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There's a patent number on the smaller of the blades near the hinge (2037943) that led me to a US patent from 1936 but it didn't tell me a lot about this particular knife. Any information on time period, brand, model, cleaning/restoring, etc is helpful. Thanks!
Additional notes:
- I cleaned off a decent amount of rust with some soap and WD-40 but the inner workings are still pretty messy
- The yellow layer on the handles is peeling off at the ends
Update: thank you all so much for the information! I've gotten a lot of information and leads on the knife. Still nothing definite on brand but you're probably right that it's a carbon steel blade with an ivory handle from about the 1950s. I'll be tending to it properly with your information on proper cleaning and sharpening of a knife like this. I'll post another update if I find anything more definite on brand/origin. Thanks again!
I got some more pictures so hopefully this lighting works a little better. Washed in soapy water as requested and dried. I'm quite sure I've already messed some things up on it unfortunately but hopefully I can save it just a bit for at least usability. The handle material was already flaking when we found it and the inside is definitely pretty dirty/rusty still.
P.S. thanks for your help on this. Your response is really detailed and helpful.
That's freaking great! Awesome pics.
So, while I can't see anything to give you more info about the knife itself, at least not any more than others have already covered, you are in position to be able to have a really cool little knife.
There's no visible red, orange, or yellow rust. That's great. The interior looks clean enough that you've got plenty of time to get a better product to clean it the rest of the way. Typically, the gun oil and a few qtips will get that level of gunk taken care of in a half hour or so, maybe less.
That means all you have to do is basic maintenance from here. Keep it oiled, and I do recommend the same things again. The blades are carbon steel, so a bit of an oil coating on them is good.
The scales are showing their age, and there's only so much you can do with them. I'm 99% sure they're celluloid (though my eyes aren't what they used the be). That stuff is really pretty, but degrades over time, and there aren't really any methods to prevent that. The best you can do is keep it clean and dry, away from sunlight when not in use. Some folks will apply other materials to keep scales like that in place, but it's never perfect. I have done some of that in the past, mostly with clear epoxy and careful polishing, but I regard it as a last ditch effort, but once celluloid gets degraded enough, there's really nothing else to do.
That being said, there's likely a decade or two of life in those scales, barring accidents.
Sharpening is fairly easy on those older knives, but if you need info, just holla.
Nice little knife there, it's cool to see someone taking the time to put it to use :)
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this out! I'll see about getting some gun oil and a small enough sharpener (the only one I own apparently doesn't accommodate tiny pocket knives), and I may post an update on how it looks. I'm glad to see this little guy can be restored to working condition since a handy knife like this deserves a purpose, but I am a little sad that the scales might not have much longer (relatively speaking).