A few months ago I saw a thread on a vintage sab refurb and thought it looked like a really cool project to undertake. Unfortunately, as a cubicle dweller with no real world skills (I'm talking "first to die in a zombie apocalypse" lack of skills), I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. Plus, to make things worse -- or maybe to provide a convenient excuse -- I decided to do this thing entirely by hand. No power tools, whatsoever. Also I don't own any. Which frankly made it easier to commit to.
So I proceeded without any real direction. Pretty much just figured things out as I went. Most of the time I felt like I imagine our ancient ancestors felt -- chipping away determinedly at a blank of stone, driven by some primal desire to create. If the earliest humans could produce something useful, 2.5 million years ago in a nameless quarry, then surely I could grind away at an old knife that someone else had already made :chin:
(In many ways I was completely wrong about being able to figure this out. I have SO much respect for the amazing craftsman that share their work on these pages. You guys are an inspiration and provided me with much motivation along the way. But I digress. Back to the WIP!).
So I hit the bay and picked up a "Vintage Antique Carbon Steel Sabatier Chef Knife." The thing arrived and I knew immediately that I had my work seriously cut out for me.
1. Maker's Mark.
"Professional Sabatier." The current "professional" line is apparently stainless, but this is definitely a carbon. I assume there was an older carbon line with that name. Not sure when this knife was made.
2. Profile.
As you can see, the profile is jacked up. Belly has been ground away from over-steeling, and the heel is protruding like mad from the inability to sharpen down at the finger guard.
3. Here's a shot showing the heel a little more clearly.
4. That pesky finger guard . . .
5. More of that reverse belly . . .
6. Handle.
The handle was asymmetrical which was quite strange. Couldn't tell if it was worn down on the right side by someone's hand or if it came that way for some reason!
So I knew immediately from looking at the knife that filing down the finger guard was going to be a requirement. There simply was no way to set a new profile and sharpen the heel without getting it out of the way. So I busted out the half-round bastard file . . .
7. Taping the blade up to go to work.
8. Filing, filing, filing.
Eventually, several hours later, I got it to a place where the finger guard was filed down sufficiently. Let me tell you, though: this part was a major PITA!
9. Finger guard filed down.
Now that the finger guard was gone, it was time to reshape the profile to get rid of that protruding heel. I couldn't stop when the heel was flush though -- there was still that reverse belly/"frown" to worry about, at approximately mid-length. I tried to recut the profile first on the side of my 100 grit flattening stone, but I was worried about cutting too far into a stone that I need for other tasks. I eventually said screw it and just picked out some concrete from the path by the driveway. Splashed it with some water and just "bread-knifed" the darn thing until the profile looked about right. I also used it to continue to grind the finger guard flush with the blade face.
10. Cutting that profile.
The problem now was that, even though the finger guard was gone, there was a funky kind of forward sweep to the heel. The product of overgrind on my part.
11. Forward swept heel.
I didn't like that at all, so I figured I'd pick up the file again and put in a "cut out" in the heel. Turns out that this was one of the more delicate tasks of the refurb, and the one I probably screwed up the most. The problem was that the half-round file I used was simply too big: I had to remove too much steel in order to cut out a curve that would join smoothly with the line leading down to the edge. If I could do it all over, I would definitely use a smaller file. That way I would've saved some more edge length back toward the heel.
12. Cut out - right side.
13. Cut out - left side.
The next step was to remove the handle. Basically I clamped the thing in a table vice and used a hack saw to cut perpendicular through the pins, to the tang. I then hammered the scales off. This was a long process and one that I would love some feedback on how to do better! No pics of the process, unfortunately. Too busy sweating my a** off in the attic where this old set-up is.
14. Handle removed - left side
15. Handle removed - right side
Alright, at this point, I had to figure out what to do about the bolster. My original plan had been to keep the bolster and just cut new scales that could fit with the bolster. Unfortunately, with the handle scales off, I quickly realized that the bolster was seriously messed up. Not sure what happened to this knife over time, but it was super uneven.
16. Uneven bolster - seen from the butt.
17. Uneven bolster -- seen from the spine.
I didn't think I could cut scales to fit the weirdness of the bolster. And after a few minutes with a file, testing if I could file the bolster flat, I realized it was not gonna happen. So what could I do? Well, I busted back out the hack saw . . .
