How to make a quick DIY knife handle repair. How to fix a broken knife handle with your own hands so that it is like new Repair a knife
Sometimes the handle linings break off on knives, especially if they are made of plastic. It is a pity to throw away the knife plate, especially when the blade can still serve for a long time.
First, we will discuss two ideas for restoring a knife handle, and then we will try to make one of them a reality. Any person holding in their hands can cope with such work. cutting tools, hammer, pliers and brush.
If the shank is thick enough, then you can take a piece of hard wood, cut or drill a hole in it and insert the shank into it with an interference fit. Such a fastening of the handle on the shank is called mounted. With a thin shank, this method of fixing the handle will not be very reliable.
For such a case better pen make from two identical halves and fix them on the shank with rivets, pins or furniture tie screws. This method, called riveted or overhead, seems to be the best here.
We prepare the knife for restoration, completely removing all the remnants of the old handle from the shank, and put it in order.
What do we need to work
Let's prepare the necessary materials:- knife plate - a blade with a shank (the subject of restoration);
- veneer of red or similar quality wood;
- a block of hardwood or multilayer quality plywood;
- epoxy resin;
- a metal rod (preferably made of copper or aluminum, but steel can also be used);
- transparent waterproof varnish.
- hacksaw for wood and metal;
- Stanley knife (carpet knife);
- pliers or pliers;
- drilling machine or electric drill;
- metalwork vice;
- grinder and sandpaper.
The process of making a knife handle
The dimensions of the handle depend on the length of the blade and shank, but the thickness of the lining should not be less than 6-7 mm, otherwise it is difficult to ensure the strength of the handle and ease of use. The sequence of individual steps is also not critical.
1. We cut off two blanks of the same length from the prepared wooden block (future pads or cheeks of the handle).
2. With pliers or a hacksaw, we separate the pins from the rod along a length slightly greater than the total thickness of the handle. At the end of the work, they can be riveted and the linings can be firmly connected to each other and to the shank. The ends of the pins are rounded for safety and ease of installation in holes.
3. Using the shank with the heel as a sample, we apply them to the workpieces of the cheeks, circle the front contour and the place for drilling the hole. We carry out drilling and processing of overlays from the side of the blade according to the marks, since after assembling the knife it will not be easy to do this, especially if they are complex in configuration. We insert the pin into the hole and make sure that it matches in diameter and length.
4. Cut the veneer along the contour, placing a piece of it between the overlays, and removing the excess with a Stanley knife.
5. We apply epoxy resin to the outer surfaces of the overlays, inserting a pin into the hole in advance, and glue the veneer. After making sure that there is no displacement, we assemble the knife plate, both linings with glued veneer together with the pin and clamp everything in a vise until the epoxy is completely cured.
6. Pre-form the handle, using first band saw, carpet knife, then grinder and coarse sandpaper.
Everyone decides for himself whether it is worth restoring and repairing an old chipped knife, or not. It probably makes sense if there are good memories associated with the knife and it has proven itself to be a quality tool.
Most known species knife defects - chips cutting edge blade. To eliminate chips on the blade, it is necessary to grind the metal to the base of the chips, regardless of the width of the blade in this place. In some cases, the location of the chips leads to the fact that it is necessary to change the shape of the blade. Once the chips are removed, you can start re-sharpening again. The restored knives are sharpened as follows - first, the blade is ground from one side and the other to the middle, so that the bevel of the blade does not form on one of the sides, and only after that the cutting edge begins to be sharpened until a burr appears, as in ordinary everyday. At the end of sharpening, the restored and repaired knife is polished on a polishing wheel.
A similar method can be used to repair a knife with a broken tip, the tip of the blade. This knife is vertically sharpened for tape machine, the blade is given the necessary shape, after which the tip is ground to be in the middle of the blade, without a bevel on one of the sides.
Scratches and chips on golomeny are formed, as a rule, with not very accurate sharpening and it is not very easy to remove them. The only way out in this situation is to thoroughly polish the blade on the polishing wheel, keeping the blade scratched as it rotates. But if the knife is made of hardened steel, such repairs are extremely costly.
