Threaded Tang on German Fixed Blades

[EyeBJoe]

I am seeking some information on threaded tang type fixed blade knives. This week I unearthed a box long forgotten in my garage that had 5 old Carl Schlieper fixed blade knives. One had a leather ring handle and the rest were stag, but all had varying stages of rust on the blades. Each knife has a threaded tang with what appears to be a brass nut within the butt cap. I think this is fairly common construction on a lot of relatively inexpensive German fixed blades. Is there a special tool that is required to unscrew the nut? I am going to embark on a mission to clean and partially restore the knives and need to disassemble the handles in order to get started. Any information from you fellows would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

EyeBJoe
Joe D. Dobbs
Richardson, Texas

[Eye Brand Man]

Yes common construction on German knives of the time as well as American knives notably Marbles. They do make a special tool, but it's not always necessary depending on how tight they are. Sometimes you can use a pair of needle nose pliers to loosen them(You can mod the tips to fit on belt grinder). I made a custom one from an old flat blade screw driver, used a metal bandsaw to mod the tip.

[zzyzzogeton]

They are called "split nut drivers" as the nuts are called "split nuts".

You can either make one from a screwdriver as Eye Brand Man said or you can google

split nut driver for sale

and get a bunch of sources

[americanedgetech]

You might want to apply some moderate heat before trying to loosen that nut.
I have one that I took apart that had some sort of sealer on the threads like a shellac or similar. It wasn't a LokTite type product because acetone did nothing to remove it from the threads afterwards.

I used a heat gun, and waited until I could see the material bubbling in the nut before I removed it. Prior to using the heat gun I was afraid I was going to deform the brass so I stopped.

[kootenay joe]

I cut a notch into the tang of a 7" flat file. These nuts come in a few sizes and tool needs to fit snugly so i need to make 2 more with different size cut out of tang to handle all sizes.
kj

[muskrat man]

as others have said, you can easily make your own from the proper sized flat screwdriver or a file by notching it with a dremel tool or bandsaw. it's good to have a set of them if you work on knives a lot so you can properly fit them to the nut just like any other screw driver to avoid buggering things up.

[EyeBJoe]

Many Thanks for the replies and suggestions guys. I will start with the modified screwdriver and see where I end up.


JDD