18. Cutting the bolster off.
Once the bolster was off, I realized I had made my second significant mistake of the project -- which was to cut too far into the knife. This left a weird gouge to file out.
19. Filing the former bolster area flat.
This of course left significant scratches.
20. Scratches . . .
At this point, I had a knife with no bolster, no handle scales, and a relatively flat and even surface on both sides of the handle. However, the knife was way too thick. Recutting the profile had removed quite a bit of steel from the edge, and I was now pretty far up the blade road. So I began the first of approximately 5 separate thinning sessions. This was the biggest time suck of the project. Man it takes a long time. I used a 120 grit shapton and a 220 grit king stone.
21. Thinning Session One - left side
22. Thinning Session One - right side
23. Thinning Session One - choil shot
24. Thinning Session One - another choil shot . . technically.
Long way to go, but at least I was underway!
Also, I never was able to completely get the knife even on both sides of the spine. This is why I said that cutting the bolster off with the hacksaw was one of the critical "oops" moments of the project. I just cut too far into the knife. You can see the wave in the spine here.
25. Spine shot
I was able to improve significantly from here, but it remained one of the details that drove me a little crazy throughout
Okay and that brings us to thinning session number two.
26. Thinning Session Two - left side
27. Thinning Session Two - right side
28. Thinning Session Two - choil
Getting a little better!!
It was around this time that I started to think a bit more about how I wanted the handle to look. So I busted out some markers and started doodling . . .
29. Handle concept.
I purchased some cocobolo scales off the bay for the handle. I wanted a black bolster. I wish I had gone with something cool like blackwood or ebony, but, at that point I hadn't really looked into this yet so I ended up getting some dyed and stabilized poplar.
So I traced the handle on the cocobolo and cut out some scales, and some weird, vaguely triangle-shaped thingies for the bolster. Like I said, I didn't have any power tools, so I used a combination of the hack saw and a coping saw.
30. Handle scales and bolster pieces.
Then I picked up some 2.5 ton epoxy and glued on the scales.
31. Gluing on the scales.
Another thing you can see in the above pic is the result of a bit of a dillema I ran into, because frankly, I had no way to drill out the pin holes! Also, in retrospect (now that I've looked it up . . .), I think I should have drilled the first side after installing the first scale, and then drilled through those holes through the second scale, to make sure that everything lined up. So we can call this mistake number three
But Like I said, I had no drill, so I sucked it up and used a nail to start a hole, and then used a screw driver and screw (wish I was joking) to drill a bit through. The handle started to split a bit so I gave up and decided that I would just figure it out down the line.
Anyway, that was all before I set the handles with epoxy. So back to that process . . .
32. Letting the epoxy cure overnight.
The next morning, with the handles glued on tight, I took the handle back to the table vice to file the scales down. This was quite a bit easier than filing the finger guard and the bolster, let me tell you.
33. Filing the handle - shot one.
34. More filing the handle.
And now a few shots to show the handle after the first, rough filing session
35. Post-filing.
36. More post-filing.
37. Still more post-filing. Also, some damage visible from "screwing" in the pin holes.
At this point, with no drill to speak of, I decided to just proceed with assembling the rest of the handle. So I epoxied on the "bolster" just as I had glued on the handle scales. 2.5 ton epoxy, cured overnight.
Honestly this was one of the more ridiculous looking parts of the project. It was very obvious to me that this was not the right way of going about things. But no matter - onward and upward.
38. Bolster shot one.
39. Bolster shot two.
40. Next to a MAC pro, for comparison.
Again, this was indisputably the "ugliest" stage -- and probably my fourth mistake! Since then, I've seen that you should probably glue both the part of the handle forming the bolster or ferrule to the tang at the same time, and then shape the wood from there. Live and learn, I guess.
So, now that everything was glued together, it was time to start filing the whole thing down, to actually shape the handle.
41. Filing the handle down.
42. After filing the handle down.
Some gapping to deal with later, but looking MUCH better than before.
