Cabinetmaker
Well-Known Member
Barely into knife making, and I get a call from a local guy asking if I could repair the handle on his grandfathers USN K-bar from WW2. I said "sure I can".
He brings it to me and wants a new leather stacked handle, says he will make his own sheath.
So, I have never done this type work before, and I don't know how a pro knife maker would have approached this, but this is how I did it.
I made an 1.25" punch out of an old woodworking hole saw. Ground the teeth off, mounted it in the lathe and made a bevel with a dremel. It worked better than expected, I punched 50 leather discs.
I made 3 stacks of the discs by epoxying them into a block of wood. After the epoxy cured, I cut the blocks down to 1.25" squares and mounted each piece into the 4 jaw chuck on the wood lathe. This way I could "form" the 1/8" coves so characteristic of K-bar handles. I had never turned leather before, but this worked well too.
Next I needed to make the hole to fit over the tang, I drilled a hole in the center of each stack and cut a snug fitting slot in each on the scroll saw.
I center punched and drilled out the old pin holding the butt cap on. Then fit the new pieces onto the tang, made a new pin and compressed the leather stacks about an 1/8" in a vise, and epoxied it all together.
Filed, sanded and burnished the leather with wood dowels. Trimmed and peened the pin.
2 good liberal coats of leather dye, again with more burnishing. Followed by 2 application's of Sno-Seal. I am pleased with the results.
The customer has not seen it yet, but our agreement was $200 for the work.
I would be interested in any comments that the pros would like to offer!
Thanks for looking, Larry
He brings it to me and wants a new leather stacked handle, says he will make his own sheath.
So, I have never done this type work before, and I don't know how a pro knife maker would have approached this, but this is how I did it.
I made an 1.25" punch out of an old woodworking hole saw. Ground the teeth off, mounted it in the lathe and made a bevel with a dremel. It worked better than expected, I punched 50 leather discs.
I made 3 stacks of the discs by epoxying them into a block of wood. After the epoxy cured, I cut the blocks down to 1.25" squares and mounted each piece into the 4 jaw chuck on the wood lathe. This way I could "form" the 1/8" coves so characteristic of K-bar handles. I had never turned leather before, but this worked well too.
Next I needed to make the hole to fit over the tang, I drilled a hole in the center of each stack and cut a snug fitting slot in each on the scroll saw.
I center punched and drilled out the old pin holding the butt cap on. Then fit the new pieces onto the tang, made a new pin and compressed the leather stacks about an 1/8" in a vise, and epoxied it all together.
Filed, sanded and burnished the leather with wood dowels. Trimmed and peened the pin.
2 good liberal coats of leather dye, again with more burnishing. Followed by 2 application's of Sno-Seal. I am pleased with the results.
The customer has not seen it yet, but our agreement was $200 for the work.
I would be interested in any comments that the pros would like to offer!
Thanks for looking, Larry