It is very difficult to repair a bent blade. Blade warps are most often caused by trying to use the knife as leverage. Different varieties steels can react differently to an attempt to straighten the blade - they can easily succumb, they may not succumb at all, or they may break. By appearance to determine what will happen - most likely will not succeed until you try. If you still decide to straighten the blade, you should hold the knife in a vise and gently bend it in the opposite direction, or put the blade on the anvil and lightly tap on it with the narrow side of the hammer until the blade straightens. This work should be done with gloves, as attempting to bend the knives back is harmful to the inner layers of the steel and can lead to unexpected sharp breaks.
In cases where repair of the knife handle is required, it will have to be installed in the same way as it was installed at the factory, so evaluate your abilities. First, wrap the blade with tape so as not to scratch it and cut yourself when installing the handle. The most common failure is the loss of the pins that secure the lamellar handle. Remove both halves of the handle, clean them completely with inside from glue, and clean the shank. Estimate the fasteners, if necessary, cut the necessary holes on the inside of the halves of the handle for rivets, check that everything fits well. Separate all parts of the knife, grease them with a thin layer of two-component glue and assemble the product, insert the pins and fasten. The handle must not be installed in a vice and under the press for the time the glue dries - otherwise the parts will be fixed in an unnatural position, and after being removed they will bend back - such a handle will be extremely short-lived. Cut off the protruding ends of the pins and carefully grind.
All things break sooner or later. In some cases, it will not be possible to do without the help of specialists. In other situations, it is quite possible to take matters into your own hands. Here, for example, is what can be done if the handle of a knife breaks off. Such a critical breakdown is actually not as terrible as it might seem at first glance, especially if the owner has a desire and hands grow from the right place.
Preparation
Don't be under any illusions about a broken knife. The best (and often the only) way to restore a tool is to create a brand new handle with an existing blade installed in it. Therefore, before starting work, we remove all remnants of the old handle from the knife shank.
In addition, for work you will need red (or close in quality) wood veneer, a metal rod, epoxy resin, a transparent waterproof varnish, another block of wood, this time hardwood (high-quality multilayer plywood is also suitable). In the process, you will definitely need a hacksaw, an electric drill, a vise, sandpaper and a grinder, as well as a carpet knife.
The working process
The dimensions of the manufactured handle depend on the dimensions of the knife shank. In this case, the thickness of the overlays should not be less than 6-7 mm. Otherwise, such a handle will be simply uncomfortable.
So let's take our wooden beam and we make two blanks for overlays from it.
Now we take the prepared rod and, using pliers, separate the pins from it along a length slightly exceeding the total thickness of the knife handle. Their ends must be rounded for ease of installation and safety.
We take a knife, apply the shank to the workpiece and outline the front contour, as well as the place for drilling the hole. After that, drilling should be done according to the marks, followed by processing of the overlays from the side of the blade. If you do not do this now, then in the future it will become extremely problematic to perform such work. This stage ends with checking the conformity of the pin with the workpieces.
We take and cut the prepared veneer. We do it along the contour. A piece of veneer is placed between the overlays. All excess is removed with a carpet knife. When this is done, you can apply epoxy to outer part overlays. At the same time, the pin should already be installed by this time. We glue the veneer and make sure there is no displacement. Having attached both linings, we carefully enclose the entire structure in a vise.
If there is no desire or opportunity to replace / repair a knife that has become unusable from the master, but they need to work, our advice will help. With their help, it will be possible to repair the handle and fix the blade itself.
Types of blade defects and ways to eliminate them
Chips and deformations on the cutting edge
The most common type of damage is chipping or deformation of the cutting edge. They should not be confused with blunting: in this case, the line formed at the point where the supplies converge simply ceases to be imaginary and forms an additional plane that glares in the light; chips are uneven damage to this very line of convergence. If you turn the knife towards you with the side where it has a cutting edge, or carefully look at the blade from the side, you will see the chippedness. These are the chips. In case of deformations, on the contrary, the cutting edge retains its integrity, but “goes in a wave” - it bends into different sides preventing a comfortable cut.
