All About Pocket Knives

Howdy all: Actually have a few questions here. Picked up this old knife, to me without question a common PAL RH 36. First odd thing is there are absolutely no markings on the tang or guard and no evidence there ever was. I've looked with high magnification and Im certain this was never marked. Could these have been unmarked for a period of time, say when they were switching from stamps that used the Remington designations?
My second question relates to the shrunken leather handle washers. Has anyone ever been able to swell these back up again? Has anyone ever removed the pommel and tried to add a couple more new ones? If so what's a good source for leather like this? This thing is pretty rough so it would make a good test piece. Thanks

Do you think that's an aluminum guard?

No, its steel. I started cleaning it up, thats why it looks so bright.

Both you guys are mistaken. The pommel is zinc. Lots of those around with no or very faint marks. I think they were stamping out so many so fast that the die got worn and didn't get replaced until somebody noticed the problem. The pin in the zinc pommel may be tough to remove without damaging the zinc pommel, as zinc gets brittle over time. Leather rings are available on ebay if you really want to put the money and effort into a low value knife. I say low value because of the poor blade condition, not low in esteem.

Um, no Im not wrong, we were discussing the guard, not the pommel.

KA-BAR has a handle kit. I have some extra washers if you want a couple. If I took it apart I’d go with a total replacement. Or use lucite for a trench art look.

I think I’d just cut the zinc pommel off and use something else. Either aluminum or maybe a piece of antler and leave the pommel off.

The knife is too far gone to restore. So feel free to go in any direction you want.

I looked back through some old threads, and this one had several good suggestions.
They include splitting a washer and glueing it in place, rehandling the knife, and some links to other forums for some products that are supposed to swell the leather. It also includes proof that mineral oil does NOT help!
Anyway, I hope that this helps!

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=52803&p=581041&hil ... il#p581041

Apparently it was Tonto’s EDC.

After a bit of thinking I decided to dive into this. The pin for the pommel came out with no drama or damage. After I tapped down the washer stack I measured that the total shrinkage was just over .300". Looking at the situation I saw that the tang could be shorted a bit and a new hole for the pin drilled lower down. It all went back together with no trouble. The guard, washers and pommel are all as tight as can be now and I did it with very basic tools and no expense. You can't feel .300" loss in your hand and it still fits fine in the sheath.

Great repair.

Looks great!
When you re-drilled the hole for the pin,did you put it a little further forward and compress the leather washers when you re-assembled it? I'm curious because I wonder if they might shrink a bit more over time. Want to know in case I decide to take a run at a couple of mine that are suffering a similar malady.

Judging by how much that have already I think/hope they are done shrinking.
I did try to compress the stack of washers with the pommel when I marked where I would drill the new hole. They didn't compress much if any.

Great repair, and all original!!!
I probably wouldn't have thought of that, but am glad that you thought of it and showed pictures.

wornoutwrench wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:51 am Judging by how much that have already I think/hope they are done shrinking.
I did try to compress the stack of washers with the pommel when I marked where I would drill the new hole. They didn't compress much if any.

Thanks for the input. One of the knives I want to repair is an original Case V-42 but I am having difficulty finding the correct thickness of the washers.The V-42 has very thin leather washers(36 of them if I remember correctly;I counted them on an original)and I would like to make it look original as possible.