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Comment by Terry Waldele on July 26, 2012 at 17:20

Just finished restoring an old, really beat up "hunting knife" called a Siberian Skinner and made by Anton Wingen, Jr. of Germany.

I found one for sale on-line and the seller was kind enough to provide some information about the knife and its maker, and I quote:

    "Anton Wingen Jr. ceased operations and closed their doors in the early 1990's.  However, for nearly 120 years they were one of Solingen's finest makers and produced some knives of incredible quality.  In addition to their own high-quality knives, Wingen also made knives under contract for other top makers including Kershaw.  I've collected and researched Wingen knives extensively for many years and I've never seen another example of this knife.  I could also not find any examples in any old Wingen catalogs, so I really don't know how old it is other than to say that it likely pre-dates 1960 by quite a bit."

The seller must not have looked very hard for other examples of this knife, because I found a number of them on-line.  Also, they are being reproduced today by Linder, but not in the same exact configuration.  For example, the repros have only a half guard, and it's made of nickel silver, while the repros' pommel is made of brass instead of the original aluminum.

I found this knife in a local antique store, and it was in pretty bad shape cosmetically, but very sound structurally.  The blade was badly pitted with rust, and was heat treated so hard that I couldn't remove all the pitting even after about 6 hours of electric and hand sanding.  That's OK though, because I preserved most of the stamped labels on the blade, especially the knife's name prominently displayed on one side of the blade.  I love the lines of this knife, but can't help but wonder if calling it a "skinner" was an attempt at "political correctness", considering the length and shape of its blade, which is just under 8 inches long and too long for skinning.  I suspect this knife was actually intended to be a fighting knife, and not a skinning knife.  What do you folks think?

Comment by Joe Miller on July 20, 2012 at 16:12

I prchase this 1850-1870 Pre Civil War  Knights Head Malitia NCO Sword from an antique dealer this week.  Should I restore this piece or leave it as is?  Looking for suggestions & comments.

Comment by Jan Carter on March 7, 2012 at 19:19

So did I somehow miss the pics of the completed knives?

In Memoriam Comment by D ale on February 29, 2012 at 5:07

Dan, I'm having difficulty viewing the entire video .. the connection's been slow lately .. I'll just need to keep trying. I'm getting just enough to be tantalizing. I did however Google & find some text  explanations (sales lit) to refresh my memory.

Now I remember one of the distinct advantages to having parallels above/below a die box. Among other things .. going in between the parallels made slug removal pretty easy .. w/o adding height to the die. I've also seen bolster plates that look like swiss cheese .. I don't want to do that to my table. Parallels are on the list !!!

And one way or another .. I'll get the video downloaded. Thanks again, Dan !!!

Comment by Daniel Howland on February 27, 2012 at 20:02

Dale, this should answer your question about parallels:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlLVEXXlFnY

In Memoriam Comment by D ale on February 26, 2012 at 21:02

Clamping kit. Oh yeah .. I forgot about those handy .. (really really handy) .. step devices. They made clamping dies down in a press real easy. They're on the wish list now !!!

In Memoriam Comment by D ale on February 26, 2012 at 20:40

Dan .. some nice links there  ..   Thank You !!!

The mill came w/ 2 t-slot nuts & bolts .. one of the vices comes w/ a couple .. and there are 2 more w/ the rotating table that I was hoping would be enough to get me started .. not sure they’re all 7/16 though .. but, I do know what you mean !!!

The parallels .. they’re to get the piece your working on closer to the head .. or within the range of the head .. very precisely ... ??? correct ???. 

Dan, my background is Engineering w/ 17 yrs of that in a steel fab environment. However, I spent more time behind a monitor designing & 3D CAD than I did hands on in the prototype shop. Twas a great experience though & will hopefully give me a leg up on this machining fun !!!

Nice link on the videos .. Thank You !!! I've never "trammed" a mill.  I was involved in paralleling the head / bed of some old Danly presses ..  6’ * 8’ bed size .. that we ran in production. Some smaller Minster presses too. I may rent the video which covers the tramming procedure .. since it will be one of the first things I do after cleaning & initial set-up.

I don’t need to re-invent the wheel on any of this .. i.e. it would be good to watch somebody that knows what they’re doing do it first before I get into it !!

You have a point on the belt drive. And .. this mill is so I can make knives .. which isn’t exactly going to require hogging off a ½ inch of matl just to get a thick chunk down to wking size. I’ll certainly be cutting 0.062” brass sheet & flat stock  .. the same for some SS for liner lock mechanisms .. but nothing much thicker than 0.125”.  It should be easy enough to stay w/i the specs of the machine.  So, you’ve a valid point. I will eventually upgrade to a belt drive .. as the budget more readily accepts.

Jan & Terry ………………. Yuppers .. I do love that girl :)

Comment by Jan Carter on February 26, 2012 at 15:46

Dale,

Your sweetheart really IS a sweetheart.  Congrats

Comment by Daniel Howland on February 26, 2012 at 15:40

Here is a good place for educational videos: http://smartflix.com/store/video/91/MiniMachines-101-Mill

Comment by Daniel Howland on February 26, 2012 at 15:38

As far as the belt kit, thats your choice, my thought is as long as you stay within the limits and capabilities of your machine, you should not dammage the gears.

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