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2 Swedish Air Force survival knives

very interesting knives. I saw that the first picture was labeled "Wade and Butcher 1", and Wade and Butcher is a company that is - was - famous for straight razors also. Did Holmberg import the blades?
the knives look very nice, especially the receding choil which makes such knives more versatile and easy to sharpen, and I am looking forward to seeing them again after some "medical attention" from your side.
 
I labeled the pictures as such because of the resemblance these 2 knives have with my Wade & Butcher Boone knife: Wade & Butcher Boone fixed blade
Pontus Holmberg seems to have had more models in it's line-up that were "inspired" by knives from other makers, like for instance Marble's.
 
Auf Seite 71 des Visier Spezial (12) "Militärmesser" finden sich unter dem Titel "Schweden-Happen" Bilder ganz ähnlicher "Messer im Stil des USN Mk I". Sie sollen angeblich zur Ausrüstung der (schwedischen) UN-Piloten, die bei einer Hungersnot im Kongo eingesetzt waren, gehören.
 
Blade hand reground to it's original full convex blade shape on a Foss 7205 black/green silicon carbide stone used with oil, then refined on 400 grit and 1000 grit SiC wet & dry paper used with oil on glass, and the tiny burr stropped off on hard cardboard with 1.0 micron diamond paste.
The new apex measures between 20 and 22,5 degrees inclusive.
Very hard (guesstimate 64-65 HRC) and also very wear resistant steel.
Handle reassembled, now with all washers glued and pommel repolished, then treated to a few coats of warm Granger's wax.
Sheath waxed and hand restitched.





 
This knife has a lot of appeal and initiates „want to have one“ feelings and desires. Your loving attention bore fruit.
 
Both Pontus Holmberg knives are made from iron ore from the Dannemora mine, which resulted in very pure steel due to it being rich in manganese.
In earlier centuries it was known as "oregrounds iron": Oregrounds iron - Wikipedia
However i don't know if that name was still being used by the time these knives were made in the late '40's or early '50's of the 20th century.

Sheffield also used a lot of this same ore to make their famous crucible cast steel from ~1740 up until ~1960.
These two Swedish knives however are noticeably harder as well as much more wear resistant when compared to the vintage English crucible steel knives that i've hand reground/sharpened over the years.
 
At this point i'm quite certain that the steel in these 2 knives is an entirely different type when compared to the standard Sheffield made crucible cast steel.
One reason is that Pontus Holmberg classifies it as a stainless steel, where the Sheffield made crucible cast steel was a carbon steel.
See this detail picture of the sheath of knife #2, and "Rostfri" is the Swedish word for stainless.

GEDC4173 (https://ibb.co/bzfSNhV)

The second reason is the very high wear resistance of this Swedish steel: using whatever grit of black silicon carbide on it is extremely slow, be it waterproof SiC paper or the coarse black SiC side of the Foss 7205 combination stone.
The green silicon carbide side of that stone however, even though much finer than the black side, cuts the steel noticeably faster, better, and also with great feedback.
Based on this i'm beginning to suspect there might be quite a lot of tungsten carbides in it, also because the steel is able to take & hold a thin ~20 degree inclusive edge angle while whittling an old piece of hard beechwood cutting board (tested with knife #1)

A possible third reason is a little piece of info i found on this website with mining data: https://www.mindat.org/loc-3153.html
According to this there could be (traces of) silver in the Dannemora iron ore, which made me remember what Faraday wrote about the alloy of steel with silver in this thread: Philosophical Transactions on damascus, wootz & other alloys (https://messerforum.net/threads/philosophical-transactions-on-damascus-wootz-other-alloys.139952/#post-1094989)
Problems might be that Faraday wrote about his findings around 1822, he doesn't talk about silver in ore but about lab made alloys, and i'm no metallurgist.

Maybe @AchimW can tell us more about the validity of Faraday's claims about steel alloyed with silver, and maybe his thoughts about the type of steel in these two Swedish knives.
 
Currently experimenting a bit with different grits of diamond paste on thin cardboard to see what gives both a nice blade finish as well as a good apex.

Already found that only removing the burr is not enough to get the sharpest of edges on this steel, i have to continue stropping a bit to also get the (presumed tungsten) carbides into the right shape.
I also have to tinker some more with the appearance of the blade finish (now it's a bit too shiny for my taste), but the current apex is reverse hairwhittling sharp (chest hair) @ ~20 degrees inclusive.


 
:eek:Yesss SIR, YoU DiD It OnCe AgAiN!!!

My compliments, you are a true master of knife-restauration!
Saw your amazing work earlier this day on "Bladeforums.com".
I am much impressed by your skillfull mirror-polish, how long did it take you to get to this result? You used any powertools for the finish, or are your hands still hurting?! o_O

Keep up the good work, you are a great inspiration for an old "flea-market-scavenger" like me!!!

FLO
 
Thanks for the kind words, but i'm just an amateur tinkerer, certainly no master, :)
I'm quite certain most here could do the same or better if they put their mind to it.

A mirror polish is however something entirely different than what you see in the pics above, that is just me experimenting a bit with different grits of diamond paste on thin cardboard to find out what might work for me.
I've already changed the appearance again from what you see in the pics, as my goal isn't a mirror polish, but instead a smooth but hazy surface that doesn't show superficial scratches easily, think something like a fine stonewash.

Together with the shallow convex shape (i learned the German term "schlank ballig" from member Rock&Roll on this forum) in what i expect might be very capable steel it will most likely do quite well in the woods surrounding my home town in the Veluwe nature reserve.
As while knife #1 will most likely be auctioned off to help create funds for other restoration projects, knife #2 is going to be one of my users.
Due to heavy use & sharpening in a previous life (and then me regrinding it) the knife has lost both blade length (~4 mm when compared to knife #1) and also blade width, so it would never look like that one again.
But at least now that it's fully functional & sharp again i think it will make for a very nice old school user.
 
While busy with finetuning the handle the knife slipped out of my rubber coated vise and fell from a measured hight of 1.10 meter on one of the concrete sidewalk tiles which form the floor on my balcony, and landed on the belly part of the edge.
I did not try to catch the falling knife :)

To my surprise there was only slight denting in that area, no large chips, which i would have expected given the presumed high hardness in combination with the narrow edge angle.
Anyway, due to this i had to regrind the blade again on the green silicon carbide side of my Foss 7205 stone, and that is where i am now.


 
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