Now it was time to start sanding!! Sanding, sanding, sanding . . . All told, between the handle and the blade, I ended up using I think from 36 grit all the way up to 800.
43. Getting ready to sand.
44. Sanding . . .
45. More sanding . . .
Now that I sanded down the handle, and still with no way to drill out the pin holes, I decided to apply some oil and see what the grain looked like. Pretty pleased, gotta say!
46. First shot of the oiled handle
47. Second shot of the oiled handle
Okay now it was time for yet another thinning session. Phew.
48. Thinning session number three underway.
49. More thinning . . .
50. Still more thinning.
51. And still more thinning.
52. After thinning session number three.
Definitely working near the heel. Still have to do more along the length.
Okay so thinning session three is over. I was at a bit of an impasse without a drill -- not much left to do for the time being. So I re-oiled the thing up and put it aside.
53. Handle oiled, waiting for a drill.
Okay, then a miracle happened. I was at my future in-laws place' and found an old Stanley Defiance "egg beater" drill. This thing had some serious years on it, actually fit in perfectly with the theme of the entire project.
54. Defiance drill.
55. Drill close-up.
So finally, I was able to drill the pin holes.
56. Drilling the pin holes.
57. Yup. There they are.
So with the pin holes drilled, I felt that I could move on to filling some of the gapping with epoxy.
58. Here we are curing the additional epoxy to fill the gaps.
Now with the epoxy filling the gaps, I started on installing the pins. The bit I used to drill the pin holes was 3/16" so I bought some 3/16" round bar and cut a few pins out, using the hacksaw. Then I glued them into place with epoxy.
59. Pins.
60. Pins again.
61. Once again . . . pins.
Now came another hard part -- filing and sanding the pins flush with the handle. This was mistake number four, in a way. Are we up to four now? I think so. Actually, I don't know that I would call this a mistake so much as a challenge. I just had a heck of a time getting the pins to be flush. The wood simply sanded faster than the metal. I'm not sure how you guys do this part. Please don't hesitate to let me know . . .
62. Sanding the pins.
Now that the pins were sanded down, I sanded everything to 400 grit and re-oiled the handle.
63. Looking alright!
64. Right side.
65. Left side.
You'll notice the lead pin is lower than the others -- bad drilling, unfortunately. I wasn't able to get that pin all the way through so I had to split it. It is still epoxied firmly in place but is simply cosmetic, rather than providing additional support for the handle. If I had a better work flow for installing the handle I'm sure that this could have been avoided.
And now it was time for yet another dreaded thinning session. Honestly the blade was just too thick still.
66. Final thinning session.
After another couple hours, I had kind of ran out of gas on thinning. I still don't have the blade where I want it, but I am done for the time being. I just had to take off too much steel to reshape the profile and we're into thick territory. I will continue to work on it in the future but I at least got it to a place where it was satisfactory in the meantime. I sharpened the edge of pretty nicely so it is very sharp, but because of the relative thickness behind the edge there is some wedging.
67. Final choil shot.
Then, with the blade thinned, I sanded the blade with wet dry to get an even scratch pattern, up to 600 grit IIRC.
68. Brushed finish.
And that was it!! My first refurbishing project. Here are a couple more shots of the final project:
69. Chillin on a vollrath.
Just kinda made the handle pop.
70. The final glamour shot.
71. And a Before/After to wrap things up!
In retrospect, this was a freaking awesome project. A ton of work . . . basically took my evenings for a couple of months. But definitely worth it. I learned so much about thinning and about working with knives and with my hands, in general. I gained a lot of confidence on the stones. All those hours will do that.
I guess I have a few questions for next time:
(1) What is a better way to remove western handles? Drill through the pins? Or cut through them like I did?
(2) Should I have glued both pieces (scales and "bolster") on at the same time?
(3) What is the process for drilling the handle scales? Install both scales first and then drill? Or one at a time?
(4) How on earth do you sand the pins and the scales flush when wood sands faster than metal?
Those are the specific questions I can think of. I'm sure more will come to me. Any other criticism, feedback, or even "dude, what were you thinking," I'd love to hear it.
