Sometimes it's hard to fathom why we sometimes do what we do. Case in point: I frequent the bins where the TSA confiscated knives are sold to the public at my local State Surplus auction and retail emporium. There's usually a fairly broad selection of sad Victorinox and Wenger SAK's to chose from, any of whom would offer sterling service for many years, and for just a couple of dollars. However, it was a slow day, the bins had been well picked over, and all I could find that half-way piqued my interest was a 84mm Vic Waiter, and this: a Vic 84mm Tinker that must be about 40 years old, and had had a very hard life. They were having a sale though, so both knives only cost me $1. Fortunately I have no "before" photo's, it would be just too gruesome, but here's the overall state of the knife before I started work. It had been used as a hammer, or chisel, or both. One end of the knife had severe damage to the liners and scales consistent with the knife having been hit very hard. The toothpick and tweezers had been forced into the scales, wedging the ends of the scales off of the knife. The scales were in bad shape overall, with numerous scrapes and gouges, and the badge was missing.Both the blades were broken at the ends. I created a sheepsfoot blade from the smaller blade. The back-side Phillips driver was the semi-squared off section variety, the one with the slot in the end for opening cans. That helped date the knife (but I'd appreciate your best guess as to its year of manufacture). Both the can opener and the bottle open needed some work, as both seemed to have helped transfer some of the force applied to the ends of the knife. After repairing the scale damage the knife end looked like this:
So, I set to work, determined to make a nice user out of a sad case, hoping to use all the original parts if possible. I managed to repair a lot of the liner damage using a dremel, a selection of small files, and various grades of wet-and-dry paper. The small blade was reprofiled using my dremel and parting disk, and a cheap diamond grit knife-sharpening-stone from ebay. The openers were smoothed of blemishes, then buffed. The edge to the Awl was removed of it's damage using a small diamond sharpening rod. Finally, I epoxied the scales back on (they were too badly damaged to snap into place), let them set, and then polished them smooth with 400/600/1200/1500 wet-and-dry, fine steel wool, finally simichrome. The knife started to look like a well used, and cared for tool. Finally, I opened and closed the main blade a couple of times. It was catching the small blade when it closed. I decided to crink the blade about half a millimeter, and used a couple of large Crescent wrenches to apply gentle force. The blade stayed strong, refusing to budge. I decided to repeat the crinking with a little more force. Drats, the main blade snapped at the tang.
All that work, and now disaster. What to do? Well, the only spare blade I had was from a 85mm Wenger. It was the approximately correct size and shape, but it was 1mm longer, has about 1mm extra belly on the blade, has a tang that's significantly thinner, and finally: the pivot hole is 2.5mm diameter, compared to the 2.2mm pivots in the Vic liners, pivot end bushings, and can opener. Some surgery would be required, and even then there was no guarantee it would work as a transplant.
I removed the broken Vic blade keeping the pivot end bushings. I opened up the holes in the bushings, the liners, and the can opener to 3/32" (about 2.38mm) using my dremel and a small diamond hone. I reshaped the tang on the Wenger blade to closely match the Vic tang by pinning them together and grinding the Wenger tang to match the Vic profile. I cut a piece of 3/32" brass pivot to length, mushroomed an end, then assembled everything. To take up the discrepancy between the blade tang thicknesses I used a small washer of the correct thickness, and just the right diameters (it was the first washer I tried out of my fairly large fastener bin!!!). Some force and squeezing was necessary as the knife springs resist assembly. Finally I put on the end bushing, cut the brass to final length, and peened the pivot till the blades opened well, with no play. Re-epoxied the scales (again!!!), let everything set (again!!!), then finish-buffed everything. The original scales were starting to get pretty thin by now, what with all the material removal due to marks, gouges, and blemish removal, but they still just about function OK. The final steps involved getting the main knife blade to sit nicely in the liners/blade stops. As the blade was a little longer, the end of it tended to hit the spacer and liner at the very end of the point of the knife. I went in very gingerly with the dremel, and a parting disk, grinding small amounts off of the liner/spacer, till the blade fit as well as could be hoped for. The blade even looks like it might have been even original equipment, but for the fact that the blade proudly bears the name Wenger.
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So, after all that effort, was it worth it? I think so, at least to me. I enjoyed the challenge, like to "save" worthy tools, am pleased that the knife didn't end up in a landfill somewhere, and I think it looks like a pretty nice user. And it's now somewhat unique.
So, I set to work, determined to make a nice user out of a sad case, hoping to use all the original parts if possible. I managed to repair a lot of the liner damage using a dremel, a selection of small files, and various grades of wet-and-dry paper. The small blade was reprofiled using my dremel and parting disk, and a cheap diamond grit knife-sharpening-stone from ebay. The openers were smoothed of blemishes, then buffed. The edge to the Awl was removed of it's damage using a small diamond sharpening rod. Finally, I epoxied the scales back on (they were too badly damaged to snap into place), let them set, and then polished them smooth with 400/600/1200/1500 wet-and-dry, fine steel wool, finally simichrome. The knife started to look like a well used, and cared for tool. Finally, I opened and closed the main blade a couple of times. It was catching the small blade when it closed. I decided to crink the blade about half a millimeter, and used a couple of large Crescent wrenches to apply gentle force. The blade stayed strong, refusing to budge. I decided to repeat the crinking with a little more force. Drats, the main blade snapped at the tang.
All that work, and now disaster. What to do? Well, the only spare blade I had was from a 85mm Wenger. It was the approximately correct size and shape, but it was 1mm longer, has about 1mm extra belly on the blade, has a tang that's significantly thinner, and finally: the pivot hole is 2.5mm diameter, compared to the 2.2mm pivots in the Vic liners, pivot end bushings, and can opener. Some surgery would be required, and even then there was no guarantee it would work as a transplant.
I removed the broken Vic blade keeping the pivot end bushings. I opened up the holes in the bushings, the liners, and the can opener to 3/32" (about 2.38mm) using my dremel and a small diamond hone. I reshaped the tang on the Wenger blade to closely match the Vic tang by pinning them together and grinding the Wenger tang to match the Vic profile. I cut a piece of 3/32" brass pivot to length, mushroomed an end, then assembled everything. To take up the discrepancy between the blade tang thicknesses I used a small washer of the correct thickness, and just the right diameters (it was the first washer I tried out of my fairly large fastener bin!!!). Some force and squeezing was necessary as the knife springs resist assembly. Finally I put on the end bushing, cut the brass to final length, and peened the pivot till the blades opened well, with no play. Re-epoxied the scales (again!!!), let everything set (again!!!), then finish-buffed everything. The original scales were starting to get pretty thin by now, what with all the material removal due to marks, gouges, and blemish removal, but they still just about function OK. The final steps involved getting the main knife blade to sit nicely in the liners/blade stops. As the blade was a little longer, the end of it tended to hit the spacer and liner at the very end of the point of the knife. I went in very gingerly with the dremel, and a parting disk, grinding small amounts off of the liner/spacer, till the blade fit as well as could be hoped for. The blade even looks like it might have been even original equipment, but for the fact that the blade proudly bears the name Wenger.
.JPG)
.JPG)
So, after all that effort, was it worth it? I think so, at least to me. I enjoyed the challenge, like to "save" worthy tools, am pleased that the knife didn't end up in a landfill somewhere, and I think it looks like a pretty nice user. And it's now somewhat unique.
