Need Some Advice

I have this knife and hatchet that's from my Boy Scout days in the 60's. The knife says Western USA. Would it be worth it to have these rebuilt or would it be better just to keep them like they are ? I've thought about getting rid of the rust and putting them in a shadow box. If I did get them rebuilt any estimates on cost ?

I personally would want to have them cleaned up/rehandled and then possibly pass them down to someone if I wasn't going to use them. I've never messed with stacked leather handles so don't really know what someone would charge to try and re-handle it after cleaning them up.

I agree with Ben, clean them up and maybe hand them down. The hardest thing is how bad the rust is and how much stock removal would be required to clean them up. The leather is simple to do, back in the day when I took on custom work I did re-do several.

I have that exact same knife. It belonged to my Grandfather, and was in terrible sbape, although not as bad as yours. My dad took it and had a friend refurbish it and make a custom sheath for me. It is by far my favorite knife, and gets carried often. Get them re-done.

I'd be inclined to have the handles fixed and scotchbrite the rust off. I'd not want to go back to new looking... leave the patina.

I had that knife also. You are ever so wise to have kept track of it.

From past experience, the pins that hold the end on are hell to remove. KBar makes a leather leather handle kit, may the manufacture of these has one.

When we did it, it we drilled the pin ends about a 1/18 inch deep then used a punch to drive them through. Save the pin, you will want them when you look for a replacement pin. The leather we used came from Tandy, once you have the pommel off you will see how the hole was cut in the center of the stacked leather pieces. For this watch some youtube to see how that the leather pieces are cut and stacked. You want the leather pieces bigger than the finished size, so you can shape them after every thing is glues together..

I have made a lot of stacked leather game calls using old leather belts from the resale shops. This is walnut ends with leather midsection.

I also have one. Good steel.