Anyway, hopefully I've inspired another newbie to pick up an old knife and give it a try, rather than just scared anyone off It really was a great experience. And hey, maybe you can benefit from my trials and tribulations, which I've tried to admit to as candidly as possible. As my boss once told me, it's better to learn from other people's mistakes.
Thanks KKF!! :knife::knife::knife::knife::knife:
So I proceeded without any real direction. Pretty much just figured things out as I went. Most of the time I felt like I imagine our ancient ancestors felt -- chipping away determinedly at a blank of stone, driven by some primal desire to create. If the earliest humans could produce something useful, 2.5 million years ago in a nameless quarry, then surely I could grind away at an old knife that someone else had already made :chin:
(In many ways I was completely wrong about being able to figure this out. I have SO much respect for the amazing craftsman that share their work on these pages. You guys are an inspiration and provided me with much motivation along the way. But I digress. Back to the WIP!).
So I hit the bay and picked up a "Vintage Antique Carbon Steel Sabatier Chef Knife." The thing arrived and I knew immediately that I had my work seriously cut out for me.
1. Maker's Mark.
"Professional Sabatier." The current "professional" line is apparently stainless, but this is definitely a carbon. I assume there was an older carbon line with that name. Not sure when this knife was made.
2. Profile.
As you can see, the profile is jacked up. Belly has been ground away from over-steeling, and the heel is protruding like mad from the inability to sharpen down at the finger guard.
3. Here's a shot showing the heel a little more clearly.
4. That pesky finger guard . . .
5. More of that reverse belly . . .
6. Handle.
The handle was asymmetrical which was quite strange. Couldn't tell if it was worn down on the right side by someone's hand or if it came that way for some reason!
So I knew immediately from looking at the knife that filing down the finger guard was going to be a requirement. There simply was no way to set a new profile and sharpen the heel without getting it out of the way. So I busted out the half-round bastard file . . .
7. Taping the blade up to go to work.
8. Filing, filing, filing.
Eventually, several hours later, I got it to a place where the finger guard was filed down sufficiently. Let me tell you, though: this part was a major PITA!
9. Finger guard filed down.
Now that the finger guard was gone, it was time to reshape the profile to get rid of that protruding heel. I couldn't stop when the heel was flush though -- there was still that reverse belly/"frown" to worry about, at approximately mid-length. I tried to recut the profile first on the side of my 100 grit flattening stone, but I was worried about cutting too far into a stone that I need for other tasks. I eventually said screw it and just picked out some concrete from the path by the driveway. Splashed it with some water and just "bread-knifed" the darn thing until the profile looked about right. I also used it to continue to grind the finger guard flush with the blade face.
10. Cutting that profile.
The problem now was that, even though the finger guard was gone, there was a funky kind of forward sweep to the heel. The product of overgrind on my part.
11. Forward swept heel.
I didn't like that at all, so I figured I'd pick up the file again and put in a "cut out" in the heel. Turns out that this was one of the more delicate tasks of the refurb, and the one I probably screwed up the most. The problem was that the half-round file I used was simply too big: I had to remove too much steel in order to cut out a curve that would join smoothly with the line leading down to the edge. If I could do it all over, I would definitely use a smaller file. That way I would've saved some more edge length back toward the heel.
12. Cut out - right side.
13. Cut out - left side.
The next step was to remove the handle. Basically I clamped the thing in a table vice and used a hack saw to cut perpendicular through the pins, to the tang. I then hammered the scales off. This was a long process and one that I would love some feedback on how to do better! No pics of the process, unfortunately. Too busy sweating my a** off in the attic where this old set-up is.
14. Handle removed - left side
15. Handle removed - right side
Alright, at this point, I had to figure out what to do about the bolster. My original plan had been to keep the bolster and just cut new scales that could fit with the bolster. Unfortunately, with the handle scales off, I quickly realized that the bolster was seriously messed up. Not sure what happened to this knife over time, but it was super uneven.
16. Uneven bolster - seen from the butt.
17. Uneven bolster -- seen from the spine.
I didn't think I could cut scales to fit the weirdness of the bolster. And after a few minutes with a file, testing if I could file the bolster flat, I realized it was not gonna happen. So what could I do? Well, I busted back out the hack saw . . .
