What the heck were they doing?

Yep. Once the new car smell is gone, it's time to really drive that thing.

Bought a Schatt & Morgan stockman a while back. Beautiful knife but dull as a chick flick and it had a little wobble in the main blade. I didn't want to mess it up so I put it away--typical "safe Queen"...pun intended. But I finally took it out and went to work on it with some DMT diamond stones and got it user sharp. Then I put it in a vise and tightened the blade. Tapped the hinge pin a little with a hammer to flatten it. Ended up with a scratched blade and scarred bolster but a sharp and tight cutting tool that I finally felt like carrying and using. I won't be using it as a pry bar or screw driver but I'll be using it. Otherwise it would be just a pretty little bauble to put on a shelf like one of those cute little snow globes or porcelain figurines catching dust and taking up space.
 
Lee48 said:
Yep. Once the new car smell is gone, it's time to really drive that thing.

Bought a Schatt & Morgan stockman a while back. Beautiful knife but dull as a chick flick and it had a little wobble in the main blade. I didn't want to mess it up so I put it away--typical "safe Queen"...pun intended. But I finally took it out and went to work on it with some DMT diamond stones and got it user sharp. Then I put it in a vise and tightened the blade. Tapped the hinge pin a little with a hammer to flatten it. Ended up with a scratched blade and scarred bolster but a sharp and tight cutting tool that I finally felt like carrying and using. I won't be using it as a pry bar or screw driver but I'll be using it. Otherwise it would be just a pretty little bauble to put on a shelf like one of those cute little snow globes or porcelain figurines catching dust and taking up space.
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agreed. I dont have any safe queens either. I dont care about scratched bolsters or even scratched blades, I just like a tight wobble free user thats sharp and ready to go. I do try to get rid of gaps, but just because they contribute to wobble and dirt and grime getting in, which make the gaps bigger and more difficult to fix.
 
knarfeng said:
And don't forget those spawn of the dark one: the electric sharpener. No knife was safe from that evil machine.
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Funny.

I do a fair amount of used knife rescue and I hate to see grind marks on a blade. I never know if they overheated it or not.
 
willgoy said:
How do you fix gaps? Surely the handles would get damaged?

Thanks, Will
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Well it can be a crap shoot and I probably wouldn't do it on a knife with antique ivory scales, but I usually just clean the gunk and buildup out with wd40 and whatever tweezer or pin i can get in there and then squeeze them in a vice with padding till the pin heads raise up a bit. Then I'll tap the pins lightly with a ball peen hammer over an anvil (or some such flat solid iron surface). If the gaps are mainly at the pivot and there's play I'll just peen the pivot lightly checking how i'm affecting the spring often. Sometimes I'll get rid of the play but have a tight open wit lazy spring, but i usually find if i just bend (not actually bending the steel) right to left a few times it'll loosen up just enough so the spring will power it open and closed. I'm by no means a knife maker or real fixer but it works for me.
 
mnblade said:
I nearly bid on this one, just so I could give it a proper burial.



-- Mark
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My grandfather always carried a knife and had several in his drawers. Almost all of them had some blade loss, the ones in the drawers a lot. He used carborundum pocket stones, although I have his soft washita too (dished a bit), but he would lay blades flat. Made kind of a strong very sharp edge but ate em up pretty quick. His blades always got shorter, but the edge was mostly straight (I think belly disappeared with the point. The above almost looks like a scythe stone was used.
 
coffeecup said:
Being one of those ignorant people who actually "use" their pocketknife as a daily tool--no doubt, one of Jackknife's "unwashed masses"--perhaps I can be permitted to respond?

One of the things I find amusing is that I'm not particularly hard on my knives compared to many of the older folks I grew up around. It is only "hard use" relative to the folks who treat their knives like holy relics: something to be protected and coddled, like those who buy knives with "pocket-worn" covers and apply a faux-patina to the steel, then carry the knife in a little purse to protect it from the contents of their pocket and the world outside. You know who I mean: the folks who gush like little girls over the latest star on the cover of the teen magazines when a company brings out a "new" model with covers made of "apple-rootbeer cat-scratched baby-panda bone," or bash the folks who buy imported knives that actually meet their working needs rather than the latest domestic-boutique-manufactured homage-to-the-working-knife that doesn't meet those needs. (Some amongst the hoi polloi might almost be tempted to ask if "poseur" would be a better way to describe these folks than "collector"--but no, we mustn't question the motives of our betters.)

