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Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases

PTRSAK · 105 · 9718

au Offline PTRSAK

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Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
on: November 29, 2014, 12:09:52 PM
I have taken on a mod job firing some new custom wooden scales to a model1908 soldier with mint steel but ratty scales and a smaller knife of similar constriction. The owner has sent me some "basket case" knives to practice on as I have not worked on these old knives before other than patching up the scales on my 40 Wenger.

I thought some of you might like to follow along as I tear down and rebuild some of these old veteran soldiers.
First a roll call pic of the candidates.

« Last Edit: November 29, 2014, 12:27:40 PM by PTRSAK »


au Offline TazzieRob

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #1 on: November 29, 2014, 12:13:13 PM
 :drool:


nz Offline zoidberg

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #2 on: November 29, 2014, 12:18:01 PM
   :o
 
 :popcorn:


wales Offline magentus

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #3 on: November 29, 2014, 12:27:48 PM
Nice one for making a thread out  of this. Can't wait to see the progression, and well done for taking it on.

 :salute:
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no Offline Steinar

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #4 on: November 29, 2014, 01:00:12 PM
This thread should be marked X-rated...  :popcorn:


au Offline PTRSAK

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #5 on: November 29, 2014, 01:03:01 PM
There was one 41 knife not in the above pic.
it was the worst of the bunch with one scale completely missing, a blade that had been butchered on a grinder and rusty gummed up tools. It was so bad I didn't even take a before photo as I thought it would only be useful to see how these are put together and for parts.

After tearing it down I had second thoughts. Perhaps we could make something out of this after all. The gouges on the blade were quite bad but the shape of the blade was still there. After some work with wet and dry paper most of the damage was removed even if the deepest marks were still evident. All the rusty parts got a bath in hydrochloric acid and a date with the polishing wheel. No, they don't look new. But even the blade is acceptable for a "user".

At work we use scrapers made of real MicartaTM. Phenolic resin and paper. I decided to try some as scale material. Looks good so far. Shapes easily, tales a nice finish and with its brown colour it looks appropriate for the age of the knife.
I have some 1/8 silver steel rod which is a good fit for the pivot pins ans some 2.2mm for the spring middle pin and scale rivet.

With the strength of the backsprings on these old knives, I was surprised at the ease of reassembly.
To  cut a long story short... here are some"after" pics.







Sure the blade is still a bit skanky, but I'd happily carry this old fella. I hope some of the others improve to the same extent.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2014, 01:04:36 PM by PTRSAK »


gb Offline Sparky415

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #6 on: November 29, 2014, 01:33:29 PM
Everything’s adjustable


gb Offline Mike, Lord of the Spammers!

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #7 on: November 29, 2014, 01:39:56 PM
Nice resto job there mate! Always nice to see some old soldiers getting some TLC :tu:

Sent from the astropathic choir.

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us Online SteveC

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #8 on: November 29, 2014, 11:55:37 PM
The Micarta goes well with the old look of the knife !


ch Offline jaydar

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #9 on: November 30, 2014, 12:03:19 AM
Great looking scales really fine work around the awl.

Oh and a spectacular job on the front pin in the bolster ....

I think this may become my favourite thread ever :)


ca Offline Syph007

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #10 on: November 30, 2014, 02:51:08 AM
Id love to restore one of the old ones like that.  Ive never even seen what the old springs look like.  Did you happen to take pics of it disassembled?
PM me or email sakmodder [at] gmail . com if you are looking for custom SAK work.

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au Offline PTRSAK

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #11 on: November 30, 2014, 09:08:58 AM
Great looking scales really fine work around the awl.

Oh and a spectacular job on the front pin in the bolster ....

I think this may become my favourite thread ever :)

ah.. wait until I get into some of the others, this first one was just a bit of a play around. ;)

Id love to restore one of the old ones like that.  Ive never even seen what the old springs look like.  Did you happen to take pics of it disassembled?

Didn't take any pics of this one, as I said I expected it to be little more than useful for parts. One of the others has a broken spring and I was hoping to salvage that.

Promise to take step-by-step pics of the next ones.


au Offline PTRSAK

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #12 on: November 30, 2014, 03:22:45 PM
Okay, with this one I'm going to try an experiment. I want to find out if I can add wooden scales to a knife without breaking it down. I think this would be the way to go with the "mod job" knives if it works out because two of them are in pristine condition apart from the scales and it would be a shame to disturb the wonderful Swiss precision assembly unnecessarily.
So, this 1943 Elsener Schwyz has quite reasonable steel but broken up scales.
As promised we will start with a "before" shot and I will add progress pics along the way.





