Primble Barlow tand repair and rehandle
Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 2:16 am
As usual I forgot to take "Before" pictures, but today I finished this John Primble Belknap Barlow knife that I bought off eBay a couple of years ago. It is a model 5922, with a star below it (denoting that it was manufactured by Boker USA). It had a weird problem with the Main blade. When closed, everything was fine. When opened, however, the Main flopped loose and the backspring was sunken in badly.
I took it apart and discovered that there was a piece broken off of the back of the tang. There had to have been a flaw in the steel, a crack that allowed the piece to break off later.
I soldered a piece from a broken backspring, and ground it to fit. If this was on the end of a tang, such as a blade that has worn out, I would not expect this to stay. But with it being on the backside of the tang I have hopes that it will remain secure.
The plastic handles broke, so I tried some bone that I had sawed up and tried to dye. I found quickly that the dye did not penetrate (though I used a vacuum chamber), but I still like the look. The video should be posted in the next week or two.
The Main scale has the "soupbone" groove...
...while the Pile side scale was left smooth.
I took it apart and discovered that there was a piece broken off of the back of the tang. There had to have been a flaw in the steel, a crack that allowed the piece to break off later.
- Primble tang..png (136.42 KiB) Viewed 747 times
- Primble tang solder.png (51.44 KiB) Viewed 747 times
- Marked the line of solder.
- repaired blade pic marked.png (169.74 KiB) Viewed 747 times
- repaired blade pic 1.png (169.75 KiB) Viewed 747 times
The Main scale has the "soupbone" groove...
