Restoreing/polishing Puma White Hunter

C

Clan Gunn

Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
164
Need Help restoreing the finish on a 25+ year old Puma White Hunter, it's a beautiful knife and I would like to start carrying it. The blade was somewhat roughtly sharpened and now has scratches on the cutting surfaces.

If the skilled bladesmiths here suggest I find a Custom Knife maker, please recommend someone in Northern California.

Many Thanks
 
Those knives were plated with industrial hard chrome. Polishing it will remove the chrome plating. The only trouble is you can't remove ALL the plating.
It's best to leave the scratches alone.
 
Pume sayes it's not hard chrome (however, the knife does have a beautiful finish). This is an "older Puma Steel" knife.
 
Clan Gunn said:
Pume sayes it's not hard chrome (however, the knife does have a beautiful finish). This is an "older Puma Steel" knife.
Click to expand...

Is yours labelled as 'PUMASTER' steel? If so, I agree, it's not likely chromed on the surface (though there may be some chrome in the alloy itself; not sure). I have a ~31 year-old Puma Bowie (date code from 1981), and the finish on these blades was first-rate (sort of a very high polish on top of what appears to be a fine satin finish).

You'd do very well to post some pictures of your knife. That'll generate more interest here, and will also likely get you some more specific feedback and advice.
 
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Regardless what Puma says, many of the fixed blades are hard chrome plated. I have worked on quite a few.
Post a picture.
 
lets see some pictures. it might not be as bad as you think. bill knows what he's talking about when it comes to platings.
 
Bill is right, Pumaster steel blades are indeed hard chrome plated.
It even says so in the 1984 Puma catalogue which i have in front of me.
 
kwackster said:
Bill is right, Pumaster steel blades are indeed hard chrome plated.
It even says so in the 1984 Puma catalogue which i have in front of me.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Any chance of scanning that page from the catalog and posting it? That's a good resource, for those lucky enough to have access to it. :thumbup:

My particular blade looks different than any other chrome-plated blade I've seen (lots of older examples from Case, which do look exactly like chrome plating). I've often wondered if mine was actually stainless, because it looks much more like a very fine satin-finished stainless blade (compare to something like 440C, for example). But the marking on the blade actually labels it as 'GENUINE - PUMASTER - STEEL'. I bought that knife new, back in late '81 or maybe early '82.
 
The finish on the underlying metal dictates how the plating looks.
High polish= shiny.
Satin finish= not shiny.
 
This is from the same 1984 catalogue, but the picture is hosted on Pumahunter.de:

06.jpg
 
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I have a Puma White Hunter from 1971 that my dad gave me. It's been put through the wringer and it's still exceptionally sharp. I used it every day for 2 years (2003-2005) in Madagascar clearing trails, cutting vines, branches and banana palms, cracking coconuts, carving up pineapples, and food preparation - slicing and dicing tomatoes, garlic, onions, potatoes, fish, etc.

The blade is extremely tarnished - it looks gray with some black splotches. But as I say, I can keep it sharp. Any thoughts on cleaning up the blade? It's mostly just cosmetic. The blade is stamped "Genuine Pumaster Steel Germany". Pictures to follow when I get to my PC - I can't attach pictures from an iPad.
 
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