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Inherited Completely Hand Made Knife

2K views 13 replies 11 participants last post by  mjp28 
#1 · (Edited)
This knife was completely made from scratch by my late uncle a WWII veteran that was given to me by my Dad.It was made it in a Ohio Valley steel mill that he worked at for 44 years,even the handle was hand made.I never asked questions how he did this while on the job but maybe he did on his free time I guess.He even made a cover hand made from leather and deer skin.I picked up these sharpening stones at a garage sale for $5 so I'll see about putting an edge on it.I'm mostly a gun guy but knifes are OK to I guess.I thought it was kinda neat so I thought I'd share it.It reminded me of a Jim Bowie one of a kind knife in a way.
Brown Grey Liver Silver Leather
Wood Rectangle Tan Hardwood Wood stain
 
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#3 ·
Neat to get the family hand me downs. I like it.
Had a cousin that worked at Armco Steel, Middletown Ohio, 2nd shift as a millwright and was able to build everything but the electric motor for his boat hoist that he installed on his boat dock at Toledo Bend Lake, Louisiana. So things must be a little looser on those late night shifts when the boss is away, ha.
 
#12 ·
..... So things must be a little looser on those late night shifts when the boss is away, ha.
Sometimes it was OK when the bosses were there too....it was when I was foreman. Some the older bosses were cool about it and some were just nasty , the cool ones got the work done in a pinch because the guys knew they could be firm but fair.

I remember when I was a young guy working as an oiler one foreman was a NUT about greasing equipment .

Well that same foreman on 3-11 once in awhile would have me hook up his 1958 Ford on the 6 ton lift to grease everything under the chassis.

He showed me how it was done. ;)
 
#6 ·
When I worked in the sheet metal fabrication industry building at various different jobs/companies everything from fireplace inserts to farm/oilfield equipment to railroad cars. It was pretty commonplace for guys to "attempt" to make knives out of scrap steel. I say "attempt" because the real question as far as how successful is in if it will hold an edge. IE: Type of steel and/or heat treating of the blade. It's amazing how many people don't know about the difference and assume that any piece steel ground to blade shape with a handle applied will make a good knife. Which is obvious as so many cheap factory made knives that won't an edge are sold to the public every day. Before I learned this, I even made a few mild steel "knives" myself that could be sharpened. But as soon as you used it to cut virtually anything would go dull very quickly.
I'm not saying that that's what your Uncles knife is. Hopefully he was savvy enough to use some kind of spring steel or had knowledge of heat treating. The truth will be evident when you sharpen it and if it will take and hold an edge. But I've seen a lot of mild steel knives made by people who didn't know the difference.
 
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#8 ·
In addition to what Fatstrat said, most people know nothing about blade geometry, either.
While it's very cool that you inherited it, it's better to just put it away. The "knife" is just a flat piece of steel with a handle and a very obtuse angle ground for the cutting edge. The blade shape is somewhat fanciful, but reasonably useless, too. We call these "KSOs" (knife shaped objects.)
 
#10 ·
When I was young we made knifes from all kinds of material. My brother in laws dad owned a heat treat plant and he would heat treat them for us. Some got so hard they would break into pieces if you dropped them. We still had a lot of fun.

I like that knife. A good thing to remember your uncle for.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Nice to see a family hand made knife or any other piece handed down. ;)

I started in maintenance at ussteel in 1969 at 18 and got to learn from the good old timers on making knives correctly PLUS we needed to make specialty tools like special chisels and other items.

Made some great steak knives with babbit handles, our own utility knives to cut those tough magnet cables out of power hacksaw blades. ...still have mine!

Can't count the car jack stands, drive up ramps and loads other stuff we made much from scrap on the back turns and weekends. Oh I learned to weld, braise and other skills that would serve me well.

Our plant had blacksmith shops that made mill and other tools those guys were good. Machine shop made the huge nuts and bolts used on equipment and could make anything.

Our country misses those skills, huge plants, jobs and very skilled MEN.
 
#14 ·
Without getting off topic but still on topic in this way these stories of men (and women ) working hard and making things is important .

And your dad was right on the money about young people working in places like steel mills...or mines or factories teachers them a work ethic and even opportunities to learn a trade if they have the drive to do it.

My dad started the same job as me at USSteel Open Hearth Maintenance being a brilliant guy with NAVY training he worked up to test engineer and General Foreman until they shut the place down in 1980.

06/02/50 and 06/05/69 were our start dates I was born September 1950 and he got called back up to Korea as Chief Electrician of BB62 the New Jersey.

Came back and resumed his career but forced retirement at 58 with 30 years I was 29 with 11 years a college degree and a world of experience.

I feel sorry these young kids for a few decades now don't have the opportunity to work hard and learn more than how to make knives and chisels but how to do anything they want.
 
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