Rescued Buck501 and questions

[Sithus1966]

I acquired this Buck 501 on Friday. It was missing about 1/8th of an inch of it's tip and it's a bit banged up. I profiled the tip down and cleaned up the back of the blade and handle to take out some of the dings. Not a lot I can do with dings in the wood without say replacing them, I'm not up to that. My only question for everyone is what would you do about the bolsters? Sand and polish or leave them be? I am leaning towards breaking out the wet/dry paper and then hitting it up on the buffing wheels.

 

[Psychopomp]

I rescued one from ebay a few years back that looked almost as bad. I used a buffing wheel on my Dremel to buff the dings out of the bolsters and scales.

Some of the deeper ones are still there, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I'd give the wet/dry paper a go. I went with more of a satin finish on the bolsters, but with enough work you could bring them back to a mirror polish.

Have fun with it.

 

[David Martin]

Sit,Welcome.You did a good job on the tip.It is worth restoring. As its a 1990 model bearing 425M steel which has been discontinued.That is a good steel and cannot be obtained any longer.So, work carefully and keep us posted on your progress.Thanks for posting.DM Buck Collector life member 1119

 

[knarfeng]

I acquired this Buck 501 on Friday. It was missing about 1/8th of an inch of it's tip and it's a bit banged up. I profiled the tip down and cleaned up the back of the blade and handle to take out some of the dings. Not a lot I can do with dings in the wood without say replacing them, I'm not up to that. My only question for everyone is what would you do about the bolsters? Sand and polish or leave them be? I am leaning towards breaking out the wet/dry paper and then hitting it up on the buffing wheels.

As long as there are no sharp edges on the dings, if it were mine I'd leave it be. But that's just me. I don't mind dings. But I'll bet the other fellas are right and you could get most of them much less noticeable if you polished her up.

 

[2manyknives]

I came by a 503 with as new blade but badly marked bolsters and a cracked scale. I replaced the scales and slimmed the bolsters down on a belt sander and finished with a dremel. You can't go too far as these are pretty slim knives to start with. The bolster material marks very easily so I avoided a mirror finish. The replacement scales are Queensland Black Bean.

 

[STDK]

By all means, if you have a buffing wheel clean that one up and take plenty of pics. It may convince me I need a buffing wheel.

 

[David Martin]

Nice job 2many.DM

 

[Sithus1966]

Well I cleaned some of the dings up. Some are so deep it would remove a lot of material to get them all out. It does look better than it did. I guess I just need a 505 to complete the family.