Replace bread knife handle

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Chris152

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Can anyone advise how to replace the handle on this?
IMG_20200516_103229.jpg

I thought to make the handle in two parts with a recess to sandwich the 1.5mm tang and resin in place, but no idea how to replace the brass bits - are they necessary?
 

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For a bread knife epoxy alone will be fine, the pins would be more decorative than anything else. You need to make new ones anyway as they will be destroyed during removal and are probably peened as well.
 
Peened is the flattening of the ends over? They are, and I'd have no way to sort that. Thanks.
 
It is indeed. It's a good way to make a glueless joint but with good quality glues available and a bit of care there is no need these days. Also if you make wooden scales it is very easy to split them when peening.
 
If you want to keep them for aesthetic reasons can you cut them off the blade, drill holes in your new scales and glue the rivet halves in place? Just thinking out loud.
 
Thanks Tris - this is a purely functional thing, tho now you've suggested it we might have a go. depends how successful the woodworking is... :)
 
The pins are more trouble than they are worth on a breadknife. They are needed on a chopping knife to keep the handle on through the shock waves, but as you have found out, washing that knife lets water into the pin edges and the handle rots from the inside out.

Dont put them back. Use a fancy hardwood, keep the scales whole and use 2 part epoxy, with a strong clamp on them for several hours longer than the epoxy tells you to.
 
Not sure I agree. The blade tang stops immediately after the second rivet - it is not a "through" tang. Hence you have little glueing surface. I doubt the repair will last long without rivets. I doubt it is sharp either and thin stainless knives like that are no fun to put an edge back on.

That is a pressed machine made knife, of inexpensive manufacture. If it has sentimental value then a repair may be worth it. Bread knives are pretty cheap (except for high end such as Gude). Basic ones of similar half tang and two rivets, stainless are just over £5 on Amazon. You can get a good, fully forged knife from Lakeland for £20 that will last a long time and be dishwasher proof.
 
It's lock down, can't go to the workshop, this is my excitement for the morning!
IMG_20200516_130258.jpg

It's quarter sawn beech, hopefully it'll look ok once oiled. I thought about adding the rivets for effect but lost one half on cutting them off, and pleased I did after reading Sb's comment about water ingress.
 

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You are quite right AJB, however there is fun in fixing things and making them last longer. This is the perfect item to practice on as if it goes wrong then no harm done.
 
on close inspection of the first picture, I think I would just buy a better breadknife.

it looks like this goes through the dishwasher. Dishwashers kill wooden handles (as you can see). :roll:

But again, its a bread knife, if youre putting enough force on that handle to snap a replacement handle out, then the blade is blunt or your bread is too stale :roll:
I keep old kitchen knives for the workshop, they make great leverage tools and cutters in thin places. I destroy them almost as fast as the missus buys new. 8)
 
I’d be interested in how long it lasts without pins. What type of glue did you use out of interest?

Brass or copper rod lightly peined is straight forward enough to do, a hammer in a vice can double as a small anvil to pein on.
 
I used to bake bread just once in a while but lately all our bread's done in a machine rather than buying and the kids love it. But cutting fresh bread's tricky and I'm finding a little over the weight of the knife and lots of sawing works ok, so we're going to be talking very light use. And it's the backup knife, the go-to's a kitchen devil with a lovely black plastic handle which is often in the dishwasher when more bread's needed. So I think it'll be fine, still in the clamp.
And I like the idea of keeping it, I'm sure we didn't get it new and it'll be a hand-me-down from someone in the family, probably the out-laws.
I used Araldite crystal clear resin stuff, it seems to have been really strong in the past so fingers crossed. And now I've done it in spite of the doubting Thomases above, whatever happens I'll tell you it's working just fine and re-glueing if i have to. :lol:
 
There's tremendous satisfaction mending things rather than throwing in the bin, looks ok to me.
We use a breadmaker and have had a simple slicing guide for years which works well and gives different thickness of slices, no more door stops and you dont need to put weight on the knife just a sawing action down the guides with a sharp knife.

there are a number of different types around these days if you google.
 
I used Corby bolts on the kitchen knives I have rehandled. Riveting brass rod into thin hardwood struck me as too fraught.
 
--Tom--":2nimdif2 said:
I’d be interested in how long it lasts without pins. What type of glue did you use out of interest?

Brass or copper rod lightly peined is straight forward enough to do, a hammer in a vice can double as a small anvil to pein on.

I can't comment on kitchen knives (they do get washed, but there's no great reason a bread knife handle needs to get wet), but I've had effectively the same thing (house made plane floats) with nothing more than pine epoxied to bare bar stock and they've been in a fluctuating temperature environment for more than half a decade now. Nothing has come off. If it did, it would be easy to re-do.

Excellent looking knife re: the OP's efforts here.
 
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