Seeking Knife restoration information

[SixCats]

Hi all,

I hope I am posting this inquiry in the correct forum. I have several old Knives (French Sabatier Chef Knives, Old Hickory Carbon Butcher knives, two vintage 12" blade Lamb Splitter, etc.
that I would like to have restored. Might there be any KKF member(s) who specialize is such restoration work ? Since I have more knives than I can use, I would consider swap/trade for the restoration work performed.
I am interested in having my vintage NICHOLS BROS. (18" OAL, thick 12" blade) Lamb Splitter restored (if possible) using the original wood/pinned slabs. The NICHOLS BROS. looks almost identical
to the knife pictured below :

http://ralph1396.com/NCHlambSCREWSreNICE1.JPG


Thank you for any help/suggestions/recommendations.

Regards,

SixCats!

 

[Benuser]

Have done some work with vintages, but the picture is showing a blade in good condition, except for some profile correction, thinning and sharpening. You can do that yourself with a bit of guidance.

 

[daveb]

Our own Dave Martell does a good as a job with this sort of work of anyone I've seen.

Buttermilk will also do this and gets high marks. I'm not sure how responsive he is these days, life seems to be getting in the way.

 

[rick_english]

Have done some work with vintages, but the picture is showing a blade in good condition, except for some profile correction, thinning and sharpening. You can do that yourself with a bit of guidance.

The picture he showed is from ralph1396, an eBay seller. I'm assuming his own knife is in worse condition.

That said, there's a lot of satisfaction to be gained by doing restorations yourself.

 

[Benuser]

Exactly, and one may get every help here.

 

[SixCats]

Hi all,

Thank you all for the quick responses. Rick, you are indeed correct, that is to say the picture I linked is an "example" of my Nichols Bros. Lamb Splitter. My Lamb Splitter is rather rusty but, I suspect will clean up nicely. I'm thinking perhaps you folks are correct and I may (despite being all Thumbs) attempt to do a basic restoration on the Lamb Splitter myself. The tricky part is removing the original (100 plus year old) slabs which have two rows of three pins. I would like to keep the original slabs (despite one slab having a sort of gouge) and some fine cracks. If I am able to successfully remove the slabs (there is a nice wide gap between the old slabs and the tang) without splitting the slabs at the pins, I'm thinking a simple "sanding" by hand (I haven't any power tools for the job) will be all that's needed to make look and feel like new. The 18" long (Blade + Tang) should clean up nicely from a Vinegar bath (and perhaps some fine steel wool).
Once the Rust is removed, I would take Blade to a Knife Shop here in Maine for a serious resharpening. The blade edge itself is in quite good condition with only a couple minor nicks. I actually plan to use this old Lamb Splitter as a "Woods Bush Chopper" type blade.

Regards,
SixCats!

 

[SixCats]

OK, on second thought.......I'm NOT going to attempt to remove the slabs. I like these old slabs and do not want to run the risk of screwing them up! Despite the gap, the slabs are not loose. Perhaps, perhaps I could LIGHTLY Hammer the pins/slabs on each side to see if they will......re-set a bit. I dunno. Since I'm not going to use this Knife for Food Processing per se, I have to ask myself why attempt to remove the slabs ? I will plan to sand/smooth them up a bit and lightly oil wood. In reality, I suppose I don't really need to clean the rust off the Blade but, I figure I would at least attempt to remove some of the rust, have sharpened and oiled. I think this makes more sense. Thanks for all your help/suggestions.

SixCats!

 

[malexthekid]

I doubt hammering will have much of an effect. The pins are probably still locked tight and what you see is timber shrinkage... it happens to all timber over time. If you want to keep the scales and they aren't loose then just leave them.

If they have enough defects that worry you, you could always look at finding some recycled timber that is a close match, perhaps getting it stabalised, and running with that.

 

[larrybard]

. . . .
Once the Rust is removed, I would take Blade to a Knife Shop here in Maine for a serious resharpening.

What makes you think the "Knife Shop" knows what they're doing as far as sharpening? Do you know what equipment they use (if the sharpening is done "in house")? Would be a shame to lovingly start the restoration yourself, then hand over your knives to someplace where they'll wind up unnecessarily removing too much metal, maybe even also overheating the blades.

 

[Benuser]

Very much my thoughts

 

[SixCats]

Hi all,

Malex......thanks for that info regarding the "shrinkage" of the wood. I hadn't thought about shrinkage and it makes perfect sense. I will indeed leave well enough alone regarding slabs as they really aren't loose despite the gaps between the Slabs. The old Slabs feel (overall) good and have age character. Larry......good point regarding sharpening. Since I do not have the equipment/knowledge for sharpening the knife myself, I'm sort of at a loss as to where to have the knife sharpened properly. I'm open to suggestions. That being said, might you have an opinion on this type of operation :
http://wickedsharpknives.com/about/

Thanks.

SixCats!