In the past week, I've "abused" my Schrade-made KeenKutter jack while repairing storm damage to the home of a friend's widow. The knife has peeled wire, tightened screws, cut the steel bands on bundles of 2x4s, opened boxes of nails and bundles of shingles, beveled the edges of studs and siding so they could be fit into the surviving construction, cut tarpaper and shingles, spread putty on windows and tar in roof joints, cut window screening and pressed home the splines that hold it in place, split kindling for the little fire I used to make coffee, and sliced up apples for snacks. It has been in-and-out of my pocket a hundred times a day, been sharpened on the medium India stone in the toolbox, and cleaned and oiled in the evenings so it can go to work the next day.

Such is the life of a working knife.
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Post of the week! I must say this made my day. Pics please!
 
Here's a little addendum. I have only a couple of knives that have suffered from usage. The main one is an Ulster Delux (5 blade) BSA Scout that has big blade wobble. I dont remember doing anything specifically stupid with it and part of the problem is the durn swinden keys. But the tools are all solid as a rock. At any rate, it received some hard use by virtue of being carried by a kid amongst a group of kids, and no doubt borrowed by some other ringmeat kid who threw it at a tree or some nonsense.

Ive been carrying a SAK Cadet to supplement my back-pocket Copperlock so I can have the right tool for the job. I note that the bottle opener/big screwdriver on the Cadet has an enhanced half stop, which allows you to use it with the handle at 90 degrees, i.e. so you can torque that sucker. I've had a Huntsman for 30 years or so.

I have never broken a blade and none of the tools on my tool knives are at all wobbly. A big part of this is that I am careful with my knives, always have been, notwithstanding the Scout. But I find it interesting that none of the tools on my knives have developed any wobble, despite being almost the right tool for the job and in some cases inviting (the bottle opener on the Cadet) misuse.

My Dad used tools, including a SAK. His SAK never had any wobble anywhere, but the cellidor was scratched all to hell and the blades were too.

Im sure it has happened, but you dont see a lot of broken blades on SAKs. Anyone have a reason for this? BTW, I am not trying to point out any superiority of SAKs, it's just that they are common knives, likely to be used by the hoi polloi who don't treat them right, and although startlingly well made, are not particularly any more robust than the average slipjoint.
 
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I had a friend who broke the tip off of his knife prying out that metal plug that used to seal up a can of Coleman white gas. Snapped it right off. He was bummed. I asked him what the hell he expected to happen but that I could put a point back on the knife. He told me that he pried and used the thing as a screwdriver about as often as he cut something with it. I decided to learn a little something and intead of putting a new point on it I filed a nice even slotted screw driver tip on the thing. He loved it and carried it for years after that working with the utility company. He could strip wires, tighten screws, pry a little...used it every day.

He was not what we'd call a knife guy at all but just a regular working stiff.
 
HoosierQ said:
I decided to learn a little something and intead of putting a new point on it I filed a nice even slotted screw driver tip on the thing. He loved it and carried it for years after that working with the utility company. He could strip wires, tighten screws, pry a little...used it every day.
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that sounds like a smart mod. I might have given him an electrician's knife.
 
Eric J said:
Post of the week! I must say this made my day. Pics please!
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It is just a knife, in this pic a knife in need of sharpening.
KKjack.JPG
 
I enjoy seeing well used knives. To me that is where the stories are stored. It is easy to buy a knife and post it for all to see, but I enjoy seeing knives that get used. From SAKs to GECs, it is really all about the history of the scratches, patina (if using a carbon blade), and dings and dents on the handle. Well worn is well loved.
 
S&M Heritage Jack, fixing an intake.
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Grandpa and grandpa's knife
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My first zulu spear I made, wearing in while working in the front axles of my car.
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What I'm saying is; it's a knife people! I love knives, so much I started making them. I even enjoy fancy knives. But my knives work. I take care of them, but they are tools first and foremost. If one patinas I let it. I don't force them, and I sure don't carry my knives in a little leather pocket purse. It takes long enough to dig out and open with grease all over my hands as it is, I don't need another step.

Now, Sunday knives are different. Those are just man jewelry, be a man, you can admit they are just jewelry. Lol
 
Accidently touching a hot battery post is usually good for an instant serration and a Butthead laugh, uh huhuh huhuhuh.
 
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