Recommendation? Restoration advice for old Acrylic Handle Western Hunting

RustyRick · Nov 23, 2023

Ace Rimmer said:
RustyRick I have some more information that I think may help with identification.
I have a couple of Western/Boulder G46-6 "shark" knives, and I believe this one has the same blade shape, and the sheath looks similar. Mine are blued and the blade is about 5.5 inches long. They have the birds head pommel with lanyard hole. Mine have the exact same patent number: 1,967,479.
BUT... mine have Western's unique (unique to them, I believe) split tang with "H" shaped stacked leather handles. This puzzled me for a bit until I took another, closer look at the pictures. In post #10 you can clearly see where the split tang has been cut and the round rod has been attached, probably by brazing. Also, the guard looks different -- mine appear to be steel, while yours looks like brass, and is thicker than the steel ones. Maybe it's been replaced, although I'm sure there were a lot of wartime variations depending on the availability of raw materials.
My conclusion is that this is a heavily modified G46-6 and wow, I'll bet it has some really interesting history! Definitely a knife to be honored and treasured.

Wow. I'd love to see yours. Thanks for the info. I am planning to fix er up without too much removal. Have some ideas on aligning that lucite and spacers. I'll post more progress pics. Cheers.

Ace Rimmer · Nov 23, 2023

RustyRick said:
Wow. I'd love to see yours. Thanks for the info. I am planning to fix er up without too much removal. Have some ideas on aligning that lucite and spacers. I'll post more progress pics. Cheers.

I added a couple of things to my original post, so please go back and take another look at it. Here is a picture of mine. You can see that even with this "matched pair" there are variations in the sheaths, particularly the rivets. I just noticed that the guards appear to be different thicknesses, too. You can see where the pommels are pinned to each side of the split tang, and (although not shown here) the split tang is visible running through the leather on both the top and bottom of the handle. The bluing is good on mine but there is a bit of rust owing to them having spent 70 years in their sheaths.

Ace Rimmer · Nov 23, 2023

I found this on another forum with some good information, particularly the post by "zzyzzogeton".

https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/viewtopic.php?t=77400

RustyRick · Nov 23, 2023

Ace Rimmer said:
I found this on another forum with some good information, particularly the post by "zzyzzogeton".

https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/knife_forum/viewtopic.php?t=77400

Thanks much. I'll have to read this when there is more time.

I realized I have one of those too.

I put them side by side to show the differences, the foreground one has a smaller fuller, the blade is a touch bigger, less shiny so prob different steel and the swedge and the ricasso stamps seems a bit different. Not to mention it looks like someone used a power tool quite aggressively.

Ace Rimmer · Nov 23, 2023

RustyRick said:
Thanks much. I'll have to read this when there is more time.

I realized I have one of those too. I put them side by side to show the differences, the foreground one has a smaller fuller, the blade is a touch bigger, less shiny so prob different steel and the swedge and the ricasso stamps seems a bit different. Not to mention it looks like someone used a power tool quite aggressively.

Very nice! From what little reading I've done I'd guess the second one is post-WW2 based on the brass guard, "Made in U.S.A." tang stamp, and the oak leaf and acorn sheath. (I had a new sheath made for my Western/Boulder L66 and the local guy who made it said that the oak leaf pattern was correct for Western.)