An Old Friend Restored
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 4:13 pm
It was sometime during the early 1970s when I came upon an Imperial Boy Scouts pocket knife laying out in the middle of the street. It had just gotten ran over by a car and was laying there with its can opener in the opened position. Other than being dirty and a little rusty, it was in pretty good shape. From that point forward, this knife has served me well and has been a constant companion on many adventures.
Also, during those years, the scales (which I thought were plastic, but recently discovered were a type of bone) of my pocket knife began to shrink, crack, splinter, and come apart in pieces. In fact, the condition of the scales had gotten so bad that when I accidentally left my knife in the pocket of my blue jeans when I washed them a couple of months ago, the end result wasn’t very pretty. As you can see by the photographs below, the scale was barely intact on the emblem side of the knife, the scale was totally gone on the other side, and there was some rust on the blades…
As you can imagine, it was rather difficult using the knife in this condition, so I tried retiring it (yet again) and replaced it with a SAK (yet again). Thing is that, when it comes right down to it, no SAK can replace this knife. I needed to find someone to fix it. Soooo…
I contacted Brian Huegel of Country Knives (http://www.countryknives.com/) over in Intercourse, Pennsylvania, to see if he knew of anyone who could replace scales on pocket knives. I’ve been doing business with Brian for several years and find him very knowledgeable and very customer oriented. Brian noted how he had met Pete and Wallace Rockwell of Rock USA Cutlery (http://rockusacutlery.com/) in his store last year and felt they would be my best choice to do the work since they had direct factory experience with Camillus Cutlery. Please check out the following link to learn more about Pete, Wallace, and Rock USA Cutlery of Camillus, New York…
http://rockusacutlery.com/about
I contacted Pete and sent him pictures of my knife. Wallace looked at the pictures and felt it was a job he could certainly handle. So, I sent them my knife and discussed handle materials with Pete over the telephone. Pete said they were going to do their best to restore the knife as close to original as possible, and this is what they sent back to me…
I mean, WOW!!! :) I was floored when I opened the box and found my Imperial Boy Scouts pocket knife looking good as new! Wallace used jigged bone for the scales, placed the Boy Scouts emblem in the exact same spot where it was located on the older scales, polished up the blades, and put a real nice, sharp edge on the knife. The scale rivets are nicely flushed with the scales and the knife feels really good in the hand. To say the very least, I AM VERY IMPRESSED and I AM VERY PLEASED with the work performed on my knife! Pete and Wallace of Rock USA Cutlery have given my pocket knife new life!
Thank you, Pete and Wallace, for doing such an outstanding and wonderful job in restoring my old friend! Thank you, Brian, for pointing me in Pete and Wallace’s direction! And, thank you, Paul “The Deacon”… back in 2009, you posted on the Spyderco Forum a link for Country Knives as a source of discontinued Spyderco knives… if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have found Brian, and if it wasn’t for Brian, I wouldn’t have found Pete and Wallace.
Also, during those years, the scales (which I thought were plastic, but recently discovered were a type of bone) of my pocket knife began to shrink, crack, splinter, and come apart in pieces. In fact, the condition of the scales had gotten so bad that when I accidentally left my knife in the pocket of my blue jeans when I washed them a couple of months ago, the end result wasn’t very pretty. As you can see by the photographs below, the scale was barely intact on the emblem side of the knife, the scale was totally gone on the other side, and there was some rust on the blades…
I contacted Brian Huegel of Country Knives (http://www.countryknives.com/) over in Intercourse, Pennsylvania, to see if he knew of anyone who could replace scales on pocket knives. I’ve been doing business with Brian for several years and find him very knowledgeable and very customer oriented. Brian noted how he had met Pete and Wallace Rockwell of Rock USA Cutlery (http://rockusacutlery.com/) in his store last year and felt they would be my best choice to do the work since they had direct factory experience with Camillus Cutlery. Please check out the following link to learn more about Pete, Wallace, and Rock USA Cutlery of Camillus, New York…
http://rockusacutlery.com/about
I contacted Pete and sent him pictures of my knife. Wallace looked at the pictures and felt it was a job he could certainly handle. So, I sent them my knife and discussed handle materials with Pete over the telephone. Pete said they were going to do their best to restore the knife as close to original as possible, and this is what they sent back to me…
Thank you, Pete and Wallace, for doing such an outstanding and wonderful job in restoring my old friend! Thank you, Brian, for pointing me in Pete and Wallace’s direction! And, thank you, Paul “The Deacon”… back in 2009, you posted on the Spyderco Forum a link for Country Knives as a source of discontinued Spyderco knives… if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have found Brian, and if it wasn’t for Brian, I wouldn’t have found Pete and Wallace.