Ka-Bar Resurrection

[M14sRock]

I had an old WW2 vintage Ka-Bar that was in decent shape, but the handle was dried and rotted.

After soaking it for a few weeks in Neatsfoot Oil it still showed no improvement.

So yesterday I removed the old leather washer handle and started a new Maple handle. Nothing special, just a way to make a serviceable old knife useful. I straightened the bent quillion/guard.

Here is what the handle looked like.









It was toast.

And here is what the tang looked like under the rotted leather. This is all rust scale.





After blasting it with aluminum oxide, it turned out OK.

This is it after blasting, and before the Maple was routered out and fitted.



And here is the tip. You can see a very small piece is missing, so it will be lovingly reground.



I started with a standard Ka-Bar shaped handle with 8 brass pins, but did not like it. So I reshaped the Maple to this.






Then I decided that the blade had seen better days, so it got blasted with Aluminum Oxide, then blued. After bluing it got treated with FrogLube for corrosion resistance.

Here is the finished product.





Due to the history, I would not have done any work on this Ka-Bar, but the handle was shot and the tip broken, so at least now it is serviceable and functional. I'll make a new sheath for it in the next couple of weeks.

[DirkB]

Nice job!

[marshy]

Looks awesome!

[M14sRock]

Thanks, Guys. It was fun to do. When I finish the new sheath I'll post it up.

[Fox1]

Love the job on the blade but the handle is ..... IMHO.
But that´s just my personal taste.

[M14sRock]

Love the job on the blade but the handle is ..... IMHO.
But that´s just my personal taste.

No issue. The handle feels great, but looks terrible! Haha. Surprisingly, the first version was a standard Ka-Bar profile, but it felt lousy. Looked good, though. Weird.