Repairing Carders

I took my carders over to my dad, to see if he had some really short screws that I could use to repair them. (The handles are loose.) He suggested taking out the nail at the base and gluing them. Turns out there was a tiny, hidden nail further down... but I was still able to get the handles out. To reassemble them, I knocked the hidden nail flush, then used a screwdriver bit by feel to re-set the nail. Photos of the process:

Materials:

(I ended up going with slightly larger nails than those pictured. I also used additional clamps and some vice grips. But I didn't know that when I took this photo.

No wonder the nails were so &*^%$ hard to get out:


Hey, cool... the handles are dove-tailed:

(Just not tight enough to prevent wobble.)

Clamping:

In order to apply pressure to the hidden part of the handle, I used nails in a block of wood.

Turns out I clamped the block too tight, though, and left dents in the leather:


The nails didn't hold up that well either:


For the second carder, I used a 3x3 grid of nails, and less pressure.

I'd call the operation a success. :) (These are the carders I bought at a local antique shop.)