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Old 04-26-2014, 08:58 PM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 651
For the record here, this is a post from RMK shop steward.

"I started in 1983, at that time, we used the flat hexagon nuts that we attached to a long screw and rounded off the points to make the round nuts to be used on the coolie caps. They were not countersunk at all. We left a flat or "shelf" if you will,on the end of the coolie caps which we then used a flat adjustable wrench to tighten them down as the caps were epoxied on. I was taught this by Jimmy Garrett, who was a member of the original shop off of Lake Ivanhoe.

"Although exposed nuts were available on request all others were already countersunk. In the late 80's to early 90's we went to a strictly countersunk nut on all knives, (including the coolie caps) on all handles except the leathers. A pure cosmetic decision, although the epoxies that seeped through the countersunk ends surely helped to secure the buttcaps when we would grind off the exposed hexagon nuts, leaving the crest of the nuts to hold together the handles.

"Personally, I own what Tom Clinton revealed to me was his "first" Faisal-like set purchased in 1971. They have flanged butts, but still exhibit the hexagon nuts with apparent brazed solder lines under the nuts to aid in holding the handles together. (I will try and post a pic of the end caps later).

"I stopped by to see Jed Peckham who retired from Randall's this past December after 40+ years and he identified what I thought was a line of solder underneath the hex nut as a washer..."we never put a solder on under the nuts" he said... And to clarify, we completely rounded off the hex nuts to make them fit the rounded coolie caps."
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