I-XL George Wostenholm Sheffield England - pocket knife from my grandfather details?

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DeviantAJ

Joined
Aug 15, 2014
Messages
6
Hi Everyone,

I love knives and have a small but growing collection of swiss army knives, survival knives and kitchen knives.

My father gave me the only item he had from his dad, a George Wostenholm pocket knife that my grandfather used to use in Sri Lanka when working on the plantations budding trees.

I don't know anything about it and its pretty beat up. I wanted to get some information from some experts as to what model I have, and also whats the best way to get this back to the best condition I can. I don't want to ruin it, but I don't want it to get any worse. If I could bring it back to full functionality that would be awesome. The tools are all pretty sharp, but have some spots of rust or strong patina.

photo 4 by DeviantAJ, on Flickr
photo 3 by DeviantAJ, on Flickr
photo 3 by DeviantAJ, on Flickr
photo 2 by DeviantAJ, on Flickr

Thanks Everyone!
 
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Oil the joints.:D

Just kidding. Welcome to the forums. The knife appears to be in pretty good shape overall. Is the problem that the joints are stiff? A drop of oil and working the blades back and forth may be all that's needed. I apologize if I'm telling you something you already know, but the way you have displayed the knife in the pictures is exactly right - only one blade on each spring should be in the partially open position,to avoid overstressing the spring.

Most people here will say not to remove the patina, which is part of the history of the knife, and I generally agree. (If the knife is going to be a user, the degree of restoration is up to you.) You want to remove the red rust in the least damaging way, so start by rubbing the spots with a rag soaked in mineral oil or WD-40. A search on the forums will tell you lots more. It's possible the handles are celluloid, which can cause severe rusting, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

You may know that IX*L knives were very good quality. You have a nice heirloom there. Posting on Bernard Levine's forum or the Traditionals forum (on this site) will probably get you more responses and information.

Oh, and oil the joints.
 
Thanks iSaur,

To be honest, I didn't know where to start. I didn't wanna ruin the knife, being the only thing my dad has from his father and giving it to me. But I have some mineral oil, I think I will oil the joints (lol) and see if that will loosen them up. I didn't even know this was the proper way to open it, they felt a bit stuff so I just didn't want to damage it, glad to hear it was the right thing to do.

I will post in the traditional forums to try and get more info =) .

Thanks again!
 
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