Toothpick Rescue!

[boy&hisdogs]

This poor little guy was being used as a scratch tester in my geology class! I noticed it this past Friday on my way out, sitting in one of the sample trays. It stood out like a sore thumb among all the other cheapie steak knives. There was a slight pause in traffic, only enough time to quickly read the tang stamps since the rest of the class was trying to get moving. It was on my mind all weekend, and this morning I stayed after class and offered to trade my professor for another junker I had, but he seemed just as excited as I was about the idea of cleaning it up and gave it to me!

I've always wanted to try a toothpick but I don't really like buying things just to have them. This worked out perfectly since I get both the knife and the experience of restoring it! That way I can feel like I earned it, plus it's a nice little stepping stone on my way towards making them from scratch.

My rough plan for this knife is to go for a "pulled" finish on the steel, maybe 800-1000 grit or so, mirror on the bolsters and some kind of blue covers. It originally had some kind of turquoise (which today I learned is of the "phosphates" family of naturally occurring minerals and is CuAl[SUB]6[/SUB](PO[SUB]4[/SUB])[SUB]4[/SUB]+H[SUB]2[/SUB]O. Yes, it actually has some water in it! Neat, huh?). I've always thought blue was the best color for toothpicks anyway, and the first thing that popped into my head for this knife was a blue smooth bone but I might see if I can find some faux turquoise material instead. I still have a bit research to do so we'll see where that takes us.

Mechanically it's in good shape, it has decent walk and talk even with all the lint and gunk inside it, the pull is about a 4-4.5, just a hair less than a 85mm SAK (2.5" blade).

Edit: Please forgive the rotated images. Photobucket is acting weird today.

 

[Gafishing]

Nice find
Look forward to seeing how you restore it

" don't start none, won't be none"

 

[Ernie1980]

Projects are fun! Taking apart and putting back together a slipjoint is not any easy task, but take your time and watch lots of videos and you will do fine Make sure you post your progress!

 

[fishcakes]

Very cool. Good luck and post pics when its done!

 

[boy&hisdogs]

Projects are fun! Taking apart and putting back together a slipjoint is not any easy task, but take your time and watch lots of videos and you will do fine Make sure you post your progress!

Yeah, I learned that one the hard way on another knife. Luckily it was junk already and I just wanted the blade, but there's definitely a special touch required to disassemble a pinned knife without scratching it, or worse!

 

[Vaporstang]

Interesting project - Good Luck!

 

[meako]

Oh wow its the only other bear hunter I've seen- I have one but different -more like Schrade LB but just a snidge bigger.
Great project and please show the makeover complete:thumbup:

I wouldn't take it apart. Just get rid of the remnant turquoise and poxy on some new bits -if stone is too hard to work how about micarta -it comes in blue too.

 

[PNWJimbo]

Good luck man, commenting now to stay updated

 

[Macchina]

Or make your own Blue Denim Micarta!

 

[screened porch]

I'm pretty sure there's synthetic turquoise to be had from the knife supply companies.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

I wouldn't take it apart. Just get rid of the remnant turquoise and poxy on some new bits -if stone is too hard to work how about micarta -it comes in blue too.

That's what I'm having a hard time deciding on. Do I want to just put some new covers on there and call it a day, or do I really want to dig in and do it right? But, then again, I sure would hate to take it all apart and then mess something up, especially now that I've run my mouth to all my friends. :foot: The good news is that I have the tools and materials to build a whole new knife around the blade and spring if need be.

I ended up just ordering some smooth blue bone. I've never been a fan of flashy handle materials glued onto on a cheap knife, it just seems gimmicky to me. I prefer simple things done the hard way. Besides, I've never had a bone handled knife before, it's about time! :thumbup:

The parts should be here by the end of next week. I'll try to get the knife apart before then, but don't expect much out of me this weekend. My girlfriend's car "needs" a new radio, my truck needs brakes all around, a U joint and an alignment, plus I have both a quiz and a lab report due for my chem class first thing Tuesday morning. And most of my Saturday is going to be spent on some bonus training for work.

