All About Pocket Knives

A lot of us have had the privilege of sitting at the feet of AAPK knife mechanics. When perplexed, confused or down right lost on what to do next on our project knife whether fixed blade or our favorite folder we have went to the well of knowledge to glean information that will get us out of a pickle and put us on the right road to finish our knife. And I personally must say they have been very gracious, accommodating and free with the knowledge they have acquired by trail and error, long hours at the bench, and I am sure sleepless nights for that specific fix, so we will not have to. Soooo...... my question to our members , has there been anyone astute, calculating, clever, savvy enough to put all of this knowledge in notebook form or a pdf as a reference to check back on when trouble arises as we work on our knives Example... how to repair a chipped handle of bone or stag etc. how would you adjust a blade that does not sit in the well properly, what is the first step in taking a folder apart, there may be a different fix for the same problem then a comparison could be made that best fits our particular need. I would love to have something like that for a reference if there is one available. No doubt the same questions have been asked over and over again as new members join AAPK. If you have suggestions or comments please give me a shout. Or if you have such a treasure please let me know, thanks.

I have said that if I ever get to retire I'm going to write a series of knife repair manuals. One book just aint gonna hold it all!

Caleb that sounds great you would be top on my list to "getter done"

Heck, I'm still learning every day. Just when I think I have a task down, I get thrown a curve ball...

buddyie22 wrote:A lot of us have had the privilege of sitting at the feet of AAPK knife mechanics. When perplexed, confused or down right lost on what to do next on our project knife whether fixed blade or our favorite folder we have went to the well of knowledge to glean information that will get us out of a pickle and put us on the right road to finish our knife. And I personally must say they have been very gracious, accommodating and free with the knowledge they have acquired by trail and error, long hours at the bench, and I am sure sleepless nights for that specific fix, so we will not have to. Soooo...... my question to our members , has there been anyone astute, calculating, clever, savvy enough to put all of this knowledge in notebook form or a pdf as a reference to check back on when trouble arises as we work on our knives Example... how to repair a chipped handle of bone or stag etc. how would you adjust a blade that does not sit in the well properly, what is the first step in taking a folder apart, there may be a different fix for the same problem then a comparison could be made that best fits our particular need. I would love to have something like that for a reference if there is one available. No doubt the same questions have been asked over and over again as new members join AAPK. If you have suggestions or comments please give me a shout. Or if you have such a treasure please let me know, thanks.

I started out with the Adrian Harris book "Knife Repair and Restoration" which is available online and from Jantz. It does not cover every problem that a knife repair tech could encounter, but has some good basic information. Another one I have is "The Complete Book of Pocketknife Repair" by Ben Kelley. It is much more comprehensive, but I don't think it is available anymore.
I am now awaiting the much anticipated muskrat man encyclopedic set of knife repair manuals. Hope he gets it out soon.

I keep a 3 ring binder of Shop Notes.
In it are drawings or tracing of the basic shape of different knives; brands and models. I make notes of different dimensions of the patterns also.

The book contains information I think l might find useful should I work on that pattern again.
The problem is that very few people can actually read my writing and abbreviations. Also I don't have time now to write it up now.

I seldom attempt to repair knives and don't make knives either, but I have found the Adrian Harris book very helpful in diagnosing problemss. It is well illustrated and clearly written.

Ken

I use both of the books Olde Cutler mentions. I also do things "my way", which is probably the wrong way. It'd be a disservice for me to write it down and someone to follow it.

It is kind of funny how things work out sometimes. When I retired 5 years ago and began accumulating old knives and deciding to try to do some repair and modifications, I picked up the Adrian Harris book from a knife dealer at a local gunshow. As I mentioned above, this book has a lot of good basic information, but I thought I would try to pick up another knife repair book. I checked with Barnes & Nobles and Amazon online and found another book, the one by Ben Kelley was no longer in print but there were some copies available for what I thought was a relative expensive price. While I was mulling over whether to spend the dough for the Ben Kelley book, my wife had the idea that we needed to paint the walls in our extra guest bedroom. So I got all the required materials collected and we began the project. Our guest bedroom like many of yours probably has a few bookshelves for storing our "library". In the process of cleaning out the room to do the painting, I had the opportunity to move all the books off the shelves and stack them in the corner of the next room. As I was carrying a stack of books almost up to my chin, I lost the grip and a few books fell on the floor. I looked down and the one on the top of the pile had fallen on the floor face up, and it was "The Complete Book of Pocketknife Repair" by Ben Kelley. I bruised my jaw when it hit the floor!! Inside the book was a receipt from our local Barnes & Noble store from 8/13/1995 for $10.95 when I had bought the book and forgotten all about it. Like I said, kind of funny how things work out sometimes.

OLDE CUTLER wrote:

buddyie22 wrote:A lot of us have had the privilege of sitting at the feet of AAPK knife mechanics. When perplexed, confused or down right lost on what to do next on our project knife whether fixed blade or our favorite folder we have went to the well of knowledge to glean information that will get us out of a pickle and put us on the right road to finish our knife. And I personally must say they have been very gracious, accommodating and free with the knowledge they have acquired by trail and error, long hours at the bench, and I am sure sleepless nights for that specific fix, so we will not have to. Soooo...... my question to our members , has there been anyone astute, calculating, clever, savvy enough to put all of this knowledge in notebook form or a pdf as a reference to check back on when trouble arises as we work on our knives Example... how to repair a chipped handle of bone or stag etc. how would you adjust a blade that does not sit in the well properly, what is the first step in taking a folder apart, there may be a different fix for the same problem then a comparison could be made that best fits our particular need. I would love to have something like that for a reference if there is one available. No doubt the same questions have been asked over and over again as new members join AAPK. If you have suggestions or comments please give me a shout. Or if you have such a treasure please let me know, thanks.

I started out with the Adrian Harris book "Knife Repair and Restoration" which is available online and from Jantz. It does not cover every problem that a knife repair tech could encounter, but has some good basic information. Another one I have is "The Complete Book of Pocketknife Repair" by Ben Kelley. It is much more comprehensive, but I don't think it is available anymore.
I am now awaiting the much anticipated muskrat man encyclopedic set of knife repair manuals. Hope he gets it out soon.

It'll be at least 30 years, if I'm still alive by then lol

The harris and kelley books are great information to get going and you can build off what is learned from them with your own experiences

It would be nice if we could take the time to video and narrate each repair, but that is impractical.
Should someone wish to take the time to do that, a video library could be very helpful.
I actually bought a pair of camera sunglasses and removed the lenses so that I could video from my point of view. Never could get the focal point correct, so I gave up. I could have narrated as I was working, and edited later.