Stacked leather handle replacement ?

J

Joe Remski

Joined
May 5, 1999
Messages
4
Hi,
I collect US military knives. Does anyone know how or if it is possible to replace military leather handles?

Thanks,
Joe
 
Interesting that you should ask that question. I've got an old hunter that my father-in-law gave me, and the leather washers were rotted nearly completely off...so I ordered some leather ring spacers from Texas Knifemakers Supply (20 cents each), and I have a vague notion of what to do to go from here, but as to EXACTLY what to do(i.e.: how do you keep the rings compressed till the glue dries?).......well, I'm thinking about it, and I'll see what, if anything, some of these other guys say. Lots of great ideas get floated around here, even stuff I hadn't even wondered about yet. Of course, I'm pretty much of a neophyte, so most of this stuff is new to me.
Good luck.

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Just because the river is still doesn't mean that the alligators have gone.
 
Hi!

That's a quiet easy task to do.

Get rid of the old washers by removing an eventual pommel. Look how the pommel is fixed.
Clean the tang of the knife if necessary. Get it dry and fat/oil free.
Get yourself a piece of a good quality sole leather and cut out washers that are quiet oversized. Cut holes in the middle of the washers that match the tang diametre.
Stack the washers on the tang by putting some long-curing epoxy on every washer. Stack until you have to really compress them to get the pommel back onto the tang end.
Press pommel back onto tang and fix it like it was at the beginning. Let cure the epoxy. The grip should look quiet awkward at that time. Don't worry.
After curing, grind/cut off the leather until you reach approximately the final grip form you want to have. Now use finer and finer sanding paper to finish the surface.
To finish the grip, you have different options. I would suggest to put on a good leather wax or silicone product, let cure and buff to a shine.

You may stack metal or coloured fibre spacers between the leather layers from time to time to dress up the grip.

Have fun!

Achim
 
Get ahold of a 1 1/4" hole saw that has a pilot bit in the center. Grind off the saw teeth and finish the outside edge into a chisel grind. Makes cheap spacers out of scrap leather.
Use various thicknesses of leather to vary the pattern, or spacer material.
As mentioned previous, use slow cure epoxy betwixt the washers.
I found some old woodworking clamps (the kind with 2 screws), cut a slot in one for the blade/guard end, and a hole in the other for the tang. Works gr8!
 
I agree with Harry on the use of the hole saw. For a stronger tool, check out the heavy duty hole cutter by "ADCO" (I use their 1 1/4" size) and for the tang hole you may want to try a special oval leather punch made by "Rampart Tool Co." I use Elmer's Glue-All between the leather washers and clamp the entire handle in a vise until the glue dries.
Bubba
 
The hole saw is a slick idea. For glue I use 5 min epoxy applied with a plastic knife like you would get in a cafeteria. With this method, work quickly (obviously). I usually put on about a quarter of the washers then compress them by pushing the tang down between my vise jaws(do this about 3 times). When I have all the washers on the tang, I make sure that there is a little to much leather on the handle so when I put the butt-cap on, the washers are further compressed. Too finish, I sand it down on a slack belt finishing it off with a very worn out 400 grit. Then I soak the **** out of the handle with Hot Shot ( a type of crazy glue). The leather will soak up the glue like a sponge. I keep doing this until no more glue soaks in then slack belt it again very lightly then buff with a soft wheel. Hope this helps.

Hugh

PS; Should you want to dye the leather, I recommend Fiebings leather dye from Tandy applied with an airbrush for an even coloring. Dye before applying the Hot Shot!!!

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Scraped, burnt, sliced, smashed. AHHHH, knifemaking!!!!
 
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