 

[meako]

Ok -fix the brakes first, then the other truck repairs,then the work and study,then the girlies radio.
By that time and TBH it sounds like you already know-decide how YOU want to do the knife job.
I like your thinking about doing it properly. Perhaps I have lower standards than most but I think my idea is practical rather than gimmicky and remember its a free knife not cheap
If its not done by the end of October I'll be putting you on report

 

[boy&hisdogs]

I found myself a spare hour tonight and got some work done!

I took it apart using the razor blade method. Not my favorite, but everything about this knife was just way too small and slippery to try and drill out those pins. For those who don't know, you wedge a box cutter blade between the layers and hammer it. It will cut the pins, but be sure to go slow, don't try and one-shot it. Then just use a small enough punch to knock out the pin remnants. I recommend using a wooden block with a hole drilled in it about 2-3 times the size of your pins. The wood is soft and won't scratch or dent anything, plus you get a lot more support around the knife than if you were going off the edge of something or into a partially opened vice. That way you don't bend or kink those soft, thin brass liners.

Actually, I recommend doing the majority of your soft metal working on wood. Just think about the unintended deformation that could happen to your brass/nickle/copper/silver pieces when they get smashed against a steel anvil!

I popped it open and took this picture both to show how dirty it was and so I could see how much the spring is clocked in case I mess it up and have to make a new set of liners. I also scanned all the parts, that way if I need to re-make something, or want to make another one of these knives I can just print it out and be on my merry way! This is something I started doing with the last knife I put together and something I will continue to do with every knife in the future.

Never underestimate sand paper! I got here in about 15-20 minutes of sanding starting at 220, then 320, then 600. I probably could have gone even faster if my 220 paper wasn't dry-only. Once I started wet sanding the steel melted away like warm butter. The clip part of the spine between the nail nick and the tip was also a bit chewed up, so I rolled some sand paper around a pencil and went to town. If you do this I recommend using a circular motion instead of just rubbing up and down the spine because that tears up the paper real quick.

Buffers are dangerous! And I'm a huge stickler for safety!

I spend my mornings in a chem lab at school, I've also done a bit of jewelry work, welded, I worked the past few years doing maintenance at a campground, and on a farm before that. I grew up in the country and spent my entire life doing yard work with power tools that throw stuff, and my grandparents used to have a woodworking business and I spent my childhood in the wood shop with my grandpa. I also ride dirtbikes, hunt, fish, backpack, own more guns than shoes, even shot competitively (airguns and archery) and yet... I still have 10 fingers and two eyes! :thumbup:

You know why? Because I wear safety glasses! And dust masks, and face shields, and helmets, and boots, but most of all... I use my brain! Your brain is your #1 tool, it doesn't matter if you're in the shop, in the kitchen, or on a battlefield. THINK about what you do before you do it, and please take the time to grab that pair of glasses next time you do something with power tools or chemicals. That extra two minutes it took you to get up and go find them is noting compared to being blind for the rest of your life! If you aren't going to do it for yourself, then do it for your kids! How is Dad supposed to feed his family if he can't even see??? Even if you don't lose an eye, you'd still better set a good example, they are always watching and learning!

Anyway... when you use a buffer, remember three things:
1) Wear a face shield
2) Only buff on the part of the wheel that is spinning AWAY from you, usually the lower half
3) Stand off to the side, don't hover your face and neck right over it.

Also make sure that you have a good grip on your piece, because that buffer WILL grab it, and if you aren't prepared it will go flying across the room. Vice grips are one of my most favorite tools.

I went straight from 600 grit sand paper to white jewlers rouge (the 2nd finest grit) and it came out fairly decent. Of course there's still a bunch of small scratches and I should have sanded up to at least 1000 and gone through 2-3 colors of rouge but I'm not going to spend hours and hours chasing a mirror polish on something that I actually intend to carry.

Sometimes good enough is exactly that, and this is all for tonight.

