All About Pocket Knives

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question or not, but here goes. Every year I do a little project as Christmas presents for my work team. This year, I would like to give them all customized carving knives and forks for the turkey or ham I will also give them. I was thinking about starting out with a Chicago Cutlery carving set, removing the handles, and putting on new ones with mosaic pins and exotic woods. Cheap enough I can afford to do roughly 20 sets.

Anyway, to make a short question long, how should I go about removing the original walnut handles without ruining the hardware? Any help on this question would be greatly appreciated!

Dave

Dave,

I'm far from a knife mechanic but I would suggest that a picture of one of the knives you are interested in modifying might help those who are steer you in the proper direction.

Phil

PS Wish you were my boss!

Good call, Phil, hadn't thought of that. Hope this works....

When I saw the title of your post my first thought was a Dremel cutting wheel which would still work in cutting off one side of the rivit, but after looking at the picture I think drilling out one side then using a punch might be a good start.

Disclaimer: I am most specifically not recommending the following technique, merely offering it for amusement and historical purposes.

I once did 30 sets of these for some crazy project my nephew came up with. Being the lazy man I am, I clamped the handle in a parallel clamp (Jorgenson or similar), with the knife/fork/whatever on edge. Then I just cut the old handle off with a bandsaw, carefully cutting to one side of the tang. Stop as soon as you've cut through the second rivet--so there is still some full-thickness wood--or the clamp will slip.

Took longer to replace the blade than to saw the handles off.

carefully drill out the head of the rivet on one side, then use a punch. remember when working with sharp knives tape up your blade before you work

To be clear (and to answer your question), you can't remove the handles without "ruining the hardware".. since these are rivets, with a mechanical connection (ie. press fit) you will need to cut them to remove them.

D

Thanks for all the tips, everyone! I tried the drilling method, and the handles came off in about two minutes flat. I was sure they would be glued on for some reason, but I guess that just adds to manufacturing time and costs, huh? Anyway, I will be gluing the new ones on and adding mosaic pins to dress them up a bit.

Thanks again, I'm off to drilling!!!

Dave