"Uffe Bærentsen" wrote in message
...
Den 31-12-2013 23:01, Frnak McKenney skrev:

As we sat around the table afterwards, one topic that came up was the
odd look of their stainless tableware, or to be more specific, the
knives. These were made by a company named Gorham (Fairview pattern?)
and had given wonderful service for many years, but recently they had
noticed that some of the knives were "separating": the blade had begun
to separate from the handle, showing a minor gap of roughly 1/8".

Hoping for a simple fix, I spent a couple of hours exploring the 'Web
with different combinations of keywords looking for instructions like
"heat to 400degF for 10 minutes and the epoxy will soften, then gently
press the blade back into the handle and it will be as god as new for
another decade or two". Nope. Most of what I found related to
stainless blades set into sterling handles (not the case here), and
there were more descriptions of how to tear the handle off and sell
the sterling than ideas of how to repair a knife.

Has anyone here ever seen this problem? My cousing said it might be
related to washing the knives in a dishwasher, but only about a
quarter of the knives seem to be affected.

Does anyone know how I could learn about the properties of the "epoxy"
(an assumption, the term pops up a lot)?

It's not a life-or-death problem, but if anyone has any suggestions I
would appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks. And a Happy New Year and a Euphorious Epiphany to all!

Not a fix for the knives but an advise for washing such knives in an
dishwasher.
Did see the problem years ago and a member of the family came up with
this:
Knives with blades glued into the handles are to be washed with the blade
downwards.
Did work for me and others in the family for years :-)

--
Uffe

They use epoxy nowadays and if yours are epoxied in, I wouldn't mess with
them until the blades actually fall out.

Traditionally, they used a proprietary mix of rosin, wax, shellac and a
filler like plaster or brickdust. It was called "Handle cement" and is
easily repaired. It is kind of like sealing wax (the kind you used to melt
onto the back of a letter and stamp with a seal).

You have to be careful though. It absorbs moisture over the years and will
foam up and spit the blade out when remelted. The trick is to melt as little
as possible.

The tang on the blade is usually just a rough forged rod, about 3mm in dia
and about 2" (50mm) long.

Wear gloves, use a propane torch and gently heat the 2" section of the
handle and the bottom of the blade. Heat a little, then wait for the heat to
soak into the middle and repeat.
When it gets around 250 f (rough guess) it will start to push the blade out.
when it does shove the parts together and be sure to pay attention to the
alignment. When it is all good, hold still for a couple of minutes while the
cement cools down, then run the handle under lukewarm water.

Excess cement will have oozed out. Chip it off with your thumbnail, any
excess can be removed with alcohol.

Paul K. Dickman