Carl Friedrich Ern Woodcraft model ?

[kwakster]

A while ago i bought this what i think is a nice little knife, and although it looks quite a bit like the well known Woodcraft model it wasn't made by Marble's USA.
Now in 1916 Webster Marble received a patent on his Woodcraft knife which lasted around 20 years, but because the model became widely populair other manufacturers had similar models made outside the US to get around the patent, often in Solingen Germany.

The blade on my knife has no markings and the pommel doesn't have the mushroom shape like many Woodcraft models.
Based on this and the typical handle construction with 2 stag panels held together by brass rivets my best guess is that it's a Solingen made Woodcraft copy from the 1920's or 1930's or who knows ?
Later seems unlikely, first because of the war and after that various US manufacturers could make as many Woodcraft type knives in the US as the market could bear since the patent had already ran out.

The specimen i have is a well made knife with very hard steel (noticeably harder than my F.Dick basterd file no.1), and i'm currently in the process of making it functional again.
It definitely has had a hard life with many sharpening attempts, and somewhere in time a previous owner even used the pommel as a hammer, which dented it quite badly and also got it stuck on the threaded tang.

This is how i received the knife:









On YouTube i found this clip by German collector Jake vd Ibach where he shows a Fahrtenmesser made by Solingen manufacturer Carl Friedrich Ern, and based on the type, sequence and color of the spacers as well as the shape of the pommel on his knife i'm starting to think that my knife was also made by CF Ern.

What do you guys think ?

[kwakster]

After removing all the edge damage and restoring the full convex blade shape with 400 and 800 grit wet & dry using WD40 oil as a lubricant on a semi-hard rubber backing.
Removed the tiny burr with some 1.0 micron diamond paste on hard cardboard, and the new edge angle is +/- 26 degrees inclusive.
It's apex will whittle a chesthair from root to tip, and was also tested by whittling an old piece of wooden cutting board, which it does just fine.
The swedge was recut using 2 diamond files.
(You can click 2x on each pic for a bit more detail)

[SteveC]

Nice job as always !   

[Dean51]

Nice job as always !   

 

Very good work kwakster, bet it feels good to get results like that.

[Barry Rowland]

Nice!!

[Poncho65]

Very nice blade and great job on it

[Sparky415]

Looks beautiful and great pictures as all ways K 

[Gerhard Gerber]

After removing all the edge damage and restoring the full convex blade shape with 400 and 800 grit wet & dry using WD40 oil as a lubricant on a semi-hard rubber backing.

 

How long did that take?

[kwakster]

Iirc around 1,5 hours.
I don't rush things,

[Gerhard Gerber]

 

I was expecting a bit more than that 

I have a combination of metal and abrasive dust embedded in every pore of my hands....washing doesn't help   

I spent 3 hours sanding yesterday after work, started with finishing touches on a brass & wild olive handle and on to a newly HT'ed blade.

[kwakster]

I know what you mean regarding metal and abrasive dust, but using WD40 oil on the wet & dry paper does help remove most of it from your hands afterwards.
If not there's always garage soap or the home made version: detergent mixed with sugar.

Next to this the oil also helps to avoid flash rust on carbon steel types, it keeps the swarf in suspension longer than water, plus it prolongs the useful life of the abrasive, and i also think the abrasive cuts cleaner with it.

Any WIP pics of your new knife on the forum yet ?

[Sparky415]

Interesting 

[Gerhard Gerber]

I bought a whole bucket of workshop soap with abrasives, cheap and smells nice, but I would need to scrub off a lot of skin 

You are 100% correct, only reason I stopped using WD40 is my can was empty, and then I saw the price of a new one....    Not sure what happened but suddenly the stuff that everybody always has lying around is ridiculously expensive.

I'm also steadily improving my skills on the belt grinder and that eliminates having to sand out mistakes 

Any WIP pics of your new knife on the forum yet ?

I'm almost done with something a little special and different, designed by my Dad, built by me for him.

He wanted to support my endeavors by ordering a knife, knowing his finances I tricked him and gave him a gift voucher for 1 x knife   for his birthday  and nagged him to do his design.

Don't mean to be a teaser....almost done......and it's got wood. And rather special wood at that