Please don't do this to a vintage knife

[hso]

People that try to "clean up" a 80 year old knife that don't know what they're doing will do more harm than good.

You can see that someone took an angle grinder and/or a dremel to it and made a mess of it. They've "melted" the bevels and they skipped across the blade damaging the surface.

This is what a good condition version of this 225Q is supposed to look like.

Best thing you can do is stay farrrrr away from power tools if you aren't an expert with them.

 

[Mk-211]

In this day an age, with the info at your fingertips, how people still mess things up is amazing.

how to restore an old knife - Google Search

5 seconds!

 

[Old Dog]

The Dremel Tool can be the spawn of the devil.

 

[armoredman]

Bubba with a Dremel has made more money for gunsmiths than any other tool - I'm sure it's the same for bladesmiths!

 

[hso]

- I'm sure it's the same for bladesmiths!

Mostly they completely ruin knives/swords beyond recovery.

That pictured Quartermaster now has no value except as a user and would cost more to rehab than find a pre-Bubba example.

Bladesmiths won't try to fix them because it isn't a good use of their time and cost is too high.

There are folks that do restoration work, but the customer pays a premium out of some attachment to the piece.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Sad to see but I've seen it before and all to often...

 

[Speedo66]

“I’ll just touch it up on my grinding wheel…”.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I've got a 225Q that looks at least as bad.
I got it from Old John, who gave it to me not long before he died at 91.
He had been using it to cut catfish bait since he came home to Alabama from WWII.
It earned every scar, stain and spot of rust in serving the needs of Old John.
I've cleaned and stabilized the blade and sheath as well as I can.
I still take it catfishing, In John's memory... .

 

[gobsauce]

I have no idea why people's first thought is "I know, I'll use power tools".

 

[redneck]

Vintage knives for sure, but why do people do that to anything?

 

[RA40]

OUCH!!

This 1904 Henckles was handled to me for a free for all restoration-mod project to be used as a daily kitchen piece. It was in pretty good shape so I asked a collector buddy what his thought was. His advice, "Don't touch it! Some linseed oil would be ok then give it back." Looking online the ones in worse condition were selling at $150+ and one similar to this one sold for $400. I gave it back as presented and relayed the advice the collector had told me.

 

[Valkman]

I don't understand why anyone would ever take a dremel to any knife.

 

[herrwalther]

When I was about 10 I took a Dremel to my grandfather's ivory handled knife. Probably destroyed the makers stamp on it too so I have no idea what kind. Lesson learned too many years too late. Now I have my son watch me whenever I maintain a knife. At least he might learn from my mistake.

 

[RA40]

I don't understand why anyone would ever take a dremel to any knife.

The magical tool that polishes, cleans and makes everything better. Requires a high level of skill to use rotary tools and in novice hands it usually results in a disaster.

The Dremel is not a tool to use for many applications contrary to what the company says it can do. My main use has been as a cut off tool and for spinning the 0-80 to 2-56 screw heads for polishing. The high RPM's is a blink and it is messed up scenario.

 

[rust collector]

I agree. Dremel rotary tools should require a tool owner ID, background check, fingerprints and shop safety course before purchase.

They do seem to have that "so easy a cave man can do it" reputation. We forget that die grinders were the province of highly skilled tool and die makers for many years.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I’ve got a US Army M3 trench knife from I know not when. I thought once about cleaning and touching up the edge.

Instead I oiled it and put it behind glass.

I know what I don’t know.

 

[jmorris]

Power tools don’t have to destroy metal finish, you just have to choose the right product to use with them.

If it was just rust they were wanting gone, they didn’t need a stone or grit of sand paper.

There are strip wheels and scotch bright disks that will remove rust, paint etc but are not aggressive towards the metal surface.

 

[SteadyD]

I don’t take any tools to an old knife but boy howdy I’ve chopped on a couple of modern ones! I’ve used a dremel for polishing only. Everything else is done with sandpaper or stone.

I took a lot off the spine on the top one and you can see I’ve marked it up to take even more off. The middle one I shortened the blade by a bit over 1/4 inch.

The bottom one…. I have BIG plans for it…

 

[Coyote3855]

Unfortunately I've seen the same thing done to firearms that earned every bit of their patina through hard use. Breaks my heart.

 

[rust collector]

Yes, there is a bit of confusion between preservation, conservation and ham-fisted "customization". We all like to think we can make things better. Wisdom comes [unfortunately late] of poor choices, but a well-crafted artifact will sometimes live to fight another day.

 

[lemaymiami]

Folks who come to this site already know how to care for an old blade, mostly (or they want to learn). There are still a world of folks though who are simply ignorant about good tools and the care required to maintain them. They also think a "bigger hammer" is a good idea or think that vise grips are a good substitute for the proper sized wrench, etc. A good friend of mine is a retired high school shop teacher - he's mentioned to me that many of his students had no idea of how to use simple tools - like a screwdriver (and many of them have little interest in learning... ). Wish it weren't so..

 

[bannockburn]

This vintage Marble's Ideal Hunting Knife was my father's outdoor do-everything knife for over 50 years. Mostly he used it for cutting up kindling and trimming small tree branches. He bought it sometime not long after he got home from WWII. At some point the tip of the blade broke off and I reconfigured it slightly to make it sharp and pointed again. I also cleaned up the brass hilt and aluminum buttcap with a little bit of Flitz. Surprisingly enough the leather washer handle needed just a bit of cleaning and they looked like new again.

 

[hso]

Folks who come to this site already know how to care for an old blade

Ummm, no. We've had some butchers here before and plenty of people wanting to know what power tool to use.

Consider this a PSA for those folks.