- Joined
- Apr 29, 2015
- Messages
- 5
Greetings from a new member! Knife restoration is a new area for me. I know enough to "proceed with caution" on these sorts of projects, so I thought it was time to get some great advice. I just acquired a nice but not minty PAL-built RH34 with a stacked leather grip and a turned, hardwood pommel topped by an oval steel plate. I suspect PAL replaced aluminum pommels with wood in response to strategic materials restrictions. I figure this is a WW2 fighting knife, neglected but not abused over the last 75 years. All the original components are still present and intact.
There is some looseness in the stacked handle. On my Remington UMC RH34 I was able to fix the same problem by making a spanner-type screwdriver and tightening the recessed brass nut on the end of the threaded tang, but in this instance, I can't tell if the tang and the oval cap on the wood pommel are threaded, or if the cap was simply hammered down onto the pommel and the end of the tang, which shows in the center of the steel cap and was probably then filed flush. I tried to gently unscrew the plate and got nowhere; the little bit of rotational flexing this caused simply loosened up a few more leather washers so that they now "float" free on the tang rather than being stuck to their neighbors. I have backed off on this approach, not wanting to cause damage.
The steel finger guard also has some "play" in it, and by compressing all washers, I can create a gap of about half the thickness of a dime in the handle stack. I decided a temporary fix would be to wrap something thin around the tang in that gap and went with thin copper wire (which is removable). I could probably find some sort of soft black filler material, even wax, and just push it into the remaining gap, smooth and polish everything and call it good, but thought I should try to find someone who has dealt with the same problem, as there's probably a better solution -- especially if someone knows whether that steel plate is threaded onto the tang and just needs to be unstuck.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! FR
There is some looseness in the stacked handle. On my Remington UMC RH34 I was able to fix the same problem by making a spanner-type screwdriver and tightening the recessed brass nut on the end of the threaded tang, but in this instance, I can't tell if the tang and the oval cap on the wood pommel are threaded, or if the cap was simply hammered down onto the pommel and the end of the tang, which shows in the center of the steel cap and was probably then filed flush. I tried to gently unscrew the plate and got nowhere; the little bit of rotational flexing this caused simply loosened up a few more leather washers so that they now "float" free on the tang rather than being stuck to their neighbors. I have backed off on this approach, not wanting to cause damage.
The steel finger guard also has some "play" in it, and by compressing all washers, I can create a gap of about half the thickness of a dime in the handle stack. I decided a temporary fix would be to wrap something thin around the tang in that gap and went with thin copper wire (which is removable). I could probably find some sort of soft black filler material, even wax, and just push it into the remaining gap, smooth and polish everything and call it good, but thought I should try to find someone who has dealt with the same problem, as there's probably a better solution -- especially if someone knows whether that steel plate is threaded onto the tang and just needs to be unstuck.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! FR
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