Undertaking a blade reclamation project

[Podmonkey]

I have a modest yet nice collection of pocket knives, as some of you may remember my knife buying spree of years ago before inflation had pauperized me, but the bulk of this collection had been left forgotten and unloved in a pocket of my seat back organizer for years now. My current gig of the last 4 years has me parking in a very moon dusty gravel lot and my poor knives have suffered terribly for it, dusty, sticky, all dinged and scratched up. Last Friday I collected them all up and have brought them home to be disassembled, cleaned, lubed and sharpened. My first project is to rehabilitate my very nice Benchmade Custom Mini-Griptilian which is apparently a discontinued model. I ordered it directly from Benchmade using tge early iteration of their custom order service. I speced it with a CMP 20cv steel blade and tan G10 scales. I have completely disassembled it to replace a busted omega spring. That spring will be here this Friday and the Mini Grip is currently a pile of parts until the. In tge meantime I gave some TLC to my Spyderco Sage 5. I disassembled it scrubbed everything down with Ballistol and greased tge pivot as well as giving it a much need go on the SharpMaker. It is now ready once again for service:


The Sage series are the quintessential Spyderco knives, the distilled essence of the brand. The Sage 5 here uses a compression lock, the best type lock.

 

[Podmonkey]

Next up I will have to address the dismal state my 940 Osborne is in, the aluminum scales have gotten gouged and scratched all to hell and tge action feels like there is glue in the pivot. I'll disassemble and remediate and order new aftermarket scales for it, concurrent to that I'll hit up my Paramilitary 2 which just needs a cleaning and a sharpening. It seems that Spydercos are more tolerant of neglect than the Benchmades.

 

[Depick]

What do you use for sharpening the blades?

 

[Podmonkey]

What do you use for sharpening the blades?

Spyderco SharpMaker. And an old leather belt for a strop.

 

[Depick]

Spyderco SharpMaker. And an old leather belt for a strop.

I had to look it up but that is a nice setup. I like that it takes the guesswork out of maintaining the proper angle.

 

[Podmonkey]

I had to look it up but that is a nice setup. I like that it takes the guesswork out of maintaining the proper angle.

I've heard criticisms that its only good for touch ups but that Sage's edge was pretty dull and I still only need the medium and finishing stones to get a keen working edge

 

[Podmonkey]

It occurs to me I should have been doing before and after pics. Oh well. Most of em were just dusty, It's the Osborne thats in the worst shape. Anyway earlier this afternoon I rehabed the unique Sliverax-

It's a pretty large knife yet its is pretty light at around 3.4oz. It's main claim to fame is that it was the first Compression Lock Flipper on the market.
Like the others I disassembled and cleaned it, the action is on bronze washers but it feels like a ball bearing pivot now. I also had stepped on it years ago and bent the pocket clip out of shape shortly after I got which is why I never carried it much. I was able to tweak tge clip back into shape with a needle nose pliers and now I get to carry it again.
Nice knife, I really like it though it seems to have been polarizing model.
Next up will be my Paramilitary 2.
I already cleaned it and tried sharpening it but the edge was totally fucked from use and taking it to a supposed life sharpening guy in a truck stop. He put it on a grinding wheel and really smoked tge bevel. I might have to send it out to a service to save it. Or maybe just back to Spyderco and I'll finish it off on tge sharpmaker

 

[Podmonkey]

The reclamation project continues-
Today I cleaned and touched up the unloved ZT 566.

Seemingly hated for its status as a budget Hinderer XM18 clone it is nevertheless a good knife. Heavy though as that is not titanium but Stainless Steel but its sits fine in a jeans pocket nonetheless. It is an extremely tough knife too.
And Elmax is a wonderful steel I wish we saw more of, after a short session with the Sharpmaker it has a wicked, sticky sharp edge and it will hold it a long time.
I haven't hardly carried it so far therfore I am going to make it EDC of the week.
Also while thus blade was an assisted opening model from the factory I have since de-assited it as the spring broke as they always eventually do. It's a better knife for it actually, the pivot is plenty smooth enough for manual action.

 

[Saltwater60]

Some fine knives to abuse. Good for you to clean them up and show them some love. I have a ken onion worksharp and it’s fantastic to sharpen knives and other tools but if you have something that works not sure it’s worth buying something else.
Great work and they are beauties.

 

[FP1201]

There's satisfaction to taking a neglected, abused Knife and returning it to like-new: I have both a high speed and Low Speed Metal Polishers (extended, 1" Shafts) and with the right wheels and compounds you can make a rusted Railroad Spike look like chrome...takes time and care as those wheel will snatch your shit and fling it across the room if you're not careful.
Cleaning/Polishing handle (scales) material is my bane: Bone/Antler isn't as sensitive as a lot of the synthetics that'll melt/smear/disfigure pretty easily.

 

[Podmonkey]

There's satisfaction to taking a neglected, abused Knife and returning it to like-new: I have both a high speed and Low Speed Metal Polishers (extended, 1" Shafts) and with the right wheels and compounds you can make a rusted Railroad Spike look like chrome...takes time and care as those wheel will snatch your shit and fling it across the room if you're not careful.
Cleaning/Polishing handle (scales) material is my bane: Bone/Antler isn't as sensitive as a lot of the synthetics that'll melt/smear/disfigure pretty easily.

I find G10 and Carbon Fiber to be resistant to wear and tear, particularly the former. Titanium is impervious to anything other than scratches. The aluminum scales of my 940 Osborne have taken a hellacious beating from bouncing around all tossed together with my other knives however. I cleaned that one up nice and good too, put a nice edge back on it but I am waiting to get some new scales on it before I post pics of it here.
I have also been to lazy to turn the pile of parts that was my Mini Griptilian back into a knife again. I had it apart for cleaning and to replace a busted Omega spring. I really should get it back together, its one of my higher end knives, I custom spec'd it with G10 scales and a CPM 20cv blade.

 

[Podmonkey]

The weirdest and perhaps fanciest of my knives, the ZT 460.
I thought this one was gonna break my heart, the carbon fiber side was covered in scratches and the action felt like it was full of sand to the point it would not flip open freely.
The scratches turned out to be just marks that wiped off with some Ballistol and a cloth and the action, well it WAS full of moon dust, the ball bearing cage was completely caked with fine dust. It was easy to blow it all out and after a light re-oiling the action was returned to its original uncanny smoothness.
I suppose you could consider it a gentleman's folder.......... or perhaps more accurately the slightly demented gentleman's folder.