Bushman's friend restoration

[snappingturtle]

Found this on the net the other day and could not help myself! its over 100 years old but not too bad, never been sharpened and has one of the most complete profiles I have seen on one of these, needless to say age had taken its toll and the scales had shrunk and lifted plus the tang was poorly finished, so I wedge open the scales enough to get a saw in.




scales off and time for pin removal and trueing up the tang


all good so far! Clearly hand forged and hot punched pin holes, got to love these old knives! has taken a good edge and is now on its way to being a usable knife......more to follow.

 

[Billy-o]

Do you think the scales might swell up to proper size if soaked in some linseed and turpentine for a while. A week +

I tightened up the head of an axe doing that once.

 

[snappingturtle]

Do you think the scales might swell up to proper size if soaked in some linseed and turpentine for a while. A week +

I tightened up the head of an axe doing that once.

I don't know there rose wood, mainly they have gapped at the front and they will need fitting to a now strait tang I was just going to make glue and wood dust filler, I guess I don't want the pin holes to shift as they are at odd angles.

 

[Sparky415]

Watching with interest

 

[Robson Valley]

What a wonderful old edge. Watching.
Once oils and water molecules have left woods, you can never put them back where they were.
Instead, the other wood molecules make new bondings that you can't undo.

I suggest you clone the scales. Keep the originals and pins as patterns.
Oiled dark walnut heartwood? Watch for some apple, too.
Glue and wood dust filer never looks right in a wood carving to me, this is about the same.

But if this is a specimen just for looks, rebuilding is the right thing.

 

[Billy-o]

What's that RV? The vascular system in the wood collapses in on itself and glues itself up?

 

[Robson Valley]

Not quite. Wood water is free in the cell lumens and also H-bonded to cellulosic and pectin compounds in the cell walls.
The free water is the first to go as the wood dries. Some of that bound water does get lost and the remaining biochemicals grab each other.
True, you do see some shrinkage. Seems you can't put much of it back where it came from.

Maybe you can pump it up with other solvents but in time, I expect them to evaporate as well.

I have a heavy wood carving bench that I built from raw & fresh 4" x 4" western red cedar fence posts.
I was smart enough to assemble the bench with lag bolts and threaded rods with washers and nuts at both ends.
It was 3 posts (12") wide when I built it. Every month, I've tightened it up. The bench is just more than 11.5" wide now, 18 months later.
It was meant to be bash-worthy for adze work, anyway.

 

[oldtimer]

Oh well done Snapping Turtle!
This was my first fixed blade I bought with my own pocket money nearly 70 years ago. Years of sharpening wore the blade down and an improvised adolescent modification left in a sorry state to my shame. It has, however, long since been honourable retired and now has a place of honour amongst my other retired knives.

Good luck with the restoration. I look forward to seeing the finished result.

 

[Janne]

Interesting project!

Which make is that knife?

When I get a ding on the stocks on my rifle or wife's shotgun, I wet a piece of gauze and place it on the ding. Mostly the wood 'bounces back' into shape, and stays like that once dried. A bit of gun stock oil to finish it.

It would be pity to throw away those old, wonderfully dry wooden scales. Could maybe used in another project?

 

[snappingturtle]

What a wonderful old edge. Watching.
Once oils and water molecules have left woods, you can never put them back where they were.
Instead, the other wood molecules make new bondings that you can't undo.

I suggest you clone the scales. Keep the originals and pins as patterns.
Oiled dark walnut heartwood? Watch for some apple, too.
Glue and wood dust filer never looks right in a wood carving to me, this is about the same.

But if this is a specimen just for looks, rebuilding is the right thing.

Too nice a knife for me not to use Robson! I hear you about using different scales, but I like to keep with what it was made with, I think you got a point about the glue and dust filler just might not work right, maybe just resin? I think once I flatten them to the tang the gap will close to just under a mil, they all seem to have this gap due to the FFG being taken past the scale edge, and the more I look the more I think I could be wrong about the shrinkage! it looks more like a poor finish.

 

[snappingturtle]

Oh well done Snapping Turtle!
This was my first fixed blade I bought with my own pocket money nearly 70 years ago. Years of sharpening wore the blade down and an improvised adolescent modification left in a sorry state to my shame. It has, however, long since been honourable retired and now has a place of honour amongst my other retired knives.

Good luck with the restoration. I look forward to seeing the finished result.

Muchly! Was yours a 3 pin handle and did the tang taper at all?

 

[Janne]

Keeping them is fantastic. Could you mix the glue with sawdust from a similarly coloured wood?

 

[snappingturtle]

Interesting project!

Which make is that knife?

When I get a ding on the stocks on my rifle or wife's shotgun, I wet a piece of gauze and place it on the ding. Mostly the wood 'bounces back' into shape, and stays like that once dried. A bit of gun stock oil to finish it.

It would be pity to throw away those old, wonderfully dry wooden scales. Could maybe used in another project?

I not sure Janne past the scroll work it say's FOR-------------&SON, then "swing (image) knife" in the middle with the image of a guy on a swing, yer weird I know?? then at the bottom Jermyn street which I think during the Victorian era had out fitters there for the well to do of London men

 

[Janne]

Nice!
It seems it was made for very young boys belonging to rich families!



I love giving new life to old stuff. Very rewarding!

 

[crosslandkelly]

Looking good, this will be interesting.

 

[snappingturtle]

Nice!
It seems it was made for very young boys belonging to rich families!



I love giving new life to old stuff. Very rewarding!

How very dare you! this is a knife for men! and not your soft city pen pushers No! this is for men that like bush,........and don't mind it hard and rough and like shooting stuff and like to smell ripe!

 

[snappingturtle]

Bit of an update, its as strait as I'm going to get it, and I have given it an overall polish, focusing on the worst areas but not going too far and taking away from the character of its age, I put a half moon choil the square one had developed a micro crack, I also took a mill off the lower half of the tang at an angle to draw it more in line with the scales.

 

[Janne]

Looks great!

An observation: look how thin the blade is. In the past, knifes for bushcraft were this thin.
Not like today when most knifes aimed for use in Nature are at least twice as thick!

 

[oldtimer]

Muchly! Was yours a 3 pin handle and did the tang taper at all?

Mine looked just like yours before I wrecked it with adolescent incompetent modifications. I had forgotten about the etching on the blade.

I don't understand Janne's comment about rich kids. The bushman's friend model you have filled the niche the Mora Companion does today. Cheap but effective and an ideal beginner's knife. I used it for all the normal bushcaft purposes except batonning, which I didn't know about then fortunately or the poor thing would have been ruined even earlier. The thinness of the blade never struck me as a drawback and I still prefer a small, thinnish blade with a stick tang on ground of lightness. Fortunately, the years have taught me to take better care of my knives.

I still have a William Rodgers Bushman's Friend made to a totally different specification: it is a hollow-ground hunting knife with a stage handle a is remarkable similar to a german Hitler Youth knife.

 

[Janne]

It was a joking reply/comment to post no 13. Young boy on swing, Jermyn Street that had outfitters for well to do men...

I had thin bladed knives most of my life. The first thick ones are the Fällkniven brand, and those I hate and never use.

I never baton.