Very expensive knife in a fire - can it be refinished?

synthesist

synthesist

So many knives so little time
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Sep 14, 2004
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Major backwoods tragedy. Cabin burns down. Lots of good stuff is destroyed including a beloved handmade, stag handled drop point hunter from the 70's. By some trick of fate the balde is salvaged from the ashes and returned. The handle slabs are gone, the sheath is gone, all that's left is the blade and the guard. The etch is is there and clearly visible.

Can this knife be resurrected? It has great sentimental value ( it doesn't really have to cut anything ever again. It can just sit on a shelf and look handsome. That would be enough.). I have no idea what kind of steel it was or how hot the fire was. It is discolored and a tad scaly. The solder melted out of the joint between the guard and ricasso.

I can't think of any other relevant facts.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts/suggestions/flames etc.

Synthesist
 
I'm not sure about heat treating and all that...
But if you just want the knife restored for sentimental reasons then theres no problem at all. It might be a fun little project for you, or i'm sure that you wont have any trouble finding a knife maker to re-handle it for you and clean up the blade.
 
The knife can be restored but if you want it usable it will probably have to be retempered. Sorry to here about the tradgedy.
 
You might want to link to this in the knifemaker's forum. They're very active and are on top of things like temps for heat treating, etc.
 
If you could figure out what steel it was you could have it reheat-treated and then have it refinished.

Tom
 
That much damage indicates temperatures high enough to require rehardening.
 
Sorry to hear your bad new.

Can you remember if it was Carbon or Stainless? That is a good place to start. Carbon will be easier.

If you find a local knifemaker I'm sure they can help.

Best of Luck
 
with the cabin burned down I'd say the temp easily reached over 1000 degrees which isn't unusual in a structure fire.
 
To respond to the questions.

Saberman said:
Can you remember if it was Carbon or Stainless? That is a good place to start. Carbon will be easier.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it was stainless (I will dig into this question).

and

Daniel Koster said:
What is meant by this comment?
(please elaborate)
Click to expand...

As to my comment about the etch being clearly visible, I've avoided mentioning the maker's name on purpose. Suffice it to say that this knife, in reasonablely good (not mint since these were meant to be used hard and many were) condition, would be worth $4-6,000 on eBay, so preserving the etch during the rebuilding process is important to any future owner. Without the etch there is nothing special about this piece.There are moderately priced production knives today that would outperform it in the field. Frankly, I have a 6" Marble Ideal from the 30's that I have used for many years that I always preferred to this knife. My father, however, fancied this knife.

I don't intend to use it any more then I would scuba dive with a Rolex Submariner when a Citizen will do the exact same job without any worry about those 2 little spring-loaded pins failing. My point here is this. While this knife is a tool, it is a very valuable tool today. There are any number of less expensive tools out there that will perform as well, if not better, today. As a piece of family history it is even more valuable to me. It is an heirloom and will be passed on at some point.

Once upon a time, I had the run of Tim Wright's shop, when he was in Chicago, and I spoke with him about restoring knife this last night. He is DEEP into building high end folders at this point and suggested that I do the work myself. I am thinking about it but leaning to having it done by someone who has the correct tools and skills. Tim insists I could do it, (I have a variable speed Bader) which is flattering but it's been a while since I've done anything but sharpen my knives, hence my misgivings about undertaking this task.

Perhaps now you understand my thinking a bit better.

Syn
 
it's more what you mean by "etch".

is the blade damascus?

are you talking about a quench line (hamon)?

do you mean an egraving type etch (like David Boye)?
 
I have a feeling the value of your knife went up in smoke. It could be very difficult to refinish without touching the makers mark if it's etched. Is the maker still alive?
 
The etch is acid etch I believe. No the knife is not damascus nor is there a hamon line (did they even know what a hamon line was in the mid-70's?). This was a "working" drop point, tapered tang hunter, albeit, not a cheap one then and a very expensive one now.

The maker IS still alive, amazingly enough, and when contacted, declined to be bothered with it, in a nice, but firm, way. An another aspect of this drama was that the insurance company had no problems paying for anything else but balked on this knife's value. Imagine that. The question arose as to why such an expensive, rare and collectible item was even in the cabin, which to be realistic was hardly impregnable and why it wasn't included in a separate rider. That is a different battle altogether. I had no answer to that question. I'm sure that whenever there is a tragedy involving items that could be considered "depreciated" as opposed to "priceless" there is a court battle. Just look at the problems people with "good' home insurance coverage are having collecting in the wake of Katrina.

The etch, for what it's worth, is deep and clear, and I believe (I am an amateur remember) that the blade could be refinished by someone good without polishing it away. Personally, I could give a rat's ass about the value going forward but other family members don't see it that way.

Syn
 
just to be clear - you are refering to the maker's mark, right? (logo, name, etc.)

Sorry to be a pain..."etch" has a lot of meanings here...
 
Exactly ----------------- his mark is acid etched not stamped.

Syn
 
synthesist said:
Exactly ----------------- his mark is acid etched not stamped.

Syn
Click to expand...

Having read all your posts in this thread thus far, I was under the impression that by "etch" you were referring to a hamon. I was really puzzled when you mentioned that the knife was made out of stainless steel, started thinking how the maker made this differential heat treatment on a stainless steel blade. Good thing that it is cleared now.
 
I have a pretty good idea who you're talking about...;)

You might benefit from doing a search in the knifemaker's forum using that maker's name...and look around until you find someone who uses a similar style.

That would get the best results..

Best of luck!
 
Hi Syn. The maker that you spoke about, told me about the knife a couple of weeks ago. You may want me to take a look at it. Both he and His partner are very good friends of mine. Please take a look at http://knifelegends.com/ featured artist. Follow the link to maker there after reading what they have to say. You will find both of our knives very close to each other in the listing. In fact, I'm flying out there next friday. My E-mail is michaellovett@earthlink.net. I will help if I can. Mike
 
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