West-Cut - need handle repair advice

BigAl62

BigAl62

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I have what I believe to be a West-Cut L44-5 from 1941 that I picked up in a flea market a few months ago. Zzyzzogoten identified it for me in another post although he clarified that the spacer pattern does not match his catalog pages. The leather disks are in pretty good shape except for the gaps at the brass spacers.

I've never really done any "work" on a knife but I'd like tighten it up - probably by adding some spacers? The first thing I did was to clean out all the green verdigris from the gaps with a toothpick, dental floss and a utility knife blade. Then I submerged the handle in Fiebing's 100% Pure Neatsfoot oil 3 times. Each time, I submerged it for maybe 10 minutes and then removed it and allowed it to dry for several days before repeating. This last time, it's been drying for a over a week. The handle is just as firm as the day I got it but no swell. The brass spacers will move around but the leather seems pretty well fixed in place. I don't want to force the leather any. It may or may not mean anything but the "middle" section seemed to absorb and dry pretty quickly while the oil seemed to sit on the surface of the 2 end sections and I finally had to wipe them dry.

I certainly don't want to mess up a nice knife. Any recomendations or even maybe someone who could fix it for me?

IMG_6967.jpgIMG_6965.jpgIMG_6966.jpg
 
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I would take a piece of cardboard, like cereal box cardboard, and make a two piece pattern of each of the missing washers. Fit it as tight as you can so they meet in the middle of the split handle frame. Then take a piece of leather that's about 1.5 times thicker than the gap. Wet the leather and tap with a hammer until the thickness is right and the leather is good and dense. Let it dry completely. Mark it with the patterns and cut out new washers halves. Brush in contact cement. The wet contact cement will act as a lubricant. Tap in the new washer halves till tight and let the cement dry.

If you're lucky, the pieces fit perfect enough you only have to clean up the dry cement and stain the new pieces to match. Probably not, so trim with a razor blade and a little sandpaper work will match up the new pieces. You can use a brown sharpy pen to dye the new washers to match. Then a little wax will blend it in.
 
Before you do anything, you need to research what exactly goes in those slots. Is it brass, aluminum, multiple colors of fiber, or leather?
My bet is that it's NOT leather.
 
Hey Bill, I'm sure you're correct. I think we can rule out brass or aluminum just because they wouldn't break and fall out. Very likely red plastic spacers. I've seen the plastic spacers in other similar knives, and I believe they were all colored plexiglass. Plexiglass will break easily from a stress crack, and the skeleton tang would be a good place to start a crack.

If OP reads this, I looked around my shop and found a small piece of red plexiglass. Probably from the 1960s or 1970s because of the box of scraps it was with. It's 1/8" thick and big enough for what you need. If you want it, say so in this thread and I'll put it in an envelope and mail it to you. It's easy to sand and shape, shouldn't be too hard to make new spacers. I'd do the same thing I described above for fitting and gluing it in. Let me know.
 
Thank you guys for the responses. Zzyzzogoten identified the knife as probably a West-Cut L44-5 from 1941 although he clarified that the spacer pattern does not match his catalog pages. He said that was possibly because it's a West-Cut rather than a Western. I'm working a job 500 miles from home so I'm somewhat limited. I do have the book "The Knifemakers Who Went West" that I just received a couple of weeks ago so when I get home, I'll dig thru the catalog pages therein. I doubt the knife has enough intrinsic value to warrant sticking precisely to the oringinal?

Lukusamongus, I'd love to get that peice of plexiglass.

But I did find 2 very similar handles on that big on-line aution site. Both seem to look exactly like mine. . . even the gaps! The reason the gaps may look smaller could be because I cleaned out all the verdigris on mine. This is maybe something that is typical to that particular knife handle? I'm attaching those pics for reference.

s-l1600 (1).webps-l1600 (2).webps-l1600.webps-l1600 (3).webps-l1600 (4).webps-l1600 (5).webp
 
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The spacers on those knives were made of fiber. The fiber material is available from most knifemakers' supply houses. It's not expensive.
 
Hey OP, I can't direct message. Send me an email with you address and I'll drop the red plexiglass in the mail. lukus@sbcglobal.net

I have seen fiber spacers in stacked leather handles. I've also seen plexiglass (or a hard brittle plastic) in factory stacked leather handles. Plexiglass was the wonder plastic of WWII, so it was used for style. I've also seen collections of "theater" knives that the GIs had redone whole handles using plexiglass. Some of those get pretty wild.
 
To my knowledge, during WW2 no factory used Plexiglas spacers, though it was commonly found on home made and modified knives.
 
lukusamongus said:
Hey OP, I can't direct message. Send me an email with you address and I'll drop the red plexiglass in the mail. lukus@sbcglobal.net

I have seen fiber spacers in stacked leather handles. I've also seen plexiglass (or a hard brittle plastic) in factory stacked leather handles. Plexiglass was the wonder plastic of WWII, so it was used for style. I've also seen collections of "theater" knives that the GIs had redone whole handles using plexiglass. Some of those get pretty wild.
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Package received. I will move into this repair as soon as my construction project at Fort Johnson, LA finishes up in a few weeks. Thanks you.
 
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