How do we do it? To do this, we completely remove the metal to the place where the descents end and the supplies begin. If the blade has a profile without supply, we grind to the place where the deepest chip ends or where the deformation of the cutting edge began. We should get a smooth additional surface, from which we have to “extract” the updated cutting edge. This is done in three stages: first, the blade is sharpened rough to determine where and how much metal should be removed from the slopes, then the slopes are polished on both sides (that is, the approach is leveled - it is made the same in thickness along the entire length of the blade), and then the final fine-tuning.
broken point
If the very tip of the blade is broken off, it's okay, the repair is done in almost the same way as the previous case. First, the blade is ground, giving it the necessary shape, then it is sharpened, forming new slopes, and only then the cutting edge is brought out with the desired angle. An option for the lazy is to grind off some metal from the butt and create a new tip just below the location of the former.
Scratches and chips on the golomens (side surfaces of the blade)
This and the next type of damage are the most difficult to repair. Usually the blade has enough hardness to withstand household mechanical damage, that is, the risk of scratching it on something is unlikely. Most often, golomeni are scratched during careless sharpening, when not carts or the lower part of the slopes are applied to the grindstone, if there are no carts, but the entire blade is flat.
Shallow damage can be removed on a grinding wheel or sandpaper laid on flat surface, for example, on glass (ordinary GOI paste on a polishing wheel is unlikely to cope with them). If the steel is hardened, it will be very difficult to do this. After all, in addition to removing a deep scratch, you will also have to level the hole left on the surface of the blade from it.
Blade Warp
Often another complex view damage - an “unhealthy” bend is obtained when something heavy is hooked with a knife. Even if you make the exact reverse action, we will either get an additional bend, or even break the blade (for example, if the steel is hardened to high units of hardness, that is, one that does not bend, but simply breaks under lateral load).
If the blade is flexible, it should be clamped in a vice through wooden spacers and gently straightened with your hands, observing safety measures, and always with gloves (preferably chain mail or specially designed to protect against cuts). When the blade takes on a shape close to its original shape, it can be laid on a flat surface and tapped with the narrow side of the hammer, removing the remaining deformations and finally leveling.
Repair or change of handle
Handles are divided into two main types - overhead and mounted. Before working with the handle, tightly wrap something around the blade so as not to get injured; To do this, you can use adhesive tape, electrical tape or a strip of fabric, the ends of which are tacked with threads or glue.
Insertion of pins
Most often, handle play occurs if the pins and rivets that secure it to the shank are loosened or completely fall out. In this case, the repair is done like this:
- both plates that make up the handle are removed;
- their inner surfaces, as well as the surface of the shank, are cleaned of glue and adjusted to each other with a file or emery to exclude both backlash and gaps when mating with each other;
- parts are lubricated with new two-component adhesive and tightly attached to each other;
- pins are inserted;
- the resulting assembly is securely fixed with clamps or in a vice and left to dry completely, after which the protruding ends of the pins are cut off and ground.
This is important: during the drying of the glue, you should not apply too much force to the assembly (for example, put the handle under the press). The assembly can “float” under excessive load and lock in the wrong position with respect to the pins that have not yet been sheared. Ready product after repair will be unusable.
Changing the handle on a knife with a mounted mount is done in the same way, but instead of the old handle, a new one is taken. In the Japanese tradition, the shank is generally made in such a way that even at home, the old handle from a magnolia chef's knife can be knocked down and a ready-made new one, which is sold as consumable. In the budget segment, for the manufacture of handles, for the most part, not the most suitable types of wood are used, including those with defects; to hide the defectiveness of the material, a thick layer of paint and varnish is placed on the handle, which makes it slippery and uncomfortable. Replacing such a handle is forced and allows you to radically improve not only appearance knife, but also the safety of working with it.
