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After hand sharpening knives since I was 12 years old, I recently started a small knife sharpening business - better late than never as they say! 
Anyway, I was cleaning out a catch-all drawer in my night table this morning and found a bunch of old folding pocket knives. Some are mine purchased new decades ago when I was in JHS, HS and just after college. Others belonged to my Grandfather and some to my Dad. Most were in need of restoration as I have not even looked at them in decades and some were lightly rusted, scratched and certainly not very sharp. All were in need of cleaning, sharpening and lubrication!
There were 2 Old Timers with 3 blades each, an Uncle Henry with 3 blades, a very very small Imperial that was my Grandfather's, a Buck 110, an original Leatherman (when they made only one model), a few Calimus folders, a small Swiss Army Knife, a few Stockman style 3 blade folders that I don't remember the brand on and last but not least a Texas Toothpick style Imperial. None are what I'd call valuable or collectible as they were inexpensive common knives in their day, but all are American made.
I removed the rust on the ones in need of it and polished them with Flitz. I also removed the rust from inside the knife where the blades fold into. All of them were sharpened properly and a light coat of oil left on each. I must say, I truly enjoyed doing this and had a terrific afternoon restoring the vintage and nostalgic knives. It brought back lots of good memories and I can even remember where and when I bought some of them. Even though they were not expensive or high end even in their day, compared to many of the Chinesium produced knives of today they were actually pretty decent quality - except two of the Imperial knives which were always cheap. Imperial knives were never great quality, even when produced in USA - I can still remember the cardboard displays on the Candy Store counter with a dozen of them stuck in their selling for under $2.
So while I didn't earn a penny doing these today, I had a grand ole' time at it!! Something I've been meaning to do for years and it gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I will probably hand them down to my kids over the next few years.
Anyway, I was cleaning out a catch-all drawer in my night table this morning and found a bunch of old folding pocket knives. Some are mine purchased new decades ago when I was in JHS, HS and just after college. Others belonged to my Grandfather and some to my Dad. Most were in need of restoration as I have not even looked at them in decades and some were lightly rusted, scratched and certainly not very sharp. All were in need of cleaning, sharpening and lubrication!
There were 2 Old Timers with 3 blades each, an Uncle Henry with 3 blades, a very very small Imperial that was my Grandfather's, a Buck 110, an original Leatherman (when they made only one model), a few Calimus folders, a small Swiss Army Knife, a few Stockman style 3 blade folders that I don't remember the brand on and last but not least a Texas Toothpick style Imperial. None are what I'd call valuable or collectible as they were inexpensive common knives in their day, but all are American made.
I removed the rust on the ones in need of it and polished them with Flitz. I also removed the rust from inside the knife where the blades fold into. All of them were sharpened properly and a light coat of oil left on each. I must say, I truly enjoyed doing this and had a terrific afternoon restoring the vintage and nostalgic knives. It brought back lots of good memories and I can even remember where and when I bought some of them. Even though they were not expensive or high end even in their day, compared to many of the Chinesium produced knives of today they were actually pretty decent quality - except two of the Imperial knives which were always cheap. Imperial knives were never great quality, even when produced in USA - I can still remember the cardboard displays on the Candy Store counter with a dozen of them stuck in their selling for under $2.
So while I didn't earn a penny doing these today, I had a grand ole' time at it!! Something I've been meaning to do for years and it gave me a great deal of satisfaction. I will probably hand them down to my kids over the next few years.
