Turning a sows ear into a silk purse or found treasure. Graef & Schmidt Jack knife.

T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

Joined
Feb 3, 2001
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Found this old bone handled Jack knife in my cellar, couldn't read anything on the tang through the 60+ years of rust and old paint.

The main blade was so wavy it looked serrated, the paint was so thick the blades were frozen closed.

So after a good soak I took the dremel out and cleaned off the paint and rust, then I blew it out, reground the main spear blade and cleaned the paint off the apparently gorgeous bone scales.

After another soak I saw the letters on the main blade tang said ***** & Schmidt, hoping that considering this was a fancier knife it would also have a stamp on the secondary blade... all I could see was, "GRAEF & *******" so putting 2+2 together I got GRAEF & SCHMIDT.

Looking it up it appears to be from between the 20s 50s after all this time it still has walk and talk, (not perfect I mind you but it'll make a great folder to carry for light duty chores.

No pics this moment but they will be some coming soon.

Just thought I'd share.
 
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Ugh, no pics?!

Bringing an old knife back to life is such a good feeling. Good knife karma.
 
Great rescue Ted, can't wait to see the pics :)
 
Alright, that's it... I'm off to tear apart my basement. My house was built in 1881, so I'm sure I oughta be able to dig up a couple old Northfields around there somewhere.

Cool find, Ted! Looking forward to the photos.

-Dan
 
I wish I woulda thought to take some pics before I started to play with it, it's been raining on and off today so I've been playing out in the garage on my work bench while waiting for some tractor parts to come.

This poor neglected knife had chunks snapped outta its the blade where it looked like the previous owner used it to open 1 gallon paint cans. I evened out the blade with the dremel it's still 80% or as my Old Man used to say, "...There's still enough steel on there for me to wear an edge on."

I knew there was a nice knife in there somewhere, just had to coax it out. I'll get some pics up later I still have to put an edge on it, it's dull as a potato right now.
 
Here ya go folks, stopped rainin' and I got a few pics in before the rain started again.

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Beautiful knife,that bone aged well,very well...wish i could find knife like that ,my ''biggest'' score was old pruning knife i found in my fathers cellar :o

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Very nice.
I see what GEC is trying to attain with their "primitive bone". And that shield is, as some would say, "da bomb".

Good find.



Tom
 
I like that, Ted. It is so nice to see folks give these old pocketknives new life and a home.

Ed J
 
Ted, that a nice knife - congratz... I wish I would find such beauties in the depths of my cellar ;)
 
What a beauty. I even like the chip in the cover. Well done. Thanks for the photo and the story!
 
Just took the edge pro to it to reprofile the edge, 5 minutes and it shaves hair, actually it scares the hair off even before it gets there.

There's something about old steel, the blades always seem to get sharper and hold an edge longer than the newer steels used in the manufacturing of traditional patterns.

I think I'm gonna start a home for wayward and unwanted knives, kinda like a foster home where I can clean em up and get em to a new home.
 
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