Heirloom knives hold sentimental value. Restoring them preserves memories and functionality.
We assess the knife’s condition and apply appropriate techniques to restore its beauty and sharpness.
Our philosophy in restoring heirloom knives is that the memories within the knife, the marks, the wear, and even the discolorations have become part of the knife. Restoring an heirloom knife to its original condition or “like new”, is very difficult and expensive. If you want a new knife out of an old knife, just go buy a new one; it’s cheaper.
A good case in study are the carbon spots that might be present in an heirloom knife. Those are the black spots that will remain in the blade, even after the blade has been polished to a mirror finish. Those spots are physical absences of blade material. If they are completely polished out, the blade will be much thinner overall, or the surface will be wavy from the varying thicknesses in the blade material.
We can replace a missing rivet, polish the blade to some extent, sand the handle and preserve it, and of course sharpen the edge. There are often other repairs that might be recommended, and we will discuss all the possibilities of each job. For this kind of work, each knife is evaluated and the cost discussed before work is begun.