Repairs

Sharpening, Repairs and RESTORATION of any kind of knives available!

A Tale of Two Knives –   (From the OKCA November 2025 Newsletter)

A friend and fellow OKCA club member delivered to me two project knives for some special treatment. Both knives are what I would term as ‘theater knives’ from around the time of WW2.  One knife required a completely new handle using stacked leather washers and the other knife needed an adjustment and a new ‘period looking’ leather sheath to be made for it.

RE-Handle Stacked Leather Knife - When it was left in my care, I noticed that this knife was previously re-handled by some knife maker in the past, possibly during the war. Theater knives were often made during down time when troops were not actively fighting.  That person used some brown semi-transparent plastic (like plexiglass) pieces stacked together and then ground down to shape. Over time this type of plastic seemed to deteriorate and was in a bad state with broken pieces, actually crumbling in my hand upon first inspection. There were 2 or 3 spacers made from a different material that were still ok, and the decision was made to re-use those spacers to keep with the original look & theme.

Re-handling and restoring knives is tricky business actually. The amount of re-working will change not only the look of the knife, but also the shape and size.  Trying to maintain original looks is often very difficult. Once an old knife is sanded shiny new – it will never look old and original again. So it’s a tricky balance to maintain a knife’s originality, while adding (shaping, fitting, sanding) the new parts.  It is much easier to sand it all down to clean metal again and start new – but that is not the best idea for a classic, nice old knife. The difficulty is trying to maintain the original patina, on every original part – again quite tricky.  This knife required the pommel to be removed, a new pin made (keep that patina!) and a whole new leather handle. Getting it fit and finished while keeping the old look was a challenge, but it turned out nicely!

 Pearly Theater Knife Needs A New Sheath – My next project was to make a custom leather sheath for the 2^nd theater knife.  The customer wanted a nice dark brown sheath, with white stitching that looked like the original sheaths made for these types of knives in that time period (WW2).  My first step was to clean the knife and tighten the loose tang nut. Some previous maker added the pearly (faux MOP) and black handle and other than being loose, it was very nice looking and functional. To compliment this nice handle and knife, I made a pattern from scratch to fit the blade perfectly and with the specification the customer asked for.  Searching on the internet though lots of photos of similar sheaths, I came up with the best design I could, BETTER than original factory sheaths, but still with the same look. I say better because I stitch the keeper strap instead of the original style using a rivet. This does 2 things; a) it last longer and b) it keeps from scratching the knife handle. I also use a thick welt and high strength thread to avoid the blade cutting through the stitching, very often found on sheaths like that.  The color and final finish came out beautifully with 2 different stains. (I won’t be able to duplicate that again!).  Hand stitched using the 2 needle technique, lots of shaping and re-shaping and some sore fingers this sheath turned out really nice and complimented the knife. 

Restoring & repairing knives is something I enjoy doing, despite that sometimes it can be very tricky. Installing a new pin in an old pommel without removing the patina was difficult.  Creating a new sheath that looks like the style of 75+ years ago was also a challenge. Both projects turned out very nice in my opinion and, much more important than MY opinion, the customer was very happy.  Feel free to connect with me or ask a question – See you in Eugene in 2026.

Stay Sharp! -Kelly Lane www.KellyLaneKnives.com

 

 

New spring for broken but nice Keen Cutter knife.

Re-handled Snody knife.

 

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