Tips on restoring an old P Holmberg stacked leather "bowie". Done! Pic-fest!

[peppen108]

 

[JZknives]

here is a good tutorial on how to construct one.

Based on your picture the only thing you might have to do is take it apart so you can tighten the leather compression as well condition the leather and apply some gum taracanth and polish

http://www.thompsonsknives.com/bark3.html

 

[Patrickknives]

Whats to restore, looks good. Maybe some mineral oil to clean up the little rust. Are you thinking about making it look new?

 

[peppen108]

You guys are right. This is a minor project.

To do list
Make tool to loosen but nut
Straighten tang
Glue pommel to spacers
Reprofile the convex grind
Give it tip

The state of the leather is hard fore me to judge. Its hard and gives a hollow sound when tapped. The distance between the disks is slightly larger than esteticaly pleasing at three places. This coud be fixed whit colored vax ore fat. I'm not shure if I should replace it or not.

The choil is to narrow to fit a finger. It would need to be twice as long. this would really change the overall appearance of the knife and take away any collector's value. I'm leaning towards this but does not really know yet.

 

[peppen108]

Ha, the guard has already been filed down both in the front and in the back. : )

 

[SteelSlaver]

You might be able to tighten up the handle by removing the nut and pommel and tapping the tang threads down a bit farther, you might need to file the area a bit to get the tap to go farther then reassemble and tighten the nut and carefully grind, file sand the excess tang end off. I did that with an old hard used Marbles and used fine steel wool to clean off the rust and the crud and a good edge made it back into a solid decent looking knife, that was still very original. I also used Obenauf's oil on the leather.

 

[peppen108]

Really helpful tips here! I ended up making a small tool out of aluminum.

I have 3-4mm of good threads left.

Rough shaping of the blade.

I have never put a finish on a convex grind before. Is sand paper on a stick or waterstones prefered.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It looks like a flat grind in the photos. However, if it is a convex grind, put a leather strip on the sanding backer and sand away.

 

[peppen108]

I´m on it.

Chrome polish

Over all shape is done. Some scratches still remain and the part just in front of the ricasso needs to be taken down.

I have gone from 180 paper to polish. I might have to do it one more time but focusing on the flaws this time.

 

[peppen108]

The taped up finger can be pressed against the mdf to act as a guide and keep the angle 90 deg.

 

[peppen108]

Finishing time! Moved on to the old mouse pad jig with full size papers. 180-1500 papers and then stropping.

Can a SS convex grind really get that bite? Yes it can.

I'm not the firs guy doing post work to the knife. The pommel and the guard has sharp edges that needs to be taken down to avoid blistering.

Just a fast 180-600 paper an the steel wool on the handle. Finishing with viking fat.

Wnt back to 600 paper on the blade to get a uniform finish.

 

[peppen108]

Getting ready to shot the finale pictures. Clean up like a pro.

Gaaaaah!

What do you think?

 

[panzertroop]

Bravo!

 

[Karl B. Andersen]

Nicely done.

Question - What is "Viking fat"?

 

[peppen108]

Thanks and good question Karl. Its a wax-fat that i got from my father in law. Its supposed to water prof and protect leather an keep it "ductile". On the down side it cant be polished.

It has shifted maker but the line "Viking Fiskar Smorning" will still get hits on Google. Fiskar Smorning does not really mean anything in modern Swedish but if I had to guess i would say "Fisher(-man) smear/spread".