Messages

That is a stubby screwdriver from which i ground away the tip's midsection, so it fits over the threaded tang.
You need such a tool to remove the brass nut from the pommel..

A pair of needlenose pliers might also work in a pinch, but it carries more risk of damaging both the brass nut and the pommel.

The knife has already proven to be a very effective short chopper during 2019 and 2020, with it's heavy convex blade in low alloy carbon steel combined with a stick tang covered in shock dampening rubber.

Still working on thinning the convex blade shape a hair more every now and then, slowly approaching that sweet spot where the edge bites at maximum depth while at the same time the blade doesn't get stuck during chopping, and the saw on the back works best.
I think i'm almost there.
Pics were taken in the woods surrounding my home town.

Vintage XL sawback scout knife manufactured by the no longer existing Solingen based firm of Kronenkrebs.
The stag handle was way too thick for my hands, and the low sabergrind geometry was far from ideal for it's intended use as a large allround camp knife / chopper.
The quality of the drop-forged steel in the blade however makes it worthwile for me to put in some elbow grease.
This is how the knife looked when i bought it:





First i ground the old "edge" flat on the Tormek SB-250 stone, then ground down the blade's center ridges on both sides with a Chinese 120 grit diamond file, then reshaped the blade from a low sabergrind into a full convex one with the help of a somewhat modified cheap Parkside linisher that can now also be used as a slack belt grinder.

This is the machine i have:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHvbVhnNuAU

Refining the blade surfaces as well as the actual forming & refining of the apex area was done by hand on grits 240 and 400 wet & dry paper using WD40 as a lubricant, while the burr was removed on the Tormek leather wheel.
The new apex can whittle a chest hair from hair root to hair tip @ about 30 degrees inclusive.
The grinding & sanding of the blade also automatically resharpened the sawback's teeth, and the full convex blade shape makes that the sawback is now the blade's thickest part, which reduces the chances of jamming when using it for sawing or notching.

The slack belt linisher also proved very useful for shaping a new handle made from 12 thick rubber washers, each one cut from an old piece of very wear resistant & triple fiber weave reinforced industrial conveyor belt.
The ground & shaped rubber has a very nice tactile feel to it and i suspect that it will also dampen shock quite effectively, which will aid it's use in it's intended role.
Also made a thick aluminium guard as a replacement for the factory installed useless piece of flimsy brass.
Guard & pommel are now permanently installed using 2-ton epoxy, while each rubber washer is glued to the next with a good rubber glue which stays flexible.

The knife is now ready for some field testing, and if that turns out satisfactory some more refining steps will follow.
This is how it currently looks (sheath has been waxed but still needs to be restitched):

























Specs:

Overall length: 33,5 cm (13.9 inch)
Blade length: 21,0 cm (8.27 inch)
Max blade thickness: 5,7 mm
Steel type: drop-forged low alloy carbon steel
Handle materials: Aluminium guard & pommel with rubber washers
Weight: 388 grams
Sheath: leather

Vintage XXL Fahrtenmesser/Scout knife manufactured by Kienel & Piel in Solingen, Germany.
In Germany knives this size were often used by hunters for clearing shooting stands etc, but basically by anyone in need of a good quality heavy chopper with a classic design.

Once used in the jungles of Suriname by Dutch soldiers of Third Suriname Company in the early 1960's, this knife was recently found sheathed in an attic during a house clearing after the owner had passed away.
It's blade was corroded black, somewhere in time it had been "sharpened" on a bench grinder, and all handle parts were loosened and dried out.
But as the blade was still structurally sound and i have a soft spot for vintage German knives it became another project.

How i received the knife:






I chose to regrind the originally saber ground blade to convex by hand using a Chinese 300 grit diamond file, which removed most of the corrosion & edge damage, while at the same time giving the knife a much more effective blade geometry for chopping.
Also did a few refining steps using waterproof SiC paper on a semi-hard rubber backing with WD40 as a lubricant, but just enough so i can do a bit of test chopping when time permits.
The new edge measures somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees inclusive, and i still have to remove the burr.
The original stag handle was way too thick & lumpy for my hand, so after glueing all parts together i gave it a bit more ergonomic & functional shape.
Especially the thinning of the handle just behind the guard while leaving a thicker midsection makes for a very comfortable hold with much less hand fatigue.

Hand reground blade with handle disassembeld:



How it currently looks:











Specs:

Overall length: 17.4 inches (44,2 cm)
Blade length: 12.3 inches (31,3 cm)
Blade thickness: 4,0 mm
Steel: hot drop-forged carbon steel
Weight: 476 grams

The knife is now almost done.
The blade surface was refined with 800 grit wet & dry and some WD40.
The new convex edge apex measures ~30 degrees inclusive and needs to have it's tiny burr removed later, after which the sheath will receive a few coats of warm Granger's wax.

Separately polished the miniature guard a bit, then put the handle back together using glue between all the washers:











How the knife looks at the moment:

This is how the blade looks after regrinding by hand both sides with only 400 grit wet & dry SiC paper using WD40 oil as a lubricant on a semi-hard rubber backing.
Somewhere in the past the edge had already been sharpened convex, so in order to remove as little steel as necessary i just evened things out to a new edge of around 30 degrees inclusive.
It's not completely finished yet (there is still a bit of edge damage left under the letter T), but that can also be done after the handle is re-installed.

Started with the blade:

Handle disassembled.
Tools used: a modified Swiss Made PB flathead stubby no.5, a thin scalpel blade with a purposely overstropped apex (polished blunt), and the flathead screwdriver on my old Amefa army knife.

A few years ago a member of Tactical Forum in Germany sent me this vintage Puma 8101 Texas Bill, advertized in a 1950's Puma brochure as a "throwing Scout knife" (German: Wurf und  Fahrtenmesser)
The request was to give the knife some TLC, post some pics how i do things, and then return the knife to it's owner.

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.

With some prectice, a pinch of elbow grease, and of course my Tormek T7 to renew the slightly hollow scandi grind.

My T7 is fitted with an SB-250 Blackstone, which i use mostly to put factory-like edges on various stainless steel knives.
However, for sharpening & especially grinding wider scandi bevels on lower alloy carbon steels it is relatively slow.
The standard SG-250 stone would have been a much better/faster choice, but i do not own one.

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.

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:

A Swedish Erik Frost Mora knife, probably from the 1950's, with zero edge scandi grind carbon steel blade.
The leather sheath has a metal rim (painted red)

The knife was basically new & unused when i got it, but it had been sheathed for quite a few decades.
This is how it looked when i got it, and part of the edge still had a visible burr.

As found:






I renewed the edge on my Tormek T7 and gave the rest of the blade somewhat of a satin finish.
The fiber in the guard and below the butt had swollen a bit, so i sanded it flush with the brass and did some polishing.







Specs:

Overall length: 23,5 cm
Blade length: 12,1 cm
Blade thickness: 3,2 mm
Steel: Carbon steel
Handle material: Stag grip panels, brass & fiber guard, aluminium butt.
Weight: 140 grams
Sheath: Leather with red metal rim