pommel stuck?

[Sal Williams]

Hi fellows, I have an odd situation here. I recently got a beautiful WKC hammered scabbard KM dagger with orange grip. Really nice set in place portapee so I don't want to remove it. The grip is loose (noticably) yet the pommel is tight. I wanted to unscrew the pommel to see if the threads (and spacing ) might allow one more turn. I found that the pommel will turn perhaps 1/8 of a turn but no more. I don't want to forced it , but why would it turn a little and no more? Corrosion? I thought about putting penetrating oil in the joint between the grip and pommel but I dont want to get it on the portapee and I don't want a reaction with the grip. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Sal

[Guest Rick Research]

Leave it alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooone!

99.99% of these have been SO poked at by Monkey Paws in the last 60 years, it's possibly snapped off entirely and held together with crazy glue or God knows what some dummy may have stuck it back together with.

Anything that gets in UNDER the grip, like pond ice in the spring, is eventually going to swell up and explode it.

I've seen it happen. Better a little "wiggle" than a Parts Piece.

Leave it alooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooone.

[Sal Williams]

Hi Ricky, I have not done anything to it. Just waiting for advise and mulling it over. The reason I contemplate it is because I can turn the thing about 1/8 turn back and forth so I dont believe it is glued in some way in place. Also the entire dagger seems completely unmonkeyed with. Seems as if it is seized up a little higher on the threads on the inside. A question I have is what is the inside of the orange grip made of? I know some of the white types are wooden centered.

best, Sal

[Rich Yankowski]

It's very possible that this is a pre-WW2 or very early 3R blade that had the original pommel substituted with the 3R pommel to meet the 1938 standards.It's not uncommon for these newer pommels not to tighten fully if they weren't factory refitted.Why it only turns 1/8th of a turn,I'm not sure.I've seen some daggers that had some sort of filler added to the pommel threads,possibly to tighten them up?The filler seemed to be a very fine sand,like the type used in making molds.Perhaps this is what is causing the pommel to jam?

As to what the grip is made of,I suspect it's solid 'trolon'.I've only three Navies and one is an orange gripped example by WKC with hammered scabbard.Of my 50+ Heer daggers,only the ones with white grips have plaster or wooden cores,all the colored ones are solid(but I also have a few solid white ones).