Knife restoration - Marble's Woodcraft

[kwakster]

Restoration projects like these can be very rewarding, as not only do you get to bring pieces of knife history back to life, it's quite useful to practice your skills, plus it pays for itself as generally i use the proceeds of the sale of a restored knife to buy other oldies that could use some work.
This is an original Marble's Woodcraft fixed blade, probably from the 1930's.

In this case my Tormek T7 fitted with an SB-250 Blackstone (black silicon carbide) was only used in a supporting role: grinding the old edge flat to remove all of the old damage, so i could then hand regrind the blade back to it's original full convex shape.

Before:










After:

[Ken S]

Nicely done, Kwakster!

Ken

[RichColvin]

What process did you use to restore the blade?

[kwakster]

My first step is always to grind the old edge flat; if that is just blunt from slow wear i only use a hard silicon carbide bench stone, for instance the Tormek stone grader.
But when there is more serious damage (like in this Woodcraft) i use my trusty Tormek T7 to grind the old edge flat on the side of the stone.
This is not only about removing existing edge damage, it's also about removing fatigued steel and preparing the blade so the new apex will be made from fresh steel only.
This noticeably enhances the longevity of the new edge.

Next step is to recreate the full convex blade shape, and in this case i used 400 grit wet & dry paper (black silicon carbide) clamped on an old piece of fiber reinforced rubber conveyor belt.
As a lubricant i used WD-40 oil.
The steel in these old Woodcraft knives is possibly 52100, but probably 1095, which had a very good heat treatment & a guesstimated hardness of ~60 HRC, but it doesn't have a high wear resistance, which makes 400 grit wet & dry very effective for this purpose.
BTW: i don't grind to a burr with this 400 grit, but just to the point where the edge no longer reflects light.

Creating a burr is done with the next step, which is 800 grit wet & dry used in the same way as the 400 grit.

More grits are generally not needed imo, as silicon carbide grit is friable, and on wet & dry paper the layer is only 1 grain thick, so no new grits become available during sharpening.
Instead it just gets progressively finer & finer in use, which gives me the opportunity to tailor the "toothyness" of the new apex with only this 800 grit.
If i create a burr early on the 800 grit that apex will be more toothy than when i create a burr after longer use, and on hunting knives like these i prefer a bit toothy edge.

I don't hunt, but i do sharpen various hunting knives for people who do.

[RichColvin]

I was more asking how you restored the sides of the knife (i.e., did you use electrolysis or naval jelly)?

[kwakster]

In this case no electrolysis or naval yelly was used.

In general (also with this particular knife) i start with sanding the ricasso & back of the (disassembled) blade with 800 grit & WD40, this to see where it gets me.
Often these area's are not too damaged and there is no need to get any coarser, while at the same time it's coarse enough to remove blackness / superficial rust.