Vintage KA-BAR Fixed Blade Care

[North Shore]

Would anyone have some advice in the way of general blade/leather care for a vintage fixed blade? I recently ended up with this knife, I'm sure others had seen it. The sheath has the famous image of the mountain man fighting a bear on it's hind legs with a knife which from what I read dates it to the late 30's pre WWII. I bid on the knife because I haven't seen any with this design, it looked almost like a Marbles Ideal. I would like to maybe clean it up a bit, yet at the same time not remove any patina. I would like to clean/maintain the leather sheath and handle, although I do not want that glossy urethane look I've seen on knives for sale where people altered them greatly. Any advice, and info on this knife would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[gunsil]

You have a model 585 which is a less common model even though it was made all through the 1930s. I would only use 0000 steel wool with a little oil (I use Hoppe's gun oil) to clean any active rust off the blade. Not much you can do to the leather other than wipe any visible mildew off with a cloth. Any oil or leather treatment will change the color of the leather. I either by mint knives if I want such a condition or leave the not mint ones alone as I do not believe in "restoration". The sheath leather looks to be in very nice condition and if kept in a dry area out of the sunlight it should stay that way. I will occasionally use a non-abrasive metal cleaner called "Nevr-Dull" on the fiber and brass spacers, and the guard but it will make those parts shiny. You got a nice one there at a decent price.

 

[LostViking]

If you are going to use this knife;
Do some research, but a coat or two of Lexol might help the handles and the sheath.

If I was going to make it a user, I would very lightly sand the stacked leather to clean off the old grime, and expose some fresh leather. Then I would hit it with the Lexol.

I might even take some very fine emory to that pommel to bring back the shine.

After that just some Obenauf's or bee's wax.

If you want it for a collector;
Forget what I just said and listen to the folks who are more in the know about these things than myself.



Either way, extremely cool knife. And it would work very well on the belt or in the display. Nice find.

 

[totkst1]

Lexol for cleaning and conditioning the leather works wonderfully and you could use some neatsfoot oil to add a bit of water resistance and further condition the leather and a light coat of gun oil on the blade keeps mine from rusting


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