In a GH cleaning a few months ago, Craig offered a special deal on this rig with the Gurkha Steel video to boot. Trouble was, I wasn't in the market for a 2-hander. Needless to say, I overcame that small detail (not that I have a khukuri problem) and the deed got done, pronto. The understanding imparted by the video alone proved itself worth the price.
Amazingly powerful knife. Not knowing why, a big Sirupati seems too sword-like for me (not that there's anything wrong with that), but such an AK is more axe-like and still more of a khukuri. Well, I soon set out to cut some 3-4" pine branches supported by oak logs. While giving it my best effort, the rosewood scales slipped a little. The full width tang transmits a lot of shock to the hand at the butt end. Craig immediately offered to replace it, but instead I decided it was just time to play.
Common practice and advice was to squirt in some epoxy and carry on. Not me, I wanted to rebuild it. Thinking I would laminate 1/4" rosewood strips (obtained from a most excellent luthier), I bought a bunch of reject guitar fretboard blanks. But after drilling out the pins and removing the scales, it seemed best to remount the original handle.
After consulting a real knife maker, the plan shifted to use bolts. The 3 tang holes were drilled to be uniform, scales securely clamped in position, and all parts threaded together with a tap to the minimum size (7/16" in this case) to limit wood loss. 3 lengths of threaded steel bolt stock was precut almost all the way through (to save effort when cutting off later). The rust on the tang was wire brushed off and then roughed up with a file. The little bit of corrosion in the steel ferrule was cleaned and then treated with a rust-preventing paint. A generous amount of "Liquid Nails" was applied (industrial glue that's more flexible than epoxy), and the whole shootin' match screwed and clamped together for a few days. When it came time to finish cutting the bolt ends off, the job was so much easier due to the earlier cuts. Some filing brought all the edges together again.
Before resetting the buttcap, it seemed best to test. The seasoned white oak split with surprising ease, but the real challenge was cutting across the grain of 2-foot rounds. My hands found the results to be shocking, and I chopped until I couldn't take amy more punishment. After brushing and roughing up the inside of the buttcap, it's now clamped with more glue drying.
There's still more to be done and some little tricks were learned along the way, but it's gotta be one tough handle now. At least it looks like a khukuri again! The idea of threading scales and tang and bolting might even be a design improvement.
Forumites, what do you think? Will report later....Dan
[This message has been edited by Lt. Dan (edited 03-09-2001).]
Amazingly powerful knife. Not knowing why, a big Sirupati seems too sword-like for me (not that there's anything wrong with that), but such an AK is more axe-like and still more of a khukuri. Well, I soon set out to cut some 3-4" pine branches supported by oak logs. While giving it my best effort, the rosewood scales slipped a little. The full width tang transmits a lot of shock to the hand at the butt end. Craig immediately offered to replace it, but instead I decided it was just time to play.
Common practice and advice was to squirt in some epoxy and carry on. Not me, I wanted to rebuild it. Thinking I would laminate 1/4" rosewood strips (obtained from a most excellent luthier), I bought a bunch of reject guitar fretboard blanks. But after drilling out the pins and removing the scales, it seemed best to remount the original handle.
After consulting a real knife maker, the plan shifted to use bolts. The 3 tang holes were drilled to be uniform, scales securely clamped in position, and all parts threaded together with a tap to the minimum size (7/16" in this case) to limit wood loss. 3 lengths of threaded steel bolt stock was precut almost all the way through (to save effort when cutting off later). The rust on the tang was wire brushed off and then roughed up with a file. The little bit of corrosion in the steel ferrule was cleaned and then treated with a rust-preventing paint. A generous amount of "Liquid Nails" was applied (industrial glue that's more flexible than epoxy), and the whole shootin' match screwed and clamped together for a few days. When it came time to finish cutting the bolt ends off, the job was so much easier due to the earlier cuts. Some filing brought all the edges together again.
Before resetting the buttcap, it seemed best to test. The seasoned white oak split with surprising ease, but the real challenge was cutting across the grain of 2-foot rounds. My hands found the results to be shocking, and I chopped until I couldn't take amy more punishment. After brushing and roughing up the inside of the buttcap, it's now clamped with more glue drying.
There's still more to be done and some little tricks were learned along the way, but it's gotta be one tough handle now. At least it looks like a khukuri again! The idea of threading scales and tang and bolting might even be a design improvement.
Forumites, what do you think? Will report later....Dan
[This message has been edited by Lt. Dan (edited 03-09-2001).]