18. Cutting the bolster off.
Once the bolster was off, I realized I had made my second significant mistake of the project -- which was to cut too far into the knife. This left a weird gouge to file out.
19. Filing the former bolster area flat.
This of course left significant scratches.
20. Scratches . . .
At this point, I had a knife with no bolster, no handle scales, and a relatively flat and even surface on both sides of the handle. However, the knife was way too thick. Recutting the profile had removed quite a bit of steel from the edge, and I was now pretty far up the blade road. So I began the first of approximately 5 separate thinning sessions. This was the biggest time suck of the project. Man it takes a long time. I used a 120 grit shapton and a 220 grit king stone.
21. Thinning Session One - left side
22. Thinning Session One - right side
23. Thinning Session One - choil shot
24. Thinning Session One - another choil shot . . technically.
Long way to go, but at least I was underway!
Also, I never was able to completely get the knife even on both sides of the spine. This is why I said that cutting the bolster off with the hacksaw was one of the critical "oops" moments of the project. I just cut too far into the knife. You can see the wave in the spine here.
25. Spine shot
I was able to improve significantly from here, but it remained one of the details that drove me a little crazy throughout
Okay and that brings us to thinning session number two.
26. Thinning Session Two - left side
27. Thinning Session Two - right side
28. Thinning Session Two - choil
Getting a little better!!
It was around this time that I started to think a bit more about how I wanted the handle to look. So I busted out some markers and started doodling . . .
29. Handle concept.
I purchased some cocobolo scales off the bay for the handle. I wanted a black bolster. I wish I had gone with something cool like blackwood or ebony, but, at that point I hadn't really looked into this yet so I ended up getting some dyed and stabilized poplar.
So I traced the handle on the cocobolo and cut out some scales, and some weird, vaguely triangle-shaped thingies for the bolster. Like I said, I didn't have any power tools, so I used a combination of the hack saw and a coping saw.
30. Handle scales and bolster pieces.
Then I picked up some 2.5 ton epoxy and glued on the scales.
31. Gluing on the scales.
Another thing you can see in the above pic is the result of a bit of a dillema I ran into, because frankly, I had no way to drill out the pin holes! Also, in retrospect (now that I've looked it up . . .), I think I should have drilled the first side after installing the first scale, and then drilled through those holes through the second scale, to make sure that everything lined up. So we can call this mistake number three
But Like I said, I had no drill, so I sucked it up and used a nail to start a hole, and then used a screw driver and screw (wish I was joking) to drill a bit through. The handle started to split a bit so I gave up and decided that I would just figure it out down the line.
Anyway, that was all before I set the handles with epoxy. So back to that process . . .
32. Letting the epoxy cure overnight.
The next morning, with the handles glued on tight, I took the handle back to the table vice to file the scales down. This was quite a bit easier than filing the finger guard and the bolster, let me tell you.
33. Filing the handle - shot one.
34. More filing the handle.
And now a few shots to show the handle after the first, rough filing session
35. Post-filing.
36. More post-filing.
37. Still more post-filing. Also, some damage visible from "screwing" in the pin holes.
At this point, with no drill to speak of, I decided to just proceed with assembling the rest of the handle. So I epoxied on the "bolster" just as I had glued on the handle scales. 2.5 ton epoxy, cured overnight.
Honestly this was one of the more ridiculous looking parts of the project. It was very obvious to me that this was not the right way of going about things. But no matter - onward and upward.
38. Bolster shot one.
39. Bolster shot two.
40. Next to a MAC pro, for comparison.
Again, this was indisputably the "ugliest" stage -- and probably my fourth mistake! Since then, I've seen that you should probably glue both the part of the handle forming the bolster or ferrule to the tang at the same time, and then shape the wood from there. Live and learn, I guess.
So, now that everything was glued together, it was time to start filing the whole thing down, to actually shape the handle.
41. Filing the handle down.
42. After filing the handle down.
Some gapping to deal with later, but looking MUCH better than before.
Now it was time to start sanding!! Sanding, sanding, sanding . . . All told, between the handle and the blade, I ended up using I think from 36 grit all the way up to 800.
43. Getting ready to sand.
44. Sanding . . .
45. More sanding . . .
Now that I sanded down the handle, and still with no way to drill out the pin holes, I decided to apply some oil and see what the grain looked like. Pretty pleased, gotta say!
