A Full House (Aces and Kings) a Quintet of Old English Barlows.

[Johnnythefox]

I sat in the very occasional Sun (wind blowing) in my garden today and gave a further clean and tune up of my 2 latest Barlows.

No radio, no distractions just me and my thoughts,as I am empty headed it was very peaceful.

A steel brush seens to work best along with a little careful use of emery paper.

My aim was a smooth mechanism and to be able to read the tangs and improve the appearance but keep the patina.

Then I polish the steel and flush with my garden hose,finally drying with a cloth (plus the sun and wind).

I am not good at sharpening, but these 2 where easy and took no time,yes I know some people could do better.

I even managed to profile the tip of the CJ blade to look as it should,It is a litle pround but not enough to cut you or worry about.

These little double sided stones are brilliant, they even put a strop on the case of the latest batch.

I see these as working knives to do small cutting tasks and as such these 2 though not perfect are well up to the job.

I say not perfect, but to me that makes them perfect as I like old and used that I can carry on using.

It is also interesting to see how a design that on paper is the same has so many variants.

I think I prefer the rounded bolsters, but there is bits of both I like a lot.

Check the last photos of the CJ to see how the tip looks now.


Any hints or tips are most welcome.

 

[Johnnythefox]

 

[afishhunter]

GR8 job!
It appears both have a lot of blade to use up before they resemble toothpicks. Fantastic scores.

 

[ZHoovie]

Nice job
I recently cleaned up this Imperial Barlow out of my grandfather's shop. I did a thorough cleaning with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush to get out all the decades old dirt & grime. Then I took some fine steel wool & oil to brush the metal parts (bolster included) It got the metal smoothed down & kept the patina on the steel without removing it. I did wind up taking some old hotrod chrome & metal polish to the bolsters to shine them up. The final thing was just oiling the joints & putting in some elbow grease opening & closing it repetitively. It's pretty darn smooth now & takes a hair whittling edge.
A side note: Those little cans of compressed air for computer keyboards work great for blowing out water, excess oil, lint, ect.

 

[Johnnythefox]

Nice job
I recently cleaned up this Imperial Barlow out of my grandfather's shop. I did a thorough cleaning with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush to get out all the decades old dirt & grime. Then I took some fine steel wool & oil to brush the metal parts (bolster included) It got the metal smoothed down & kept the patina on the steel without removing it. I did wind up taking some old hotrod chrome & metal polish to the bolsters to shine them up. The final thing was just oiling the joints & putting in some elbow grease opening & closing it repetitively. It's pretty darn smooth now & takes a hair whittling edge.
A side note: Those little cans of compressed air for computer keyboards work great for blowing out water, excess oil, lint, ect.

Great job, I forgot I had bought a can of air after Jack Black had mentioned it ive never used it.

 

[echoscout]

Handsome Barlows Johnny!

 

[ZHoovie]

Great job, I forgot I had bought a can of air after Jack Black had mentioned it ive never used it.

Those little things are handy. Especially for those who don't have access to an an air compressor, or if they do they just don't feel like going out to the garage (guilty)

 

[meako]

Gorgeous.