Helpful Hint: Instead of varnishing, a wood handle can be protected from decay and deterioration by regularly oiling it with natural compounds, such as clove oil or boiled linseed oil.
If the knife has a slippery handle, but there is no stop (guard or developed bolster), you can drill a hole at the end of the handle, thread a lanyard cord into it and put the resulting loop on your wrist - it will prevent your hand from slipping onto the blade and injuring yourself.
If you make the guard yourself, check with the current legislation so as not to accidentally modify ordinary knife to what would qualify as a melee weapon.
The knife does not have to be repaired if it is purchased from a reliable seller, but it is used only for its intended purpose. You can find out how to use knives correctly, how to store and care for them, in other articles on our blog.
Even the most expensive and high-quality kitchen, folding or Hunter knives, after intensive use, tend to lose their sharpness.
If you do not have the opportunity to sharpen knives yourself or you are not sure that you will cope with the process of correct and accurate sharpening, we will always be happy to help you in this important and necessary issue.
We offer you a full range of services for precision sharpening, dressing and restoration of the cutting edges of knives: kitchen, chef's, chef's, santoku, sirloin, chopping, EDC, folding, fixed blade knives, hunting, sirloin, as well as scissors, meat grinder knives, chisels, axes and other cutting and planing tools.
Works are performed on modern professional mechanical (!) sharpening systems with high accuracy - up to tenths of a degree. When sharpening, we use water and oil abrasive stones made of silicon carbide and aluminum oxide, various finishing and polishing pastes, leather, natural stones like Arkansas, jasper, etc.
Unlike electric sharpeners, mechanical (manual) sharpening avoids overheating of the cutting edge and, which is very important, maintains the original factory hardening (steel hardness) of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Each type of knife has its own way and angle of sharpening. We sharpen knives taking into account their purpose, surface treatment, materials of manufacture.
We guarantee razor sharpness your knives and how long the cutting edge stays sharp after sharpening.
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After our sharpening, any kitchen work, working with wood, cooking, barbecue, being at a forest bivouac, fishing, hunting will be a pleasure for you!
We provide courier delivery. From 5 knives we will pick up and deliver for FREE! (within the radius of the Moscow Ring Road).
Sharpening (simple): |
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| Kitchen knife with blade up to 10 cm/10-20 cm/20-35 cm | from 150/250/350 rub. |
| Ceramic knife with a blade up to 15 cm / over 15 cm | from 300/400 rub. |
| hunting/t uristic knife with a bladeup to 15 cm / over 15 cm | from 350/450 rub. |
| Jackknife | from 300 rub. |
| Axe | from 550 rub. |
| Chisels, planer knives, n small shoulder blades | from 150 rub. |
| Straight scissors, secateurs | from 150 rub. |
| Bread slicer and serrated knife | sharpening is not performed |
Additional services: |
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| Restoration of the cutting edge (chips on the RC, jams, etc.) | from 200/pcs. |
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Alignment, restoration of a broken point |
from 350 rub. |
| Cleaning (rust, oxides, patina, other contaminants) | from 450 rub. |
|
Blade resharpening to your angle |
+ 150 rub. |
| Sharpening lenses | + 250 rub. |
| Recurve sharpening | + 150 rub. |
| Sharpening of meat grinder knives (knife, "grid") | from 150 rub. |
| Making slopes on knife blanks up to 15 cm / over 15 cm | from 850/950 rub. |
|
RK coating with diamond sputtering (option) |
300 rub/cm |
The total cost depends on the size of the knife blade, the hardness of the steel of the blade and the complexity of the work performed: complete regrinding, regrinding at a different angle, removal of notches / dents / chips, correction of the knife tip (alignment, restoration of a broken point) and so on.
The term of execution of the order is 1-2 days, with chips on the blade - 3-5 days. Work is being carried out at:
m. Krasnopresnenskaya, Krasnopresnenskaya emb., 2/1, tel. +7 916 541-8858
Our works:
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