 

[meako]

Great WIP-
I especially like your safety principles.:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[boy&hisdogs]

Great WIP-
I especially like your safety principles.:thumbup::thumbup:

Thanks! I know lots of people's eyes glaze over when I talk safety, but if I reach just one more person then I consider myself successful.

And I almost forgot! I scored two books today on everyone's favorite auction site! Knife Repair and Restoration by Adrian A. Harris and The Complete Book of Pocket Knife Repair by Ben Kelley Jr. I've heard they're both fairly basic, and I've probably already seen everything in them on various internet tutorials and WIPs, but there's just something special about an actual book. Even if I only learn one new trick between the two of them, I call that money well spent. Especially since I was the only bidder and got them for a deal.

 

[boy&hisdogs]

I snuck another hour last night, which turned into two, which turned into three, which turned into me working until about 1:00 am!

I don't recommend working that late! That's how you make dumb mistakes...

To start off I traced the outline of the knife on the cover material (covers = scales in traditional pocket knife lingo, for the non-porch folk) and I made sure to trace generously. You can always sand the excess off later, but if you cut too small then you're out another $10 and a week waiting for shipping.

One of my other favorite tools, right next to Vice Grips, are these little saws. I have no idea what they're called but they take a standard hacksaw blade (handle is hollow) and they are great for doing a hacksaw's job in tight spaces. This little guy was the star of the show when I was swapping the factory radio to a big touchscreen nav unit in my truck and I had to cut a bunch of stuff out of the inside of the dash to make it fit.

Back to the bone, somebody did a really good dye job on these. This picture is showing them cut pretty much right down the middle and the color is relatively even all the way though. I got these from "bigskyknife" on ebay. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say that here but in case I am, I'd also like to say that they had a good price and shipped quickly in addition to having a nice product. I'll definitely be buying from them again when my next project rolls around.

Now that the pieces are rough cut, it's time to fit them to length. For this I am using the disc part of my HF 1x30 and 5" disc combo sander. I have not (yet) ground blades on it, but I can tell you it does a fine job on wood and softer metals, at least on this small scale of pocket knives. I have bogged it down before, but only a few times and I admit I was pushing too hard.

After making sure to put on my safety glasses and mask I began sanding. The mask serves two purposes. It protects your lungs as well as your sensibilities. The smell of sanding bone reminds me of some bad experiences at the dentist where he let the tooth get too dry while drilling and it would smoke and STANK. Now I go to a different dentist, in an all-female office and they're all motherly and nice to me.

Anyway, back on topic. I made sure to keep the clean, factory cut edge and decided that's what would go up against the top bolsters, that way I only had to match one end instead of trying to juggle two. If you have an old scale to compare to then it's easier, but if not then just eyeball it and go really really slow, only touching the sander for a fraction of a second at a time when you start getting close. Check your fit every single time you come off the sander. Just like when cutting, if you mess up, you just wasted 10 dollars and a week of waiting.

Now that they're cut, glue them to your liners. This is where I messed up. Since it was the middle of the night after a 5 hour chemistry class AND chasing 20 third graders around all afternoon, I was not at the top of my game. I completely forgot to clean/de-grease the parts before I glued. The first time they didn't even stick, so I figured that I simply did not use enough glue, nor big enough clamps. So I tried it again...

Once the glue is dry, drill and pin your covers/scales. Do this with the bone side down on nice flat piece of wood. GO SLOW! SLOOOOWWWWWWW! Us as little pressure as possible. The combination of the wood backing and the slow and light pressure will help prevent chipping and blowout on the back side. I don't know if you can see it but I still got a tiny bit on the middle hole. Once your holes are drilled then GENTLY set your pins and cut/file off the extra as much as you can, then flat sand it to make it flush with the bone.

Then put the two halves together with temporary pins (overly long for easy removal) and put it in your vice with some leather padding. An old work glove works just fine. Now you need to knock down the excess along the spine and belly of the handle. What I did was wrap some sand paper around the smooth wooden handle of my hammer and started sanding, and with the oval shape of a hammer handle you have two different radii to work with. After an hour of this I was thinking about what I could sell to raise money for a drum sander...