As you can see, only some very light scratching and minor rust.
I'll be using wood for scale material this time and as yet have not decided which.
Seeing it's an experiment, probably not something too exotic, and something I have a decent quantity of. But something a bit nice. Hmmm, probably should sleep on it and have a look in my wood box tomorrow. Take some blocks to work tomorrow evening and slice a few blanks off with the bandsaw...  Snakewood? Brown Mallee burl? or there's that piece of Red Gum... keep guessing.


au Offline PTRSAK

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A nice serving of leftovers...
Reply #13 on: November 30, 2014, 03:38:32 PM
Oh, and a slight derail of my own thread.

Another job I have on at the moment is building one nice 84mm SAK from several donor knives. Blade from this, Awl and Openers from that, Corkscrew from the other, Scissors from over there and Small Blade from somewhere else again.
As you can imagine, break down 4 or 5 SAKs but only pick out parts to build one from the pile and you have a LOT of leftovers.
Search through that pile and pick out the "next best" of everything and it's surprising what you can put together.





Bear in mind that so far in this thread all the work has been on knives and parts saved from the junk pile and you can imagine what will be coming down the pipeline once I start working on the good stuff, I can't wait to see it all myself.


us Offline toolguy

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #14 on: November 30, 2014, 04:49:58 PM
The Lazarus knife.LOL.

The micarta that you've selected works really well.

Great work and thanks for posting.
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us Offline jerseydevil

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #15 on: November 30, 2014, 05:10:40 PM
:popcorn:

This will be fun to see......
There's no such thing as "Too pretty to carry".  There's only "Too pretty NOT to carry"...... >:D


no Offline Grathr

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #16 on: November 30, 2014, 06:22:58 PM

:popcorn:

This will be fun to see......

+1


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au Offline Huntsman

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #17 on: December 01, 2014, 05:59:38 AM
Nice one PTR

Looking forward to this  :D - I love your work  ;)

Guess you will be thinking through your plans for the Three Face Wenger restoration project and one other very carefully given another recent post/thread on the forum  ???  :-\


gr Offline firiki

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #18 on: December 01, 2014, 12:25:14 PM
This thread should be marked X-rated...  :popcorn:
Definitely!

:popcorn:

:drool:

 :ahhh
Omnia vincit amor. Vae victis.


ca Offline Syph007

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #19 on: December 01, 2014, 04:26:41 PM
Peter how thick are the springs on those old boys, they look MASSIVE.
PM me or email sakmodder [at] gmail . com if you are looking for custom SAK work.

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ch Offline jaydar

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #20 on: December 01, 2014, 04:49:42 PM
an old photo of an old refurb

Before





After







If cleaned up ok :)





This was done by Russel White over on British Blades


ca Offline Syph007

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #21 on: December 01, 2014, 06:04:52 PM
Nice restore!

The great thing about old metal parts is there is still nice new steel underneath, just need to apply elbow grease and make them look pretty again.   :tu:

PM me or email sakmodder [at] gmail . com if you are looking for custom SAK work.

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pt Offline pfrsantos

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #22 on: December 01, 2014, 06:19:41 PM
I thought this thread was about me. I feel cheated.

 :facepalm:
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gb Offline Dexter

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #23 on: December 01, 2014, 06:24:16 PM
Wow! That's a keeper...  :drool:


us Offline MadPlumbarian

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #24 on: December 01, 2014, 06:59:10 PM
 :drool: oh wow, jaydar that carbon fiber is beautiful!!

And PTRSAK keep up the good work! JR
"The-Mad-Plumbarian" The Punisher Of Pipes!!! JR
As I sit on my Crapper Throne in the Reading Room and explode on the Commode, thinking, how my flush beat John’s and Jerry’s pair? Jack’s had to run for the Water Closet yet ended up tripping on a Can bowing and hitting his Head on the Porcelain God! 🚽


au Offline PTRSAK

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #25 on: December 02, 2014, 10:09:47 AM
A couple of quick pics on the progress on the no disassembly scale replacement experiment.





gr Offline firiki

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #26 on: December 02, 2014, 10:28:39 AM
The scales look perfectly good to me :tu:

:popcorn: :drool:  :ahhh

:)
Omnia vincit amor. Vae victis.


nz Offline zoidberg

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #27 on: December 02, 2014, 11:33:54 AM
The scales look perfectly good to me :tu:

:popcorn: :drool:  :ahhh

:)

And to me.   :ahhh  :drool:  :ahhh   :tu:  :tu:


au Offline PTRSAK

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #28 on: December 02, 2014, 11:57:04 AM
They need several more coats of oil and a lot of rubbing between. But I'm pleased with the fit, which was the object of the exercise.

Finished photos will follow eventually.


nz Offline zoidberg

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Re: Breathing new life into 70 year old basket cases
Reply #29 on: December 02, 2014, 12:01:41 PM
Your work looks excellent mate.  :salute:


 

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