Need to get my Knife sharpened!

[leon-b]

Hi all, long time since I've posted on here although I do pop In for a read now and then! I hope everybody's doing well?

I got a knife given to me (pics tomorrow) by a good mate of mine, I don't think It's anything special but I like the look of It though and as I only have an old Frosts Clipper I thought I'd use this Instead!

It's stick tang and I've no Idea what Steel It Is but It's pretty damn blunt! It's tapered all the way from the spine right down to the blade with a tiny secondary bevel which Is dodgy as hell! The handle's made up by a big mid section of antler with a few leather and plastic spacers each side.

Would anybody be kind enough to sharpen It for me If I post them It? I would do It myself but I'm no good at sharpening

Pretty please?

Cheers, Butch.

 

[leon-b]

 

[Bardster]

Bring it along to the Wilderness Gathing if you are coming - I will be running a sharpening workshop and can do it for you there.

 

[leon-b]

Thanks for the offer but I wont be there..

 

[Bardster]

well if you want to send it to me............

 

[brancho]

Thats a rather nice little sheffield Bowie

 

[ged]

A. Wright & Son?

It's lovely. What I'd call the original boy scout knife. I've got one just like it in a crate somewhere, had it since I was in the Cubs, 50 years ago. Don't even know which crate it's in since I moved!

Why not sharpen it yourself? It isn't difficult to get an acceptable edge (depending on your definition of acceptable) and you aren't likely to do a lot of damage to it. From the pictures it looks like you should probably start with something fairly coarse. You won't be able to do the entire blade with a flat stone as the edge has a recurve part near the guard. An india file would do that OK, I have some left over from a group buy if you want a couple.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56195&p=687229#post687229

 

[leon-b]

Thanks Bardster, you have PM!

Cheers for pointing out what It Is, I thought It might be one of these but they only come In 3 Inch and 5 Inch blades?
http://www.penknives-and-scissors.co.uk/shop/Whittle_Tang_Bowie_Knives3149.htm

Butch

 

[ged]

I thought It might be one of these but they only come In 3 Inch and 5 Inch blades?

I guess it might make sense to accentuate the size difference in size when you have a pair like that, or the maker might have decided that the market wanted a slightly large blade, or the Chinese copy that they had their name stamped on might just have turned up looking different on the day of the photo shoot. Although your own knife is a slightly different design from the larger one of the pair it's still very much a Bowie style. There's an enormous amount of variation on that theme, look it up in Wikipedia for example. I prefer the design of the one that you and I have, the point is too high on the larger one in the pair. That same pair is also available elsewhere, and cheaper.

 

[Paul_B]

It looks identical to my Dad's old sheath knife as he called it. Including the spacers details. His is rusted over rather badly and was relegated to removing weeds from the patios when I was a kid. Always thought it was a total waste of a good knife (at 5 or 6 getting your hands on a knife like that was not easy in our house). I might ask him if he still has it.

BTW if a knife blade is rusted can you easily recover it? I'm talking the whole blade is rusted but I don't think it is very bad. What woudl you do to recover?

PS sorry to sidetrack the OP.

 

[dwardo]

Thats a lovely old knife and you would be better off learning to shapren it your self. If you have to send it off every time you will soon spend more time without the knife. The edge is only a little micro bevel so there isnt that much metal to remove.

 

[ged]

BTW if a knife blade is rusted can you easily recover it? I'm talking the whole blade is rusted but I don't think it is very bad. What woudl you do to recover?

If it's only surface rust you have a good chance of recovering it but if it's badly pitted it might not be salvageable, and you'd probably need to grind a lot of metal off to get a reasonable edge anyway. Some blades (they tend to be up-market) are heat treated differently in different parts of the blade and if one of those is badly rusted you might have to take away too much metal from the hardened edge. If you're talking about the old scout knife that won't a concern but if it's very badly pitted it might be a write-off. Lots of people here re-handle knives, you might want to consider re-knifing the handle.

If it were given to me I'd first try a power wire brush, being careful that the brush couldn't grab the knife and throw it around the workshop. That isn't easy with something like a knife as you can't just clamp the handle in a big vice because you'd damage the handle. You could try soaking it in vinegar. Just the blade, obviously. The rust destroyers available over the counter such as naval jelly (see Wikipedia) which turn rust black are, um, basically phosphoric acid. They leave the metal coated with a black phosphate which can then be left as it is if you don't mind a black blade. Personally I don't care for them. The metal still isn't rust resistant after that treatment. You can get some good rust removers from e.g. the paint manufacturing companies, some have a rust destroyer and a paint in the same product. Perhaps emery or aluminium oxide paper of progressively finer grades followed by metal polish if you're looking for a shiny blade. Even rubbing it with sand will remove some of the rust. You're right that digging up weeds was a horrible thing to do to it.

 

[Mojoracinguk]

WOW!!!...£69 buck-a-roos for the double set...I thought the set i had at home was worthless as it was £16 back in 1994 (carried on a D of E expedition) they sure have gone up in price....I best polish mine up:yikes::yikes::yikes::yikes:
After a year of use it was put away as the handle was coming loose on the small knife and the popper on the sheath had come off on the larger blade...then they we're miss-laid out side for two weeks and the finish on the blades were ruined....stilll the blade holds a nice edge I had no idea they still made these and hat they cost so much, Thanks for the info. hope your knife comes back sharp!
Jim

 

[ged]

WOW!!!...£69 buck-a-roos for the double set...I thought the set i had at home was worthless as it was £16 back in 1994 ...

Don't confuse the price of something with what it's worth. The old knives that we've been talking about in this thread only really have sentimental value.