How To Clean Stacked Leather Handles?

[AlaChoctaw]

I have a WWII Kabar MkII Navy in pretty good shape, except that the leather handle is sort of dirty\dusty\moldy looking. I'm sure I can clean it up, but would like to get recommendations from anyone with experience with such grips.Thanks!

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AKTI Member #A000934
"Always just one knife short of perfection!"

 

[KillerMan]

I have exactly the same model. Mine was originally part of two different broken MkII's that I put together, but the handle was in about the same condition as you describe. I restacked the leather washers one at a time after smothering them with bear grease (any good boot grease should also work). The mold I just scraped off before I put the grease on. As for the rust, I used a wire brush to remove it, then put a light oil on to keep it from reappearing, but if I had the opportunity, I would try bluing or some other treatment to provide a longer lasting protection. Since yours is already assembled, you should be able to remove the butt cap by punching out the pin holding it on, then your biggest problem will be not getting the washers mixed up and making sure that you put them on with the right side up.

 

[Jeff Clark]

I wouldn't take it apart if the leather wafers are not loose, damaged, or moldy. I would mostly smell the handle to check for signs of mold. Even if it smelled a little, I would probably wash it and soak it with bleach as a first approach.

If it is just dirty you might try cleaning it with a scrub brush and saddle soap with water. After that you could look for general leather treatments that you would get for boots and saddles. I like to polish stacked leather using a shoe polishing approach.

There is a lot more material in the MKII handles than I need. If you don't care about keeping it "original" you could sand off the outer layer and even reshape the grip.

 

[MNH]

Make sure that the knife DOES NOT have any collectors value before you do anything invasive to it.


MNH