Vintage Becker Blade?

[Icedtee84]

Okay so i have used the search button and found some info but not enough to confirm my guess as to what these blades are. So i ask you the more knowledgeable people regarding beckers as to what these are.

Measurements are as fallows

Overall length 15" inches

Blade length 9" 1/4 with 2" width at its widest

handle 5" 3/4

Thickness 1/4 of an inch

The blade appears to be carbon steel, rusts easily and gets picked up by a silver magnet. There are no markings any where on the blade, though it has a handle similar to my beckers and i put one of my old becker handles on one of the blades and it fit perfectly. The blade geometry are exactly the same on both blades, and all the grinds are perfectly symmetrical. tooling marks are also straight and uniform hinting on it being factory produced, also there is no edge on both blades, they both have an edge the thickness of a penny and as far as heat treatment goes i have spent 2 hours trying to put an edge on one and barely even got nowhere so tomorrow i might have pass through the work sharp a bit and see if it'll help. I also tried cleaning up the spine with a file and the file just skates just like it did when i tried filing the edge . When i received these blades they were covered in rust, hence the slight pitting along with some remaining rusts on the blades. I have already tried to clean it up a bit trying to find any sort of markings, though they look a lot better now than when i got them but still i find now markings. The person i purchased it from claims he found these two blades in a trailer he was cleaning out, and that the trailer had not been touched for 30 years.

So how bout it folks? whats your guess?....

 

[Icedtee84]

Uhm.. i am trying to post pics of it but through photobucket but it doesn't show up on my post for some reason.

 

[hhmoore]

That, sir, is what is affectionately known as the Becker Brute (BK1)
Let me be the first to say "I want one", lol (that will be a common theme to following posts)

To get your images to post, use the actual IMG code provided by photobucket, rather than copying the URL.

 

[hhmoore]

 

[Silverthorn]

Damn Ground but unsharpened Heat treated Brute Blanks ?
Heat treated is unfortunate because it means you really probably want to anneal them, then sharpen them, then re heat treat. Otherwise sharpening them properly is going to be a pretty nasty undertaking.
None the less, Fantastic score man. Thats like digging through costume jewelery and finding a real diamond.

 

[hhmoore]

Sorry, screwed up when posting the last image...
I'll turn it into a post though:

On closer inspection, the swedges and plunge look different to me than the Camillus BK1. From the information that they'd been in some trailer for at least 30 yrs, I'd expect them to be Blackjacks, anyway; but I've never seen a Blackjack BK1 to confirm that.

 

[Hurt'n'Broke]

Looks like you got quite a find!! Many people, including myself, will be envious of them. Congrats on finding them

 

[granitestateofmind]

Excellent find! Those are Brutes, by the looks of it, and probably Blackjacks if they are that old. Check the database in the stickies for more info. You don't have to anneal them to put an edge on, AFAIK this is the way they come from the factory before the final edge is put on - you're just not going to get it done with a file (not in this decade, anyway). That might be a good thing, since you say you have a WorkSharp - the edge that came on these babies could best be described as "obtuse" or maybe "bludgeony" - and don't really "cut" in the standard sense of the word. Try the coarsest belt with the WS set at about 30° (25° if you don't have a choice) and let 'er rip. I re-did mine a couple nights ago:

This was at 30° and you can see how high the grind is and still some marker on the edge. It'll take a while....but it'll be worth it!

 

[Icedtee84]

Thanks for the tip on posting the images HHmoore!
And yeah trying to put and edge to it by hand using the old fashioned wet stone is a real task it took me 3 days, in my case nights, every time i get off work i come home and go straight to it with the wet stone. Until now i barely have any edge on it not even one that would cut. And as far as what it is, i looked at the stickies to find out what it was prior to posting, i found that it is similar to the becker BK1 brute but has a slightly different grind and the closest i found was the Blackjack brute as far as being similar to the grind lines. i also read that the early blackjacks came in grey coating and some were bright bead blasted finish and that some also came unmarked. The blackjack brutes also came in 440A stainless and 5160 carbon steel if i remember right. These ones i have for sure are carbon steels due to how easy they rust and how easy they throw sparks with a flint. Ill be working on these and finishing them up the way i was taught to do so the old fashioned way, though i could go with the work sharp but the slight re curve of the blade would make it a bit harder to make a perfect edge on it. Due to the blade size and the function they will be performing i was thinking of putting a convex edge on it. what do you guys think? i'll be posting pics of my progress soon.

 

[beachmaster]

Man, I wish that I could just find some Becker Brutes... LOL

 

[Icedtee84]

Yeah as soon as i saw it i jumped on it. Right now trying to clean out some of the tooling marks on the spine and handle. I just got done cutting up some brazilian walnut to use as a handle. Im thinking high polish blade with a nicely polished walnut handle.

 

[Bladite]

what is a "silver magnet"?

likely they are original blackjack brutes

the first brutes were bead blasted and not coated. good stuff.

 

[Bladite]

That, sir, is what is affectionately known as the Becker Brute (BK1)
Let me be the first to say "I want one", lol (that will be a common theme to following posts)

To get your images to post, use the actual IMG code provided by photobucket, rather than copying the URL.

Sorry, screwed up when posting the last image...
I'll turn it into a post though:

On closer inspection, the swedges and plunge look different to me than the Camillus BK1. From the information that they'd been in some trailer for at least 30 yrs, I'd expect them to be Blackjacks, anyway; but I've never seen a Blackjack BK1 to confirm that.

you've never seen a BlackJack BK1 because there is no such thing

Becker Knife and Tool Brute!

which is funny, because it was hardly first in the lineup... Machax, Campanion, and Magnum Camp yes...

good stuff...

 

[Icedtee84]

Hey Bladite, i think it was your post that had that blackjack brute i was using as a reference, if i remember correctly it was the one with a greyish silver powder coat on it along with the camillus bk1 with a black coating. I myself have never seen a blackjack brute in person. But using your post on becker blade data base the closest i found as to these blade blanks were those blackjack brutes you mentioned on the BK1 category. Anyway, could you please help me identify these blades as to what manufacturer made them? And by the way the silver magnet i was talking about is a really tiny magnet about 1/4 of an inch thick and half an inch long talen out of a hard drive that can hold at least 5lbs of steel. Anyway i just call it silver magnet because they usally are chrome plated or have a silver finish but nothing extra special other than being a really strong magnet.

 

[Bladite]

here's two...

the "naked blade" is not naked. it's as it, bead blast finish, no coating, Blackjack era. good times.

 

[Bladite]

 

[Icedtee84]

Oh my.... i think i might have just saw what becker i want next! now might be another start of a new collection. Im liking the rest of those blades!

Oh and Bladite, looking at that brute it looks like the tang is a bit over sized for those scales. If that is so then does mine look just about right? i'll try to post pics of it with the scales lined up on the screw holes.
I thought it was left over sized due to the blades being unfinished, hence me trying to smooth it out.

Some progress by the way, i managed to stay up all day ( yes day is my night because i work grave yard ) and cut up some Brazilian walnut into the rough shape of the handles while also smoothing out some of the tooling marks on the spine and on the handle area. Who ever heat treated these certainly did it good because it took a lot of sand paper and a fair amount of my finger tips to get it this shiny. I am thinking of leaving the slight patina that is on the handle to give it that old rustic look paired with some good ol' hard wood.

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