46. First shot of the oiled handle
47. Second shot of the oiled handle
Okay now it was time for yet another thinning session. Phew.
48. Thinning session number three underway.
49. More thinning . . .
50. Still more thinning.
51. And still more thinning.
52. After thinning session number three.
Definitely working near the heel. Still have to do more along the length.
Okay so thinning session three is over. I was at a bit of an impasse without a drill -- not much left to do for the time being. So I re-oiled the thing up and put it aside.
53. Handle oiled, waiting for a drill.
Okay, then a miracle happened. I was at my future in-laws place' and found an old Stanley Defiance "egg beater" drill. This thing had some serious years on it, actually fit in perfectly with the theme of the entire project.
54. Defiance drill.
55. Drill close-up.
So finally, I was able to drill the pin holes.
56. Drilling the pin holes.
57. Yup. There they are.
So with the pin holes drilled, I felt that I could move on to filling some of the gapping with epoxy.
58. Here we are curing the additional epoxy to fill the gaps.
Now with the epoxy filling the gaps, I started on installing the pins. The bit I used to drill the pin holes was 3/16" so I bought some 3/16" round bar and cut a few pins out, using the hacksaw. Then I glued them into place with epoxy.
59. Pins.
60. Pins again.
61. Once again . . . pins.
Now came another hard part -- filing and sanding the pins flush with the handle. This was mistake number four, in a way. Are we up to four now? I think so. Actually, I don't know that I would call this a mistake so much as a challenge. I just had a heck of a time getting the pins to be flush. The wood simply sanded faster than the metal. I'm not sure how you guys do this part. Please don't hesitate to let me know . . .
62. Sanding the pins.
Now that the pins were sanded down, I sanded everything to 400 grit and re-oiled the handle.
63. Looking alright!
64. Right side.
65. Left side.
You'll notice the lead pin is lower than the others -- bad drilling, unfortunately. I wasn't able to get that pin all the way through so I had to split it. It is still epoxied firmly in place but is simply cosmetic, rather than providing additional support for the handle. If I had a better work flow for installing the handle I'm sure that this could have been avoided.
And now it was time for yet another dreaded thinning session. Honestly the blade was just too thick still.
66. Final thinning session.
After another couple hours, I had kind of ran out of gas on thinning. I still don't have the blade where I want it, but I am done for the time being. I just had to take off too much steel to reshape the profile and we're into thick territory. I will continue to work on it in the future but I at least got it to a place where it was satisfactory in the meantime. I sharpened the edge of pretty nicely so it is very sharp, but because of the relative thickness behind the edge there is some wedging.
67. Final choil shot.
Then, with the blade thinned, I sanded the blade with wet dry to get an even scratch pattern, up to 600 grit IIRC.
68. Brushed finish.
And that was it!! My first refurbishing project. Here are a couple more shots of the final project:
69. Chillin on a vollrath.
Just kinda made the handle pop.
70. The final glamour shot.
71. And a Before/After to wrap things up!
In retrospect, this was a freaking awesome project. A ton of work . . . basically took my evenings for a couple of months. But definitely worth it. I learned so much about thinning and about working with knives and with my hands, in general. I gained a lot of confidence on the stones. All those hours will do that.
I guess I have a few questions for next time:
(1) What is a better way to remove western handles? Drill through the pins? Or cut through them like I did?
(2) Should I have glued both pieces (scales and "bolster") on at the same time?
(3) What is the process for drilling the handle scales? Install both scales first and then drill? Or one at a time?
(4) How on earth do you sand the pins and the scales flush when wood sands faster than metal?
Those are the specific questions I can think of. I'm sure more will come to me. Any other criticism, feedback, or even "dude, what were you thinking," I'd love to hear it.
Anyway, hopefully I've inspired another newbie to pick up an old knife and give it a try, rather than just scared anyone off
It really was a great experience. And hey, maybe you can benefit from my trials and tribulations, which I've tried to admit to as candidly as possible. As my boss once told me, it's better to learn from other people's mistakes. Thanks KKF!! :knife::knife::knife::knife::knife:
