Give me some advice. I just bought a Red Cross officer dagger. It is an upgrade to the one I already own. The new dagger is very close to mint condition. The pommel nut is perfect and has never been out. (very rare to see this). The handle and pommel are very loose, probably from shrinkage. This is common on RC daggers. Not a little loose but very loose. My question is --- Should I remove the pommel nut so I can tighten the inner nut and fix the looseness? or should I leave it alone. If I remove the outer nut, what is the best way to avoid scarring the groves? Thanks for your opinions.

Make sure you have the spanner wrench to tighten the spanner nuts once you got the cap off, but anyways I had the same problem with my DRK leader and I just found a real large flat head that filled the groove perfectly I actually filed the driver a bit. And being super careful turned it out if I had a better camera I show you some picture, I can't tell that is has been touch, and the grip and guard is nice a tight now.

Thanks Adam. I'm going to take my time with this, but I think I will tighten it. Tom Wittmann sells a tool for removing the RC cover nut. The main thing is not to scar up the outside cover nut.

Thule: As Adam said, make sure that screwdriver blade fits into the grooves all the way and is wide enough to provide good leverage. Remove both tangnuts and apply lubricant to the tang. Also apply some lubricant to the threads of the pommel cap.
These daggers have thick bufferpads and when they shrink or wear through the hilt becomes loose. A new buffer pad would help if the shoulders of the blade have worn through, or the pad is dryrotted and hard. Tightening the tangnut without the leather buffering of the pad could cause cracking of the handle.

Thanks mvogel, This is going to be a January project. I'm going to take it slow and careful.

Thule, Tom Johnson has the correct buffer pad for your dagger for $6! Regards, teufel

I got Wittmanns tools at the MAX 03 and the only problem I found with the tool to remove the DRK pommel cap was its so small you have nowhere to get any leverage at all, and with a screw driver you do, but Wittmann's spanner wrenches that come with the 5 tools works great.
So it is worth getting if you don't want to make your own.

Thanks to all of you for your replies. Have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

Wittmanns spanner wrench.Paul

resized

Hey guys,
just wanted to post a note, I have only done this once but was very successful in doing so without creatig ANY damage by finding a screwdriver that was just a little smaller than the space in the pommel and cap and then taking a little piece of duct tape (works for everything) and folding it over the end of the screwdriver, this way metal never touches metal. Duct tape is pretty thick and tough and will cushion the end of the screwdriver as you remove what may be a sticky cap. I would recommend the screwdriver for this initial task over Whittmann's tool, I agree w/ Adam on that. Also please take note that Whittmann's tool (maybe I should rephrase that) works GREAT on the spanner BUT all parts of those tools are a little roughly machined and have very sharp edges, careful and good luck.
John