Restoring an old SAK

[Wilderbeast]

Hi all,
Does anyone have any tips for restoring an old swiss army knife. It's rather grubby and the tools are basically stuck in position because of the grime. What's the best way to go about restoring it?
Cheers,
Will

 

[maddave]

I can highly recommend ballistol. It's a gun oil, if you soak the joints for a few hours then work them free and use a very fine wire wool to clean the crud off, you're on your way...

 

[Shewie]

You could try soaking it in petrol for a couple of days and then give it a wipe and plenty of WD40

 

[brancho]

I recomend washing up liquid in some water and a toothbrush then when cleaned oil with 3in1 or similiar.

How old is it?

 

[MartiniDave]

OK, bit of a cheat, but if you take it to the Victorinox store in London they will service OR replace it free of charge, as all Vic's come with a lifetime warranty. This works, I've just done it with a Camper that had a broken spring on the corkscrew.

Dave

 

[Wilderbeast]

Does anyone know of a tutorial for attaching wooden scales?

 

[Fredcompanybushcraft]

hey that's what I'm doing at the moment!
I'm not sure how to do it either though..

 

[brancho]

Does anyone know of a tutorial for attaching wooden scales?

Look HERE or HERE is the actual tut
You can put many materails on antler, bone, horn, carbon fibre and printed circiut boar in resin look rather nice

I have done a couple so far its fun.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Does anyone know of a tutorial for attaching wooden scales?

Slide a blade in between the scales and liners and the scales pop off. cut new ones roughly to shape press them against the knife to see where the rivets will be. use a dremel or similar tool to creat hollows on these spots and ensure the back of the scales are flat. File the rivets about half their height and glue on the new scales then sand them down to meet the metal.
If your stuck send it to me and I'll sort it for you.

 

[brancho]

Someone was offering ready made scales to glue on a while ago.

 

[Wilderbeast]

Thanks for the help lads! Bob I'll certainley send it to you if I get stuck, I won't know until I've started how difficult it's going to be!

 

[brancho]

Hilbill was teh one selling SAK scales

HERE

 

[Hugo]

I found it quiet easy, I did Two at the same time.
If you want to put the slot in for the tweezers and tooth pick you can, but if using wooden scales I suggest putting the tooth pick one away from the corkscrew area as it makes the scale fragile as there is not much room.

 

[JonathanD]

I found that the best thing for cleaning old solid pocket knives is Brake clean. Used for clean car brakes and really breaks down any crud accrued over the years and cleans up the steel and everything 100%. Will melt plastic though, so watch out.

 

[Wilderbeast]

I found that the best thing for cleaning old solid pocket knives is Brake clean. Used for clean car brakes and really breaks down any crud accrued over the years and cleans up the steel and everything 100%. Will melt plastic though, so watch out.

That's a shame, can't use it because it's an old explorer so it has a magnifying glass, which has a plastic lens and housing

 

[MartiniDave]

Pop the knife in a mug of hot water from the kettle and the scales will be much easir to remove without damaging them - handy if you plan on re-using them. Be aware that the knife will get hot so handle with care.

Dave.

Edited to add:-

If you re-fit plastic scales, or glue your custom ones on and clamp by putting the knife in a vice, be careful not to exert too much pressure, as this can distort the aluminium liners, making the tools very hard to open and close.