John Holladay has important and urgent matters to deal with in the field
of storm recovery and I am sure that everyone wishes him well in his
endeavours.  He writes:

"The metal  piece, whatever it's name is, is pretty solidly in place,
even with numerous leather washers having already disintegrated and long
since  having been lost.  However, that may be simply because of it
being swaged into place like John Manners describes.  It might come
loose with a but if a tap"

Mike Hamilton writes:

"I'm wondering if the removal of the leather washers (first and
destructively) might allow the metal cap to move enough toward the
blade to allow access with file or hammer.  Just curious, 'cuz I have
no clue what shape the tang is likely to be."

The effect of the riveting process, hot or cold, seems to be twofold.
Not only is the rivet's end peened over but its stem is upset to fill
the space which permitted the stem to be inserted in the hole in the
workpiece in the first place.  It is, possibly, this upsetting of the
tang where it passes through the end-cap which causes the end-cap to
remain "solidly in place".  I should be inclined to heat the end-cap to
not much more than too-hot-to-touch and to chill it suddenly to break
any corrosion bond between the cap and the tang before gently attempting
to knock the end-cap along the tang.

It seems likely that the leather washers have been held in compression
only by the peening of the tang over the cap and that, with some washers
already removed, the cap, as Mike observes, may be slid down the tang a
little, once its present bond with the tang is overcome, to expose a
short length of the tang and the peened end above the cap.  If  this is 
the case there should be no need to file or grind off the original 
peening.  The "chill" should be taken off the peened part of the tang by 
heating. Usually immersion of  a relatively small part to be worked in 
boiling water for half a minute will do but, if doubtful of the water's 
efficacy, a cigarette lighter may be deployed for 5 or 6 seconds. Before 
it cools the top, peened end of the tang is then cold-drawn with a light 
hammer to a taper above the cap until the cap can pass over it.  The 
removal of the "chill" should ensure, 9 times out of 10, that the peened 
part of the tang, which probably has been work-hardened, does not 
crumble to pieces in the cold-drawing process and the result is that the 
tang remains composed of as much metal as was the case originally.  As a 
belt-and-braces precaution the end of the tang should again be slightly 
heated before it is again peened to compress the new handle.

Regards from Brisbane,

John Manners

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