/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.625814]

Hello /diy/

I come to you seeking advice. I have this old machete that I want to fix up. Now the blade I can manage. I''ll clean off the rust, sharpen it and try to remove the burrs.

The wooden handle is a different story. It has some cracks and holes as I will show in the next pictures. Any tips on how to repair this handle?

>pic related

[Anonymous No.625816]

>crack in handle

[Anonymous No.625817]

>holes

I think some kind of woodworm did this

[Anonymous No.625818]

Naturally you want to remove the handle, clean rust thoroughly on the tang as well, and install a new handle... it looks disgusting

[Anonymous No.625819]

>>625818

Might be best. What kind of wood would be best to use?

[Anonymous No.625832]

>>625819
Just about any hardwood would work. For handles, people like woods such as hickory and cherry. Just about anything like that would work though. Oak, maple, ash, or just about any deciduous tree would work. You could get a living limb and make some easy. The old brass pins may be salvageable. I like treating my handles with linseed oil. Softwood like pine, spruce, or fir will dent and damage wood easily.

[Anonymous No.625838]

>small size
>not full tang
>blade beat to shit
>handle like 5 kinds of ruined
that's a butcher knife, not a machete, don't use it as one.

[Anonymous No.625847]

>>625817
>I_bet_the_woodworms_did_this.jpg

[Jesse No.625858]

>>625819

Hardwood with a closed grain would be best.

[Anonymous No.625873]

as a knifemaker, my advice would be, get a decent hardwood billet (Beech, Ash or Hickory would be great. As its a partial tang blade (ie, it does'nt go all the way to the bottom of the handle, hickory or ash would be best to prevent splitting.) what I would suggest is you saw the slot down the grain. a handsaw would do it, a table saw would be better, and plausibly do the slot the right width in one cut.
then I'd split the old wood down the grain, witha chisel, and break them off. then I'd carefully use a hacksaw and saw through the pins, then drill out the centres of the pins.
then, I'd use sandpaper and polish it clean of rust. I'd then line up the pin holes, and mark onto your block of wood. carefully drill the first hole, and use a wooden peg to pin it in place with the blade. then drill the 2nd hole. this one might be a tiny bit off, but the wooden peg will let both the blade shift slightly to line up, and also mean it'll drill through cleanly.

once that's done, I'd use silver steel or drill rod the size of the drilled holes, and I'd saw off an inch and a half of steel, I'd grind a taper on the start of one end of each pin.

I'd then coat the steel of the tang in good quality epoxy resin, and I'd fit it into the slot in the handle, which I'd have also covered in a bit more epoxy. then I'd slowly hammer the pins through with a mallet.

with that all set and cured, I'd then start with either a sander or hand files and rasps, and shape the wood down to become the new handle. once shaped, I'd sand it smooth, and then varnish or soak it in linseed oil to protect it.

[Anonymous No.625912]

>>625873
What a well written post. Easy to understand, to the point.

[Anonymous No.625956]

>>625814
Yeah that handle does look like it's beyond saving. Before the closeup pics I was thinking you could do a cord wrapping if you wanted to salvage it but a total replacement would be a much better bet.

>>625819
I don't like the insistence you'll get here about hardwoods being the only viable choice for handle scales. I would recommend you read up about it on some knife forums. You'll pick up a ton of useful info while you're there anyway, including about the need (or not) to pin.

>>625832
>Softwood like pine, spruce, or fir will dent and damage wood easily.
Still usable though.

[Anonymous No.625964]

>>625873

10/10. This is why /diy/ is the best board on here.

[Anonymous No.626264]

>>625964
>>625956
>>625912
>>625873
just to add to what I said there (after a day, coming back to think over it)

why hardwood?
the tang on this knife is not full- length, it only goes about halfway down the handle. As a result, a lot more stress is passed through into the pins in the wood.
Beech, Ash and Hickory are all good strong woods, which have resistance to decay, and most importantly, to splitting. Pines, and similar softwoods are easier to shape, but are not nearly as strong, and in a chopping tool like this, are far more likely to fail, releasing the blade to go flying.
Softwoods like pine, maple, limewood can be used in decorative "slab" handles where there is no stress on the wood, but in an application like this, they are not safe.

