Help repairing old Kabar?

[manicreader]

OK, the situation is that a close friend has his Dad's old service Kabar. It is thrashed. I'm motivated to help him. Check out these images:

http://www.manicreader.com/gallery/latest/kabar1.jpg

http://www.manicreader.com/gallery/latest/kabar2.jpg

Confession: I'm not a knife maker... I'm more of a knife 'modifier'.

So, what's the best approach to refurbishing an item like this? The leather washers are obviously trash, and the guard appears to be bent. Also, the butt cap appears to be peened or staked on... how do I get it off and then re-attach it?

I'm comfortable with stabilized wood and carbon fiber as handle material. Should I hand rub the blade back to life? Looks like carbon steel to me.

Thanks for any advice,

Barry

 

[Joe Watson]

Id leave it alone. It has character and history. Just do everything you can to keep its condition from getting worse.

Hold on to that one and get a new ka-bar.

 

[Mike Hull]

Yeah, the handle is trashed. IIRC the guard tips were bent that way by the manufacturer, so I'd not try to straighten them.


You can buy replacement leather washers to redo the handle from one of the knifemakers supply shops. Personally, I don't think it's worth much as is, and you can't let everything over a certain age just rot away in the delusion that you're saving history. Fix it and give it some new life.
Getting the pommel off might present a problem though. It looks like an early "Kabar", with the peened pommel.

You will have to grind the pommel to get past the peening, and peen again upon reassembly, making sure to leave room for this operation.
You might be able to tap the pommel off, but do it carefully, AND, make sure that it doesn't have a pin through the pommel holding it to the tang. Later models did, and that just might be one. Hard to tell from the pic.
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