advice on a damaged solingen vintage hunting knife

T

T.Lacy

Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
15
Please help I sold this knife on eBay the buyer paid a decent amount and it was in perfect unused condition after he revived it he contacted me saying the handle was loose and he would never have bought in this condition and would like his money back , He has sent the item back and the deer antler now wiggles in the knife
needless to say i'm pretty upset as i now have a damaged knife i'm not sure if i can sell again and am angry that I may have to swallow the costs because I think the person Just over spent and regretted it.
Firstly what i would like to know is how difficult is it to have tightened and approximately how much am i looking to have to spend on it to get it back to the condition it was prior to it leaving my house . I insured the parcel but i really don;t think the damage happened in the post i think the buyer may have twisted the handle loose
any advice or help on this matter would be so much appreciated


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I have a similar German skinning knife that was given to me and the stag handle was loose too, but, I just tightened it. My knife is not in the fantastic shape yours appears to be so I wasn't too concerned about it. I took a small needle nose and was able to spin the brass slotted retention nut until it was tight. The proper way would to find an appropriate spanner wrench and you would be able to tighten it well enough that some joker would not loosen the thing without undue mis-handling. Hope this helps---one other thing, if your don't want to try it your self, contact Puma and they may fix it for you-it's worth finding out as it's a wonderful knife. Good luck!
 
find a screwdriver that has a blade as wide as the nut and cut a slot in it so you can use it as a wrench to tighten the nut.
that guy missed out on a nice knife and i think you should keep it :D

if you are afraid to mess with it, pay for shipping and insurance both ways and i'll fix it up just so i can check out a sweet looking knife.
 
Thanks for the reply it really is a beautiful knife so i'm sure you can understand how upset i am by this happening , first problem i'm a woman so in laimens terms small needle nose? like pliers ? i worry about scratching the brass ? The buyer said he had broken a knife by trying to tighten it before as i had offered him a partial refund to have it tightened this also worries me that i could do further damage , I have no transport and limited time to get this repaired
thanks for the help much appreciated
 
saddly we have lost our home and have 2 months to sell up i'm taking my fiancee back to my home of new zealand and not only do we need the money but we just can't take everything so we really have no choice please can you tell me how much you would charge to tighten if i can;t do this myself
many thanks
 
i would do it for free if you can pay to get it to me and back but i'll see if i can take some pictures to show you what to do with a knife similar to yours. it will not take much to tighten the nut and if the guy that bought it would have been smart, he could have done it himself and had a really nice knife.
 
i have 5 or 6 similar old german knives and you have to either tighten the handle like Richar J. said or you need to soak the handle in an oil. canola oil works nice.
The leather soaks it up and tightens the handle but only do this if the leather is dry.
However it is not an uncommen problem in the least, a knife requires maintenence.
 
oh ya and i also didnt read the entire post Lacy needlenose pliers work aswell but i would wrap painters tape or another nonmarring tape around the jaws of the pliers.
Also needlenose pliers used for fishing ( with the bent jaws ) work well if you have a pair or can borrow some.
 
i woud not soak it in cooking oil since it would turn rancid and mold. tightening up the nut would be the best option.
 
wow thanks !!! yes i suspect he paid for it and his wife got mad and he had to do this to keep her happy lol and i think maybe your right the knife has been stored for many years unused and the leather would get dry , so obvious thank you so much !!!

AH LOL ok no oil how about a leather conditioner though ?
 
Thank you all so much i used the needle nose pliers and it tightened up easily, really do appreciate all the knowledge and help i have got from these forums :)
 
Glad to see it worked out for you! Those old blades can be really nice, I'd suspect that just the humidity change of shipping it probably dried the leather just a bit. Even just five-tenths per piece (a sixth or so the thickness of a sheet of paper) will come up to several thousandths by the time all of them finish shrinking. You did it the right way, it'll be good for many more years!
 
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