. Unfortunately both blades are broken at least at the tip, and one is sharpened down beyond recognition. And... the spring on the clip point side is broken to where half of it isn't even there. If the blade were broken off a little shorter, it would be able to turn all the way around. :) The other one is a 3-3/8 serpentine with red and black perhaps faux jasper or other fake stone scales (really pretty). This was a 3 blade knife, the main clip point still has Utica on it, unfortunately, it ends there. It was broken right at the choil. The other two blades, I am assuming were a sheeps foot and a spey (or pen) have been sharpened and reshaped beyond recognition, and on the sheepsfoot actually beyond and into the nail nick.

Anyway, long explanation simply to see myself type I guess.
So the questions:
1. If I want to "restore" as opposed to repair, I assume that I will need to find replacement blades and spring from other Utica brand knives with similar configurations/sizes, or hope that I see a pile of Utica blades and parts or Utical part knives on eBay and horad them until I get what is necessary to redo these knives. Is this reasonable? Or are there people one should know that already have large hoards of such things?
2. If, instead, I choose to simply repair then I need merely use the existing blades or pieces thereof to make at least the tang shapes for replacement blades. But I assume it would be unethical to try to reproduce their Utica stamps or engravings. I think since the Lady leg is a 2 blade knife, the remaining spring should make a perfect model for the replacement spring. It would also appear that the bolsters on the Lady Leg are made of something that is actually plated, because where they are worn, I can see copper. So it would be a fool's errand to try to polish them. Is it possible to re-plate them perhaps nickel would be my guess? Is there a way to do that without removing the scales, or would they have to be removed as well?
3. Other than, "It's not worth it, just throw them away..." is there any other advice you would give me on either repairing or restoring these, at least to useful working condition? Amazingly, the serpentine, of the two remaining blades, still has great w&t...


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The serpentine stockman is the one that appeals to me, and if it was a senior or jumbo size I’d probably try to find a wornout L6 saw blade of similar thickness and fabricate a main clip blade from that. Then I’d shape the sheepsfoot into a kinda reverse-S hook blade, and make the other blade a punch or awl.

Just because I’d do that, doesn’t mean you should, but there you go.

Parker
 
It looks to me like you have all bases covered.

I check ebay regularly for certain knife parts and occasionally see listings for bulk lots of blades. You might get lucky there.

As far as making new blades, the tang would be the most important part you need to make a copy. And I agree that reproducing the tang stamp may not be ethical. But ethics are subjective.

Some people might not see the point in such a project since the knives will never be of high dollar value, but everyone needs a hobby :) .

Good luck.
 
killgar said:
It looks to me like you have all bases covered.

I check ebay regularly for certain knife parts and occasionally see listings for bulk lots of blades. You might get lucky there.

As far as making new blades, the tang would be the most important part you need to make a copy. And I agree that reproducing the tang stamp may not be ethical. But ethics are subjective.

Some people might not see the point in such a project since the knives will never be of high dollar value, but everyone needs a hobby :) .

Good luck.
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I see them, and follow the Queen, and their ilk and Schrade and just generic "knife parts" but I have never come across Utica.
 
The bolsters on the leg knife are not plated. They are nickel silver.
The celluloid handles are deteriorating and outgassing nitric acid fumes. This is what is causing the discoloration on the bolsters. The handles should be immediately broken off the knife and thrown away. They can literally eat the knife up. That's probably what happened to the backspring.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
The bolsters on the leg knife are not plated. They are nickel silver.
The celluloid handles are deteriorating and outgassing nitric acid fumes. This is what is causing the discoloration on the bolsters. The handles should be immediately broken off the knife and thrown away. They can literally eat the knife up. That's probably what happened to the backspring.
Click to expand...
Okay, so nickel silver is not really silver, right it is a type of brass? So that is why I am seeing "copper". I was thinking of where they copper coat steel/iron before nickel plating it. So if it is nitric aciding the bolsters on one side and not the other, it is probably because it had been sitting flat on that side for some time? I will accept that the clear scales over the golden glitter is celluloid, I was just not aware that was the case.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
The bolsters on the leg knife are not plated. They are nickel silver.
The celluloid handles are deteriorating and outgassing nitric acid fumes. This is what is causing the discoloration on the bolsters. The handles should be immediately broken off the knife and thrown away. They can literally eat the knife up. That's probably what happened to the backspring.
Click to expand...
Okay, Bill I got them off and I scraped any residue from the liner that was left behind. I can lye dip it if you think there is any residual acid, though I taste and smell no hint of acids or nitric. Granted, I need to split off the liners and get the whole thing apart anyway, I just wasn't planning on doing it today :)
Do you think I would be able to simply force it apart or should I have to grind our the pivot pin? I can see the halo of it on both sides of the head bolster , but the butt (shoe, I think with my magnifier, I can see shadows of a halo, in two positions.
 
Nickel silver is copper based.
I would punch the pivot until it protruded on one side. File that side down, then punch the pivot the other way and file down the head. Keep doing this until the pivot just punches out.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Nickel silver is copper based.
I would punch the pivot until it protruded on one side. File that side down, then punch the pivot the other way and file down the head. Keep doing this until the pivot just punches out.
Click to expand...
I get it, it is brass with a little nickel thrown in for good measure. If I can get out to the shop I will try to punch them apart tonight. I know that I can plate nickel silver with silver. But, I wonder if I can plate it with nickel?
 
So, I will definitely need some smaller punches, and learn some subtlety if I am going to be doing repair/restore work.

It's apart, so there's that. The springs were already broken, but I have enough pieces to properly make the shape. The blades are shyte but the tangs are complete.

I removed and tossed the scale material at the warning from Bill. I would like to replace them with something similar. I liked the look of the gold glitter in the clear scale material.

Looks like I have some polishing and cleanup to do then make some scales. When I have some more blade steel in stock I will make some blades and springs.

Any pointers are appreciated. Perhaps even a good tutorial on jeweling. I am pretty sure this originally had a clip point and one pen blade.

Any ideas on polishing up the bolsters where they have brasses from exposure to the celluloid off gassing.
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