Pins are already present in the handle, and are essential to prevent failure of the blade and handle join in this type of design. the reason for making pins in silver steel / drill rod is simply ease of availability - its good strong carbon steel. the reason for grinding a taper into one end is so that its easier to tap it through with a mallet into both sides of the handle without causing any stresses on the wood. A square end can be pressed in, but if it goes off-line slightly, it will start to tear the wood and splinter it. a tapered front, pressed in then sawn down flush prevents that problem.

by "sandpaper" for rust removal, I mean a waterproof emery or red Al/Ox paper, of course, not woodworking paper.

[Anonymous No.626617]

>>625819
Honestly, just find a nice dry log, preferably from a hard wood tree and just feels dense. Refine it until its the size desired, cut it in half, shave out an area for the tang, stain it, mount it

[nona No.626694]

>>625814
Hw bout deer antler for tat handle.

[Anonymous No.626812]

>>626264
>Softwoods like pine, maple, limewood can be used in decorative "slab" handles where there is no stress on the wood, but in an application like this, they are not safe.
>softwoods
>maple
>limewood
You just lost all credibility you realise that?

[Anonymous No.626853]

>>626264

>soft wood
>maple
>pick one

[Anonymous No.626855]

>>626812
>>626853
>anon makes a mistake so suddenly all his advice is garbage
>>626264
I'm curious, not OP but would stabilized burls be okay with partial tangs? I want to make some pattern-welded kitchen knives, but I don't want to waste pattern welded steel on the tang.

[Anonymous No.626863]

>>626812
in my experience, maple is a softer wood, in that its grain structure is very broad and, like oak, it therefore is a softer wood when it comes to splitting. As a result, I will not use it for one-peice whittle tangs where the handle is not supported structurally by a scale tang.

that's what I meant by softwood, and yes I should've said softer woods.

a wood can be a hardwood - ie, lime, oak, ebony, or maple (or if you want the extreme example, balsa - it is technically a hardwood), and be relatively poor in resistance to splitting. In the context of a half-tanged blade - and particularly one that is a tool for heavy use - these are soft woods, which arent appropriate.

On the other hand, Ash, and particularly Hickory, are excellent woods that will resist that sort of impact shock, making them hard woods suitable for the task. Beech, or if you can find it, Elm, also excel as the wood interlocks as it grows, creating a structure that is exceptionally hard to split. (but I know fine well that elm is often hard to get, and beech may be difficult.)

A simple hard or soft classification does not adequately determine the suitability of a wood as a handle. Hell, I've used serpentine stone for handles, a know knifemakers who've used stabilised peat. (yes, peat, as in the preserved bog moss). neither would last 30 seconds on a different type of handle application however.

its all about context of use, and in the context of a half-tang, maple is one of the woods too soft.

[Anonymous No.626865]

>>626855
>I'm curious, not OP but would stabilized burls be okay with partial tangs?

personally, I'd be pretty cautious about it.
depends on how long the tang is, of course, and what application. set of filleting knives? should be ok. Meat cleaver? I wouldnt risk it. tangs with 3 pins, going back 6-7cm? should be ok. tangs with 2 pins, going only 4-5cm? I wouldnt risk it then

[Anonymous No.626867]

>>626865
Biggest would be an 8" Chef's, and I don't really want to go with a stick tang. I might just ask someone to weld a mild steel tang on it for me then. Etch would look weird going from pattern to mild, but it might also look kinda cool.

[Anonymous No.626871]

>>626867
you could hide the tang extension inside the wood, if you're good at woodworking, making it a whittle tang, that transitions into an exposed partial tang?

that'd give you the structural support. erm, over 9000 milliseconds in photoshop:

[Anonymous No.626872]

>>626871
Hrm, interesting, I'll definitely consider it. Thanks for the advice either way.

[Anonymous No.626929]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3_KhntMjRk

[Anonymous No.627423]

>>625814
It looks more like a sugar cane cutter or something more specific than a machete.

[Anonymous No.628497]

right now it's an interesting antique. If you go grinding all the rust and putting a new handle on it it will stop being an interesting antique and become a shitty looking knife.

The most effective way to ruin an antique is to try to restore it.

[Anonymous No.628542]

>>628497
>right now it's an interesting antique. If you go grinding all the rust and putting a new handle on it it will stop being an interesting antique and become a shitty looking knife.

>The most effective way to ruin an antique is to try to restore it.

while this is very sound advice ("I just found this 500-year old sword in a riverbank. I took some woodwork sandpaper to it to clean the rust off...." horror stories abound), in this case its a machete probably from the 60's, 60's maybe the 80's, and it has absolutely no value as an antique.

[Anonymous No.628543]

>>628542
> probably from the 60's - 70's

(duh. typos.)