Knife restoration - Puma 8101 Texas Bill (standard)

[kwakster]

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.

[kwakster]

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.

[kwakster]

Started with the blade:

[kwakster]

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.

[kwakster]

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:

[kwakster]

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.

[RichColvin]

That is great!  Thank you for sharing.

[Sir Amwell]

Hi. Lovely work. Can you explain the process of restoring the handle? More specifically, the work done to all the washers? Thanks.

[BPalv]

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.

Beautiful work!
I would also like to know how to restore a handle like that.
Thanks,
Al

[kwakster]

When it's time to put the washers back on the tang in the correct order i apply a good quality thixotropic glue between them and then tighten the pommel.
The pressure causes this type of glue to temporarily become more fluid which helps to penetrate the leather & fiber better, after which the stack is allowed to dry (still under pressure) into a solid block.
The gluing makes sure that the washers will not shift anymore when the knife is ever put into use again.

When thoroughly dried the still uneven surface is then sanded smooth using homemade "sanding linen" (actually fine wet & dry SiC paper reinforced with packing tape, and then cut to strips)
This allows me much more choice in finer grits then with real sanding linen, as my goal is to remove as little from the stack surface as needed to smoothen things out.

When this is done i apply several coats of Granger's wax, using an old hair dryer between each coat to make the wax penetrate the leather as deep as possible.
When everything is cooled down again i clamp the knife blade and use strips of an old towel to seal the handle surface and give it a bit of a gloss.

The aluminium pommel is polished separately in a two-step process after sanding the stack & pommel itself.
Best to use different strips of reinforced wet & dry SiC paper for the leather & fiber and for the aluminium pommel, otherwise you risk contaminating especially the fiber washers next to the pommel with fine aluminium powder & sanding particles
This can dramatically alter their color and thus the appearance of the knife.