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Old Hammer Brand resurrected from the dead

I visited an antique store in Farmer City, IL today-- This old beauty was laying in a case-- It was so rusted and covered in hardened gunk, I could not even make out the maker-- I paid a whopping $3 for it, just to see if I could clean it up some-- It is a circa 1945-55 Hammer Brand-- Not too bad for $3. I will show the before and after photos--

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on October 31, 2014 at 18:40

SCORE! A good knife saved to live another day! What did you use to do the cleaning John?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hanner on October 31, 2014 at 20:12

One of my absolute favorites!

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by John McCain on November 1, 2014 at 11:17

Jan, a little more than I intended to !! -LOL -Actually the obverse side was even worse in appearance originally.It had paint and the white stuff was some sort of hardened epoxy or glue.I used a product called OOPS (a multi-purpose remover) to take off the paint and soften the glue-- Still had to carefully chip off some of the epoxy.-Then I used microfine sandpaper to take off some of the surface rust--( progressively finer grades)-After I got the epoxy off, the blades had areas that were still bright that had been preserved under the epoxy & paint and areas with an almost black patina-- Used a couple of different buffing compounds and my dremel to even out the finish-- Then went back over it again with ultrafine sandpaper to buff it up a little more--Also on the liners, etc. A good oiling and then Flitz metal polish and a buffing cloth-- Whew !!--Still has a few areas of minor pitting but definitely a vast improvement--LOL

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Permalink Reply by Brad T. on November 2, 2014 at 12:54

Great reconditioning on that knife John. Are you having any issues with the scale applique? Usually they are peeling up.

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In MemoriamPermalink Reply by John McCain on November 2, 2014 at 16:03

Brad, thanks for the kind words-- Amazingly enough, considering the condition of the rest of the knife, the scales were pristine-- No peeling, shrinkage,or separation.Actually the condition of the scales was why I thought I could salvage the knife in the first place. BTW, still scratching my head trying to figure out what this handle pattern was called (if it ever had a name other than fancy celluloid)--It kinda resembles a butter and molasses, but has more of a gold tint than the typical butter coloration-- Anyone have an idea??