Having worked with knives every day of my adult life, I have an appreciation for quality knives and related equipment, especially Pre-war German made F.Dick steels. When I was about 12-13 years old, dad gave me my first American made Schrade Old Timer pocket knife... these were manufactured to the highest standards in the US from 1904 - 2004 when the company closed its doors, the parts consist of unbreakable saw cut staglon and delrin handles, brass and nickel and nowadays all Old Timer replica knives are Chinese made inferior pieces of stainless steel crap. Genuine American made Old timer blades were made from 1095 carbon steel and came with a lifetime warranty, an Old Timer made after 2004 will last about 3 months if it's not already broken when you open the packaging it arrived in. I still today carry that first Old Timer my dad gave me all those years ago, it's a little beat up but if it could talk, it'd tell you some stories.
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I have several of the Stockman range, (my favourites), the Senior Stockman 8OT, Middleman Stockman 34OT and the Junior Stockman 108OT
Here's some unopened ones I still have in their original packaging that were manufactured prior to the year 2000.
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Some pre-war F.Dick steels that I'm in the process of restoring for daily use. These are highly prized possessions of mine and I wouldn't part with them if I was offered 10 times their value. They simply do not make these like this any more. The steels themselves just need to have all the old imperfections polished out of them with sandpaper which I'll do by hand, it will take about a week to do just one, time consuming but after they're done, they'll be as good as new.
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Pre-war F.Dick steels have an arrow stamped on them that points back at the handle... Post-war F.Dick steels have the arrow pointing away from the handle.
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The handles are original horn and oak handles which I am replacing with modern custom made resin handles... (the originals I will keep, they're just not allowed in these modern times). The original brass fittings will remain above and below the new handles. I am of Viking heritage so my new custom designed traditional F.Dick style handles depict the Vikings logo from the TV series and are a pearl white with red paint blown through it along with black paint flecked with silver. Here is a sneak preview of one of the unfinished/un-polished double-sided handles. They take a few days to set in the cast, once removed they need to be drilled through to fit the tang of the steel then polished and buffed to a glassy mirror finish.
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In a week or so I should be able to post a pic of one that's completely finished.
I also collect old-school nickel stamped solid brass cattle ear tags... These are not real common these days as all ear tags are now plastic. There's some stud owners out there though that still use these but not many and they are rarely seen today. It's taken me 17 years to collect these few. What can I say?? My Viking ancestry is to blame... I like shiny things!
Here's the last one I found back in February this year... Doesn't look too flash just after removal...
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Hit them with a bit of brasso and they come up nice.
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Well that's the other side of me that has NOTHING to do with turtles anyway.