And here we are the next morning! Things always look so much better in the daylight than they do under a lamp.

I stopped on my way home from school today and splurged on a bunch of new sand paper. I had been working with just random scraps I had laying around up until this point. This 3M pro grade stuff is expensive but cuts like a dream. Dry sanding with this is comparable to wet sanding with an off-brand, and wet sanding with the 3M is... very nice.

If you look closely, you might notice a crack in the bone around one of my pins. And some blowout in that top/middle hole. Still feeling the aftershocks of my late-night gluing fiasco, this morning I found that yet again, my epoxy did not stick! The scale started lifting off at one end, and I figured that I could fix this by just setting the pin a little tighter. I gave it a few light taps and... cracked my scale. But at least it's not coming off anymore!

Don't worry, we can fix this! First of all, make sure that everything you will be gluing is nice and clean! Then, tape off everywhere that you don't want glue. This isn't exactly necessary, but it saves you a lot of cleanup later. Then get yourself some super glue. Not epoxy, you want the super thin, runny CA glue so that it will run all down into the crack. Make a nice little pool of it over your crack and let it sink in. Give it 2-3 minutes and check again, add more if it's all sunk down inside and you still need more.

And that's where I left off today.

 

[A.L.]

Looking good!

 

[glennbad]

Great WIP pics! Looks like it's coming along nicely. And kudos for preaching safety.

 

[PNWJimbo]

Duuude! That dark blue bone is amazing! I'm so glad you decided to take it apart fully instead of just slapping new covers on. Thanks for explaining the razor method, learn new things over here every day

 

[boy&hisdogs]

Duuude! That dark blue bone is amazing! I'm so glad you decided to take it apart fully instead of just slapping new covers on. Thanks for explaining the razor method, learn new things over here every day

I agree! I'm really happy I went with the blue bone too. And I'm glad you learned something new, just be careful if you use it! If hammering razor blades into tight spaces doesn't sound dangerous then I don't even know what would anymore.

With that, a small update:

I went to assemble the knife today... and one of my bolsters popped off! This actually happened once before, but I simply pinned it back on. Something a bit different about this knife is that the bolsters have two pins each. One is the main pivot pin, and one simply holds it to the liner, just like the scales have.

Anyway, whatever caused it to come off before caused it to do so again. The pin hole on this corner of the knife was extremely tight, I believe that the hole in the liner and the hole in the bolster didn't line up quite right and trying to hammer a pin was just more than it could take.

Well, the second time it fell off, I didn't see where it went. I looked all around my feet, all behind me, off to both sides... nothing. So I looked underneath the workbench. I did not see my bolster, instead I saw about a dozen spider egg sacks, and I decided to cut my losses.

While looking around for the bolster, I just so happened to find a perfectly bolster sized chunk of aluminum. Now, I know what you're thinking, and I was thinking it too, but I was also getting desperate. I looked around some more, and still couldn't find the original bolster. I decided that I'd rather roll the dice on the aluminum one than order (and wait for) some nickel silver stock since I don't have any on hand, nor do I have a place to buy it locally.

On the bright side, we now get to compare the bolster-ability of aluminum vs nickel silver. They're both on the same knife, how much more direct could this comparison be?

So this time I properly sanded my two mating surfaces and the glue held just fine! That was, until it met the sander...

I held it too long, and it got so hot that it melted the super glue! I watched the new bolster start to slide off the liner and of course my first thought was “can't lose another bolster!” :hopelessness: so I reached out to grab it... big mistake! It was literally blistering hot! I now have a small second degree burn right on the very tip of my left pointer finger and a first on my thumb!

I re-glued the bolster and tried again, this time I kept a dish of water handy to quench in every few seconds. I got it shaped, but my finger really started to hurt and I just lost steam so I quit for the night and got a nice cold drink to hold in my left hand. Most of the pain has gone away by now, I think I'll go look for that bolster again tomorrow. Maybe if I come at it fresh it'll be easier to spot.

There's a good chance that my next knife will be a shadow pattern...