An Old Friend Restored

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Water Bug
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An Old Friend Restored

#1

Post by Water Bug »

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…
Boy Scout Knife01.JPG
Boy Scout Knife02.JPG
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…
Boy Scout Knife03.JPG
Boy Scout Knife04.JPG
Boy Scout Knife05.JPG
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.
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awa54
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#2

Post by awa54 »

That looks great!

Sometimes an old standby like that just can't be replaced, it's good that there are folks with the skill to do a restoration like that who offer their services to the public.
-David

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SG89
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#3

Post by SG89 »

Nice!
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#4

Post by mattman »

Brian used to post here a bit, but I haven't seen anything in a while... Probably still lurking around.

I had a good experience in there store, as well!
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The Mastiff
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#5

Post by The Mastiff »

That came out beautiful. Thanks for showing the before and end results Water Bug.

Joe
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farnorthdan
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#6

Post by farnorthdan »

Very nice and like Joe said thanks for the before and after pics, what a huge improvement.
Happy to be part of this great forum and group of down to earth spyderco addicts, Thanks Sal and gang.
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#7

Post by SpyderNut »

They did an excellent job with your knife. Very impressive! That will be a great family heirloom, no doubt. :)
:spyder: -Michael

"...as I said before, 'the edge is a wondrous thing', [but] in all of it's qualities, it is still a ghost." - sal
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#8

Post by bearfacedkiller »

My wife grew up just down the road from Camillus and I have always had a soft spot for Camillus Cutlery. It was a sad day when they shut the doors on that place. The knife looks great!
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N. Brian Huegel
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#9

Post by N. Brian Huegel »

It is great to see that Pete and Wallace are honoring the tradition and experience of being cutlers. Expertise and practical knowledge are hard to find. Fantastic job!
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Doc Dan
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#10

Post by Doc Dan »

That is a job well done. Very nice and I can see why you would not want to replace it with a Victorinox (as nice as they are). I still have my Camillus Cub Scout Knife (my best friend stole my Boy Scout Knife) from the early 1960's.
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remnar
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#11

Post by remnar »

Very cool restoration! Nicely done. :) :spyder:
valenciamanu
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Re: An Old Friend Restored

#12

Post by valenciamanu »

Great job
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