A refinishing project for 20+ year old sheath and knife.

G

GrizzlyBear

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Dec 5, 2009
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I posted this over in the Bladesmith discussion area but not sure how many of you guys make your way over there. It involves the restoration of a sheath and the knife that goes in it.

This is a project that I just completed night before last. A buddy at work (a repeat customer too!) handed me this knife, a Case XX Ridgeback and asked me if there was anything I could do for it. It's at least 20 years old (belonged to his dad), possibly a bit older, and it has definitely seen it's fair share of work. In fact, he said that it has rode around in his tackle box for the last several years. His main complaint was that he had to keep stitching the sheath shut from the threads getting cut.

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As you can see...lots going wrong here lol. So I took it, with intentions on simply gluing the welt back in and restitching the seam and belt loop, and cleaning up the blade. Well....it went much farther than that.

First thing I did was to disassemble the knife and sheath.

This is the knife with scales popped off...rust and tarnishing abound under the handles...also showing that Case didn't do much for gluing the handles on.
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After a quick cleaning and sanding to remove old epoxy and scratches, here is what I had.
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So, on to the sheath. I cut out the old stitching and removed the welt. The welt had a little glue residue, but not much and only in 2 spots. It was in pretty sad shape, probably never been oiled or cared for. The logo was almost completely worn away, it was stained in places and a couple of large scratches.
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First thing I did was take the leather and wash it well with dawn and hot water. Afterwards, I took the leather and welt and laid it out flat, then took my heavy marble rolling pin and rolled it out to flatten it and smooth wrinkles. And left it to dry.
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Next, I took alcohol and a fine scotchbrite pad and cleaned the surface residue and stains on the leather bringing it closer to the original color. There were some deep stains, I couldn't do anything for except fade them out some. I figured oiling the sheath when done would mask them.

I also took the time to smooth the scratches out as best as possible. And, I retooled the Case XX logo using my swivel knife to cut the oval, then I beveled the edges. I used my spoon modeler to smooth the bevels out and burnish them some. Then, I worked on the lettering using my stylus. Pictures doesn't show it but it looks great!

This picture is after I got it ready to glue the belt loop back down.
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And here we are glued up! The stitch groove was regouged, holes repunched.
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This picture shows the sheath all stitched up and ready to go. I resanded the edge and burnished it smooth...well as smooth as 20+ year old leather would go, it actually responded quite well! I took the time to do something different with the logo. I used brown Kiwi scuff cover and a fine brush to paint the logo. Once it was dry I hit it with my stylus to burnish the paint and make it shiny. Gave it a unique look. Also in this picture, the Osage Orange I talked my friend into letting me use!
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Couple shots of the handle finishing:
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I managed to talk him into me using a scrap of mosaic pin I had laying around for the pins.
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Fast forward through sanding, a few curses for sanding too much in one spot, more sanding and then final polish sanding :). This is the end product.

The knife received a Chris Reeve style lanyard made from latigo lace wound with the flesh side out then hit with some beeswax and heat. I love how the two-tone of the latigo compliments the knife handle and leather colors! The sheath was hot waxed/oiled with beeswax/paraffin/NFO. Not a dip but a brushing of several coats then heating in my toaster oven. It darkened that leather up WAY more than I had anticipated, but the color it brought out is a very rich dark mahogany brown that looks great!
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The piece was finished up with a coating of Johnson's Paste wax and a buff on both the knife and sheath. Needless to say the man loved it!! When asked what he owed me, I told him nothing. He's bought 4 knives from me so far and sent a few customers my way and put my name out around the area. I figured this was a nice thank you gift.

Hope you enjoyed viewing the pictures as much as I did rejuvenating this old workhorse. May it serve him and his family for many more years to come!

-Craig
 
Oh, and here's a shot of the edge I gave it :)...hope he doesn't cut himself or the sheath! LOL
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Easily whittles beard hair and does a free hanging beard hair chop with ease.

I'm actually sad to see this one go, to be honest.
 
Excellent work! Its always a great feeling bringing new life out of old knives.
 
After nearly 70 years of working with leather, restoration is still a nightmare to me and to be avoided at all costs. My friend, you have to be commended for and excellent rendition of how it should be done. Kudos also for your generosity! If I were able I would shake your hand----Sandy
 
Craig, I have just read through your restoration thread on he Case knife, mate...that was really interesting, and if you ask me, I think you are extremely talented, fantastic job on the rehandling, bladework, and the sheath!!...thanks for showing us this :thumbup:
 
helmar4578 said:
After nearly 70 years of working with leather, restoration is still a nightmare to me and to be avoided at all costs. My friend, you have to be commended for and excellent rendition of how it should be done. Kudos also for your generosity! If I were able I would shake your hand----Sandy
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Sandy, to hear words of praise from such a prestigious member of the leather-crafting community, renders me nearly speechless :) Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post!

And, in complete honesty, I had no idea what I was doing concerning restoring that sheath! I just used practices that I had picked up for making sheaths and did what felt right...if that makes any sense. I figured that anything I did would help more than hurt considering the sad shape it was in...guess I lucked out on the right combination of things! :)

Thank you again!
 
Campbellclanman said:
Craig, I have just read through your restoration thread on he Case knife, mate...that was really interesting, and if you ask me, I think you are extremely talented, fantastic job on the rehandling, bladework, and the sheath!!...thanks for showing us this :thumbup:
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Thank you for reading and enjoying!
 
Griz, you are the remodel man. Excellent additions and renovations. I'm with Mr. Sandy, restorations are scary. My nightmare is someones family heirloom falling apart in my hands......
 
Griz, excellent thread, excellent job on both, knife and especially restoring the sheath. That thing (sheath) was way past ready for the trash can when you got it. I was particularly amused and pleased when you said you just did what felt right. Sometimes good old common sense beats it all.:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Paul
 
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