Handle replacement

[Usmc1371]

Has anyone replaced the stacked leather handle on a usmc knife with g10 or micarta scales? I'm thinking of doing it on my old kabar. I want to keep the original shape and size. How hard would that be?

 

[zanussi01]

Yes I have done a few like this for customers.Not hard to do but a bit fiddly.
Unfortunately no pics thanks to extortion bucket.
After removing the pin in the pommel,I used the leathers washers as individual templates
for the micarta or G10 pieces.
Cutting out and shaping each piece by hand to get it as close to the leather one as possible.
I also replaced the black spacers with red,white and blue one like the Randall knives.
The knives all looked very nice when finished,even if I do say so myself,however the balance
was thrown out by the weight of the micarta and g10.
Hope this helps

 

[Usmc1371]

Thanks for the info. I was thinking of sandwiching the tang with 2 scales and the gluing and pinning the scale to the tang.

 

[1066vik]

Make your sandwich so it's "freefloating" with a tight friction fit, shape it off the knife, then add a soft/compressible washer at each end so when you press fit the pommel back on and pin it in place, there's no slop. No need to epoxy or pin the micarta/g10 to the tang.

 

[eveled]

3 different approaches.

Remove pommel make individual washers, compress them re install the pommel.

Remove the pommel, make a tube (essentially a really thick washer) slide it onto the tang reinstall the pommel.

Leave pommel on make two slabs fit them meticulously then epoxy and pin them on. I would pin the slabs to each other to avoid drilling the stick tang

I think you mean the third way, 1066vik the second way and Z zanussi01 the first way.

I had one that needed a handle. I thought about it for years. I almost used a piece of stag, Seriously considered casting an aluminum handle like the Stone knife.

I ended up using the kit from KA-BAR and sticking with leather washers.