Restoring a Cattaraugus 225Q

[muskrat man]

Thought I would post a little on this since there is some 225 discussion going on lately. This is an heirloom knife, handle was battered and shrunken beyond repair, all the washers were dry rotted and loose. Somone very neatly shaved off all identifying marks on this 225Q for whatever reason. This was carried by the onwers grandfather during WWII and he requested a complete restore for display purposes.

If you need to get the pommel assembly off without destroying the nails, but a few (or a couple depending on how much of the handle you may want to save, and tap them out from the underside. May need to resharpen the tips before reassembly but this way you don't booger the heads up and can use the original twist nails.

Here's a bunch of pictures hopefully they speak for themselves. Whenever I redo one of these I pre-compress the washers dry, then reassemble with cement between every washer and compress again while installing the pommel. This way the handle should never come loose again.

[rexstubbins]

MM

Pretty sure that I'll need to do the same thing but I'm gonna ride it out for a bit.

Pics and results coming this weekend for oil soaked 225Q.

I'm certain that I'll need to succeed to replacement.

Glad I have your directions because I had no idea on how to take out those nails.

RS

[muskrat man]

Here is the finished product

[ea42]

Wow Kaleb, that;s a fantastic job!!

Eric

[rexstubbins]

WOW!

I hope mine comes out half as good as yours.

How well did the nails hold after reusing them? I'm a little nervous about removing them without damaging them.

[#goldpan]

Nice work Kaleb

[Brumbydownunder]

Wow that's "eye popping" Nice Job

[muskrat man]

WOW!

I hope mine comes out half as good as yours.

How well did the nails hold after reusing them? I'm a little nervous about removing them without damaging them.

held just fine, just need to resharpen the points. make sure you compress the washers a lot, otherwise you'll end up with gaps, some cement on all the parts as you do final assembly helps too.

[glennbad]

Yee haw! Nice work as always!

[TripleF]

Fantastic job Kaleb!!

[orvet]

Nice work Kaleb, as usual!
I have a 225Q blade that someone tried to put a stag handle on. The nomenclature is intact, but the pommel is missing so I will have to make a pommel of some sort.
I have seen your work on 225Qs before and it was a good reminder of how that pommel is constructed to see it again. The pommel is a bit more complicated than I want to make for a replacement, but it might be interesting to try to duplicate it, perhaps in brass to add a little color.

[wazu013]

Nice work Caleb
I love those 225Q's but I've never been able to work one into my bucket.