Old & Abused knives that you just can't bear to discard...........

[Ray S]

If the members of this forum are anything like me they find it most difficult to discard a knife that has obviously seen better days;whether it be broken or missing blades or broken or missing handles or blades sticking proud or sharpened to a sliver of their original size.Where some may have one or two I may have about a hundred or more.
Many of them were made by companies that were out of business before I was born(I'm 74) and are lost to memory of all but a few.Many of these were sharpened until the blade has virtually disappeared.I believe a lot of these were done for a specific reason rather than just worn down. Possibly by a cabinetmaker to do some intricate task or maybe just to make a good splinter remover.
These are different from knives that were never meant to see the light of day due to various manufacturing errors and supposedly sent to the scrap pile;only to be retrieved by a factory worker who thought he might be able to save it.I have several of these knives as well.
Some of these gems I have modified to make them somewhat serviceable again while others I have left as is. All of them I find fascinating and wonder what stories they might relate should they be granted the power of speech. While many enjoy the gleam of a shiny new knife I prefer to look at the dingy and rusted old knives and dream of what they were like when new.
Please feel free to post any you might own and any stories that may go along with them.
First up is an old wharncliffe pattern jack by the Carrier Cutlery Co. of Elmira NY The first pic shows how badly the master blade sticks out and is shortened considerably. The pen blade was broken off. I ground off the remaining portion of the pen blade and re-shaped the master blade and ground the kick to get it back inside the knife when folded.A small repair to the handle and I now have a nice little carry knife(my current one).
The second pic shows it as it looks now.
The third pic is of an old French knife stamped "Barneria" with a pic of a severed pig's head.The lockback function no longer works and the handles are showing some very old repairs with what looks like cutler's cement.The pique work(small pins inset into the handle)date this to the 1840's. I chose to leave this one as is.
The last one is a massive stag handled folder that someone manufactured and installed a new blade. The nail mark is really crude but effective.This knife is easily a hundred years old.

[Poncho65]

I have a couple worn ones myself I could never throw a knife away, no matter the condition

Those look pretty good to me though

[SteveC]

Oh the stories those old knives could tell !   

[cody6268]

That Carrier ought to be a good whittling knife. I have an LF&C that's pretty much the same pattern that's great at whittling, despite the short Wharncliffe blade.   I had a junk lot I purchased recently for a practically worn out Remington Scout, and most of the knives in there were both old enough (and the fact that many were the only examples of the particular makers that I had.  One I'm not even sure who made it. My favorite of them would have to be the Keen Kutter Barlow.  It's banged up, the clip point has a lot of sharpening, and the pen is broken.

026 by cody6268, on Flickr

[Barry Rowland]

I like it Cody!  The stories these knives could tell....

[Ray S]

Thought I'd throw a few more into the fray.
The first is an old ebony handled dogleg jack by the Waterville Cutlery Co.;an old Connecticut firm. When I acquired it the blades had been attacked by an overzealous grinder who obviously had no concept of how to properly sharpen a knife. Sad since this knife company went out of business over a hundred years ago.The pile side handle was missing and not having any ebony on hand to replace it I used a piece of birch that while not the proper color worked well.
After many hours of sanding with varying grades of wet or dry sandpaper and some careful re-profiling on my 1x30 belt sander I finally had a knife that wasn't real pretty but was fully functional once again.
The next two knives are both made by the American Shear & Knife Co.;another old Connecticut firm that went out of business over a hundred years ago. The first one was missing the master blade and the pen blade was broken quite a ways down. I speculated about replacing the master blade but decided against it. Instead I very carefully ground the remaining blade into a tiny straight slot screwdriver which is good for tightening screws on glasses(for some reason mine loosen up rather frequently).
The second American Shear knife received a similar workover as the Waterville previously described.
The last one has so far remained untouched but I am considering having a small blade welded on.It is an ivory handled pen knife made by Unwin & Rogers(more famous for their knife pistols)which has as a secondary blade an operating mechanical pencil.Considering that this company went out of business in 1867 I would really like to preserve this one.
I will post more later.

[Sparky415]

Ray 

Here's one of many abused, well maybe not abused but well used and sharpened knives that I own   
This one is a good quality Sheffield made knife by William Rodgers
Buffalo scales, brass liners and a really nice action