Handle Repair

B

Bill_Melater

Joined
Apr 14, 2024
Messages
115
Well, I had an unfortunate accident and dropped one of the blades I've been oiling on the but cap and knocked off the corner of the handle flare.

I have essentially attempted a toe splice with JB weld since I read that it would work on oily wood after a wipe of mineral spirits but, to no avail. Have any of you had to fix a handle? If so, what glue or process do you all use?

I'm confident I can shape the piece down to blend it back in and repair the form of the handle but I have no idea what glue I could use.
 
I agree with david, a picture would help. Depends on how big a piece broke off. I use acraglas or epoxy.
 
Sorry it took me a while to get to this.

Here is a photo of the damage. I've taken care of the dent on the cap and just took a file to flatten out the fractured area. The piece that broke off is nowhere to be found unfortunately.

https://imgur.com/RChW1jM
 
Wood filler (not wood putty) might work. Don't know about its adherence properties to that wood.
 
Bill Melater's picture.

RChW1jM.jpeg


You could put your rubber gloves on. Wash as much oil as possible off with acetone. Mix a small amount of epoxy. Thicken it into a thick paste with microfibers and wood flour. (Very fine saw/sander dust.) Maybe even drill a small hole to giver the epoxy more bite. paste it on liberally, making sure you have more than needed to cover the area being repaired. After the epoxy has cure file and sand to match the butt cap.
BUT. Even doing all that, the repair is iffy. And the chance of matching the wood color is almost zero. In my opinion the better option is like Bawanna said. Round it over, file the butt cap to match, done. Simple, easy, and will probably look better.

O.B.
 
Looking at the bigger picture the break is almost flat. Could just cut the metal to match and not even round it. Make it square. I thought about just pounding the metal over onto the flat but that's an iffy proposition, probably a lame idea. That's a very common break, seen lots of them like that. So, chances are any repair could be vulnerable anyhow. My hat's off to those kami's over there, I tried a couple times to shape a replacement handle, it didn't end well, made it work but not even close to the work they do on those handles.
 
Bawanna said:
My hat's off to those kami's over there, I tried a couple times to shape a replacement handle, it didn't end well, made it work but not even close to the work they do on those handles.
Click to expand...
You didn't start your training when you were ten years old.

I agree with your solution. It might need a little file work on the wood if the break is not centered on the handle (hard to tell from the picture), but that would be easy.
 
Sorry for the link to the image. For the life if me I can never figure out how to get any of them to ever show up in a post.

The break is centered, luckily, so any shaping I do will be symmetrical. I guess the good news is that the break is on the belly side of the handle instead of the spine side so, the flare won't have lost any functionality ergonomically speaking.

Based on what you have all said, I will likely just do some file work and shape the handle down to blend away the damage and lightly peen that part of the cap just in case there's a gap there between the wood and metal. No sense in gluing something on that may just pop off again or make things worse for all I know.

I'll post a photo when it's done. Hopefully I can get the link to work!

EDIT: It's a VUK so luckily it's not one of the "pretty ones". A fix might just add to it's character.
 
I'd be careful with peening over the protruding part of the cap. You might loosen the whole cap. Maybe use a magnet to determine whether the cap is steel versus nickel-silver or some other soft metal. If it's the latter, then peening it would be a lot safer. If there's a slight gap between the cap and the wood you can safely fill that with epoxy.
 
davidf99 said:
I'd be careful with peening over the protruding part of the cap. You might loosen the whole cap. Maybe use a magnet to determine whether the cap is steel versus nickel-silver or some other soft metal. If it's the latter, then peening it would be a lot safer. If there's a slight gap between the cap and the wood you can safely fill that with epoxy.
Click to expand...
This is a very good point. If it were mine, I'd use a 1x42 belt sander, with a relatively fine grit belt, and carefully take the whole area, buttcap and all, down to the same level. Stain/oil as desired.
 
davidf99 said:
I'd be careful with peening over the protruding part of the cap. You might loosen the whole cap. Maybe use a magnet to determine whether the cap is steel versus nickel-silver or some other soft metal. If it's the latter, then peening it would be a lot safer. If there's a slight gap between the cap and the wood you can safely fill that with epoxy.
Click to expand...

Well, the peening would just be to mushroom the edge thickness of the metal. I don't think that should loosen the cap? I'll hold off on it either way though.

So, if the epoxy I tried gluing a transplant with didn't hold, how would the epoxy filling the hole stay in place? But I suppose another trick I'm aware of is putting some beeswax in the small edge gaps so if there's a risk to do more damage, I might go that route.

As for a sander, I still need a motor for the thing. Luckily I've got a collection of good files so rounding that cap and wood down won't be difficult.
 
Bawanna said:
Looking at the bigger picture the break is almost flat. Could just cut the metal to match and not even round it. Make it square. I thought about just pounding the metal over onto the flat but that's an iffy proposition, probably a lame idea. That's a very common break, seen lots of them like that. So, chances are any repair could be vulnerable anyhow. My hat's off to those kami's over there, I tried a couple times to shape a replacement handle, it didn't end well, made it work but not even close to the work they do on those handles.
Click to expand...

This was my thought too, cut the metal yo match the break and file/sand smooth to get rid of any sharp edges. Should still be completely functional and I don't think it would look bad at all, especially if you round it off as well so it's less boxy.
 
Well, I did the deed. I think reshaping was probably the best option. I tried to recreate the original shape as much as possible without taking off too much wood and doing more damage to the ergonomics.

I apologize in advance if these images don't show up. I'm following a how-to post on this and I think I'm missing a detail or two.

https://imgur.com/X9GBjcj

https://imgur.com/DVCaBAP
 
Operation a wonderful success. Looks great! Notice how the wood came to life when you threw some oil at it. Nicely done.
 
Bill_Melater said:
Okay, How exactly did you get the images to show like that?
Click to expand...
After I clicked your link. I went to the picture and right clicked on it. From the drop down list, I clicked copy image link. Then I came back here and clicked on the image icon. The little square box, with a mountain and cloud in it. That opens a dialog box. Paste the link in it, and click insert.

O.B.
 
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