All About Pocket Knives

Could anyone recommend a good book on how to do knife repairs? I can do a lot of the basics and what not but I'm always looking to increase my knowledge. I've bought a couple but I haven't been impressed. Thanks Kasey!

See this thread for some recommendations viewtopic.php?f=2&t=58370&p=667717&hilit=Adrian#p667715

Ken

The two that I have. The Harris book is readily available, the Ben Kelley one is out of print, but you may be able to find one online.

As far as I know there are basically 3 older books on pocketknife repair. The 2 shown above and also Blackie Collins has a book. The Ben Kelley book is far and away the best of the 3. These books are all dated and times, material, tools, etc. have changed. There is far more current good information in the tutorial section of AAPK than there is in any of the 3 books. Study it and then Google what you're looking for help on and maybe you'll be lucky and find a Utube video. I found one on soldering that helped me a lot. There are also several books on knife making and that information can also be very helpful about lay out and materials.

just bob wrote:As far as I know there are basically 3 older books on pocketknife repair. The 2 shown above and also Blackie Collins has a book. The Ben Kelley book is far and away the best of the 3. These books are all dated and times, material, tools, etc. have changed. There is far more current good information in the tutorial section of AAPK than there is in any of the 3 books. Study it and then Google what you're looking for help on and maybe you'll be lucky and find a Utube video. I found one on soldering that helped me a lot. There are also several books on knife making and that information can also be very helpful about lay out and materials.

Yes you are correct in that the Kelley book is much more comprehensive than the others. Also Muskratman has some youtube videos available that are very informative.

If anyone is looking for the Ben Kelley book show above, there is one for sale on Ebay today.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Complete-Pocke ... Swd1tdz0Gx

OLDE CUTLER wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 1:29 am If anyone is looking for the Ben Kelley book show above, there is one for sale on Ebay today.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Complete-Pocke ... Swd1tdz0Gx

And there’s a few more copies here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing ... d&qid=&sr=

The Ben Kelley book is the one I have. It's a good one!
Seems I got it from the bay years ago.

Abe Books
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Search ... e%20repair

Ben Kelly's book is the first one I was able to get when I started repairing knives and its good though there are things in Adrian Harris' book that I find easier to understand.
If you get the most recent edition of Harris' book it has a couple chapters the first edition doesn't cover. Off top of my head I remember a chapter on etching blades with an Electro-Chem Etch machine and some information on newer blade steels. I found both very helpful.

IMO, the most recent edition of Harris' book is the best book. If you can't find Kellys book you can usually find Harris' book for about $10 or so.

EDIT:
Knife Magazine Books has Harris' book for $8.99, I just checked.

G,day Mate,
I have purchased both books shown above and have found them to be extremely helpful on specific Pocket knife repair. I am unaware of any other books that offer more information on pocket repair, specifically. When you look at them they were written quite a while back and in the context of that time period there was not much mention of repair of pocket knives. I find people that criticize them don't really have a substitute that is better at this point of time.

Also have the Blackie Collins book The pocket Knife Manual.This book is not bad but not as informative as the two above.

Step by Step Knivemaking -You Can Do It by David Boye
Custom Knifemaking by Tim Mc Creight are books I bought 30 years ago when starting on fixed blades.There's sparse pocket knife info In them but still worth buying if you can get them cheap enough.

The first mentioned books above have the information from basic to advanced whereas the rest are not too bad .If there's a budget involved, based upon my experience ,I would say there's more value in the first two books mentioned.

And of course what trumps the the bloody lot are the collective experiences of the wise gentlemen right here on this forum.

My respect to you gents.

Ozwelder

to AAPK, Christopfer! Good luck!