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An old gentleman gave me his wonderfull Kiko to repair.
The screw-in stem junction is loose, the button lip ends up looking at the vertical when screwed in fully and it seems as if the screw-tenon itself is also a bit nackered.
What would you recommend? Should I drill out the existing mortise, put some kind of sleeve in and redo with another screw type tenon? Or maybe just try and fit an ordinary type stem?
Will try to get photos sorted and post them as well.

Charl wrote:What would you recommend? Should I drill out the existing mortise, put some kind of sleeve in and redo with another screw type tenon? Or maybe just try and fit an ordinary type stem?.

Ask the owner what he wants. If it doesn't matter to him, then take the easier route of a friction fit. Kikos aren't highly collectible, so you won't really be reducing the intrinsic value.

Incidently, you can get Delrin tenons that are pre-threaded on one end. If the shank thread is still OK and matches the tenon thread, you could make it a friction fit in the stem. This would allow the stem to be continuously rotated to any position so that the button slot need never be off the horizontal.

You could also take a *really* easy way out, and use a thin shim of material to adjust the stem rotation so that it goes back to the right orientation. Maybe start with 1/16" acrylic and see how close you can get.

But if the threads on the tenon are messed up, you might be in for a wild ride. Got pics?

Excuse the really bad quality, but here they are.


The tenon thread seems to be fine, so it shouldn't be that difficult to fix.
The customer doesn't really care how it is fixed, as long as it works!
Will see what can be done. Thanks!

Aah, I see the the arrangement. If you clamp the threaded tenon in a vise and heat the stem at that end with a heat gun, you might be able to twist the stem back into alignment on the threaded tenon.

Alternatively, you could cut the stem about an inch or so from the tenon and make a friction fit Delrin mortise/tenon arrangement - sort of like a splice that comes apart. Does that make sense?

Thanks Frank!