Replacing Leather Handle

[HerbG]

I'm replacing the leather handle on WW2 era combat knife for a friend. Should I glue those leather washers together or just stack and compress? What about gluing them to the tang? Should the handle be sanded to get the original coutour? Thanks!

 

[BARRY JONES]

Putting epoxy i between eack leather washer is a good idea. Epoxying the whole thing to the tang works too. You can sand the leather to get the original cotour.

 

[L6steel]

The way I do stacked leather handles is to drill a 5/16" hole in each disc. Get a 1/4" piece of all thread with two nuts and a couple large washers. Put the discs on the rod one at a time and apply glue to each one in liberal amounts. Once they're all on the rod, slip the second washer on and the nut and tighten the nuts till the leather is squeezed together nice and tight. It's super messy, so have some paper towels handy. It's better to have some extra glue on the leather than not enough. Now heres the trick. I chuck the rod up in my drill press and take a big wood raps and with the press on, use the rasp to remove lots of the excess leather, and get it shaped. Then go from around 80 grit through 220 grit sand paper to slick it up. Be real carefull not to take too much off while doing this. Once it is shaped and smoothed out.To remove the leather from the rod, I always take both nuts and washers off. Then put the jaws on my vise about 5/16" apart. Place one of the washer on the jaws and put the rod through it and between the jaws. Take a hammer and hit the rod driving it out of the leather. Hold onto the leather with your other hand because even though it's glues together, it can break apart.Once the rod is even with the top ot the leather, tighten the vise and simple screw the leather off the rod. Now you drill the tang hole to the proper size .When you're ready to put the handle on the knife, put a piece of tape on the hilt end of the handle and mix up some epoxy. The tape will keep the glue from running out of the handle. Fill the tang hole about 1/2 full with epoxy and brush some on the guard and tang. Then slip the handle onto the tang. Remove the tape about half way on. Then finish the assembly and wipe off as much excess epoxy as you can and set it up to dry. The rest you already know so I'll shut up. Take care! Michael

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