{"id":53675,"date":"2016-01-21T15:02:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T21:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=53675"},"modified":"2025-09-29T10:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:32:09","slug":"how-to-restore-a-vintage-antique-pocket-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/featured\/how-to-restore-a-vintage-antique-pocket-knife\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Restore a Vintage\/Antique Pocket Knife"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>\"Vintage<\/a>Have you ever come into possession of an old pocket knife that was worse for wear, but still handsome and sturdy?<\/p>\n

Maybe you were looking through your grandfather’s treasure box<\/a>, took a shine to the knife, and Gramps said you could have it.<\/p>\n

Or maybe you’ve started collecting antique pocket knives in earnest. That describes myself. I’d been looking for a good, manly collection<\/a> to start for a while now. I wanted to do something vintage-y, small (I don’t need a wall full of antique swords), affordable, and practical. With that criteria, it was easy to settle on pocket knives (every man needs them!<\/a>). There are many thousands of varieties that have been made for decades and decades, they can often be cheaply acquired at antique stores and garage sales, they store great in a shoebox (or in a pocket), and are eminently useful.<\/p>\n

Whether you buy an antique knife or one gets passed on to you, it’s likely that it’ll be rusted, grimey, dull…less than ideal for both collecting and using. So how do you go about restoring the knife to its former glory? With some digging on internet forums, as well as talking with a couple antique dealers, I was able to nail down a solid method for cleaning antique pocket knives and ensuring their fine fettle and usability for years to come.<\/p>\n

First, Get to Know Your Knife<\/h3>\n
\"Vintage

Before cleaning\/restoring the knives. You can see the top has a lot of wear\/rust\/grime on the blade and the handle (it’s a metal handle); it needed a bit more TLC. The bottom one had rusted blades, but the handle was in fantastic condition. It did also need some work on the blade hinges, as both blades were grinding quite a bit when opening and closing them.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the fun parts of restoring a pocket knife to its former glory is doing some homework and getting to know the knife itself. Some knives have shields on them, which state a manufacturer or line of products. If there’s no plate, you can often find some identification at the very base of the blade, where it meets the handle. It can be hard to read, especially before cleaning, but you’ll likely see a product number or manufacturer listed.<\/p>\n

\"Pocketknife

It’s hard to read in this image, but the gold shield here on the knife reads “Frontier.” I came to discover it’s a line of knives made by Imperial. After cleaning, I was also able to read the product number at the base of the blade (barely).<\/p><\/div>\n

If you have a product number\/brand, it’s fairly easy to google your way into finding out the history of the knife — its production run, its original retail value, how many were made, etc. If you can’t find any identifying information on your vintage blade, snap a picture, upload it to any number of knife forums (allaboutpocketknives.com<\/a> is a good one), and get someone else on the case.<\/p>\n

After you’ve found out a little bit about the knife, it’s time to get restoring!<\/p>\n

Supplies For Restoring a Pocket Knife<\/h3>\n