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Knifemaker


doc47

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Last time he was on the board was mid-August, just FYI.

 

:dopeslap: Chris is absolutely correct. I wasn't paying attention to the YEAR he last posted...

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Dave McReynolds

There are a few knifemakers who hang out on the traditional bowhunting site I frequent. One of the best is Clarence Smitherman (Skullworks). You can see some of his latest creations by going to tradgang.com scroll down and click on Sponsors Classified, and look for Skullworks. I think all of his latest bunch are already sold, but he posts new ones as he makes them.

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Rats! OK. Anybody know another knifemaker??

 

Yes.

Whatcha needin'?

 

And then, how ez is shipping a large fixed blade weapon to you?

:eek:

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Is Knifemaker still active on the Board? I PM'd him some time ago but have not heard back.

 

I send you a PM with his information, if really want to reach him, read your PM.

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Actually, I'm not in the market. I'm at the age where divestment is the word of the day, and in that spirit I bequeathed my beloved and well-seasoned Randall #3 to my son before I left the US in January. It was a tough parting, but I didn't want it to end up in Africa if something happened to me. Nobody here would appreciate it or treat it properly.

 

That being said, the reason I wanted to contact Knifemaker is that I have a lovely, horn-handled, drop-point sheath knife made for me some years ago. It was here in Africa while I was in the States for three years and its mirror-finished blade is no longer mirror-like. RUST! And some pitting (light, thank goodness) and even the brass is slightly pitted! I was looking for someone who might be able to restore it.

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Doc - I've spent a lot of time restoring antique single-cylinder farm engines where rust is often the #1 enemy. For years i've used a very simple and safe electrolysis method for rust removal that gets rid of the rust and leaves the metal behind. All you need is small bucket of water, some baking soda, a 12 volt battery charger, and some scrap metal you can use for a waste electrode. The great thing is that the process is limited in size only by the size of the bucket.

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Dave McReynolds

I have an old Bowie knife I've been trying to restore for a long time now. According to instructions I found on the Internet, I started with 200 grit sandpaper, and worked my way up through the grades to 800, I believe, and then switched to polishing compound and a felt dremmel wheel. The problem is, I've never been able to get a true mirror finish on it. No matter what I do, I can still see the swirl marks of the previous treatment. So now whenever I have some nervous energy I need to burn off, I give it a few rubs with a silver polishing cloth, which hasn't had much effect on the swirl marks so far, but maybe if I live long enough, it might.

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Dave,

 

You need to do more sanding with a higher grit paper. Sanding just makes smaller scratches, when the scratches are very, very small, buffing compound smooths them out.

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Dave, I'd think that once you get up to crocus cloth go to an actual buffing wheel on a bench grinder, with jeweler's rouge. I'd think that a larger polishing surface would help.

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Doc - I've spent a lot of time restoring antique single-cylinder farm engines where rust is often the #1 enemy. For years i've used a very simple and safe electrolysis method for rust removal that gets rid of the rust and leaves the metal behind. All you need is small bucket of water, some baking soda, a 12 volt battery charger, and some scrap metal you can use for a waste electrode. The great thing is that the process is limited in size only by the size of the bucket.

 

This will work Doc. If not to your satisfaction, no harm will have been done.

 

Terry

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This is a decent example of the process but he makes ONE VERY BAD MISTAKE!

 

NEVER USE STAINLESS STEEL AS A ANODE!

NEVER USE STAINLESS STEEL AS A ANODE!

NEVER USE STAINLESS STEEL AS A ANODE!

 

OK, so i may have over reacted a bit. According to the scientists on the Old Engine sites the SS creates some sort of chemical reaction and leaves behind some HEXA-something-something-something residue that is extremely harmful.

 

Here's what i have used for the last 20 years

 

[*] A plastic bucket

[*] A stick that spans across the top of the bucket

[*] A small piece of chain or other conductive material that attaches the part to be cleaned to the chain

[*] At least one waste anode.

The process is line of sight so more is always better

For years i used old lawn mower blades because they were easy to come by

[*] Baking soda, although i find Arm and Hammer washing soda the best, you may not have access to it in your local Walmart

[*] You battery charger

[*] Time and patience

 

Mix up the baking soda in the water until if feels more "slippery" than regular water, it makes the water more conductive.

 

Dangle the object being cleaned from the chain on the stick so it's submerged in the water BUT, not touching the waste electrode.

 

Hook up the battery charger so that the negative go to the part to be cleaned

 

Hook the positive to the waste electrode

 

Turn it on and wait... patiently

 

- The more amps it draws the faster it cleans

- After a couple of hours have a look at your part, when i'm doing 100 year old cast iron parts i use a wire brush with a trickle of water from the garden hose to wash off the rust that's left

- Sometimes you may have to fiddle with the connections to get a good amp draw

- On longer cooks you may have to clean the waste anodes of to improve the draw as well

- I have used this process on parts the size nuts and bolts in a 1-gallon bucket up to a mower deck in a 5' plastic kiddie pool.

 

The beauty of the process is that the waste is nothing more than water and rust, it won't hurt you or the environment.

 

Always experiment on something you don't care about first.

 

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Great stuff! You should be a technical writer!

One thing we have in Africa is plenty of rust, so this will be very useful, perhaps not for this knife but most certainly for other things.

 

The reason I say not for this knife is that the knife also has brass parts, buffalo horn scales for the handle and some other materials. I'm not sure what the electrolytic process would do to all that stuff.

 

So far, I've worked the blade down with the finest sandpaper I can find here, but that's only about 320. I really need to work it down progressively until I get to crocus cloth, then find or buy a bench grinder with a buffing wheel and jeweler's rouge.

 

Entropy's a wonderful thing..........not!

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